I along with other MK paddler, Pete King have just returned from the land of Teeside.
As you may have heard on the news that it was going to be chilly 'up north' over the weekend with the chance of snow, well ...
To say it was a bit chilly would be an under-statement.
Once meeting up with Ben, Paul and Kim in a car park, Brian and Gary pulled up. As Ben drove down to the village to pick up supplies, me, Pete and Paul Tully followed Brian and Gary upto the Hostel, we were 20/25ft away and could not see the break lights (white-out, oops)
So we are sitting in the youth hostel for about an hour, TV doesnt work, DVD player doesnt work, hmm what to do ...
At that point Chris, Laura, Gemma and Paul Mills came in with 'whos going paddling on their lips'. You got the usually 'f**k off' and 'are you nuts?' but d**k head hear said 'OK'.
Right, got changed at the hostel, still snowing, blowing a gale and freezing. It was me, Chris Chapman, Ben Stone and Paul Chapman brave (or stupid) enough to brave it.
The section was going to be the Upper Tees. Got out in the car park, Laura and Gemma came down to give support (while laughing) and to see us off.
Got on the river, luckily the wind was behind us so we wernt paddling blind. First rapids fine, cold but fine. The dog leg was good, middle force good. Then came low force, its a sloping drop so boofs can sometimes be tricky. Chris went - boof, great, Paul went - boof, great, I went - boof, great, Ben went - melt down, went back into falls, got d**ked a little, washing machined then came out, the look on his face explained everything -COLD!
After a good giggle, we noticed the drop just round the corner of low force, it looked run-able so we did. All good on that except I went a bit too far left and hit my tail on a rock half-way down - oops!
Paddled down the next few rapids as fast as we could to warm up. Got to the get-out, still snowing and windy. On the hike out, we couldnt help ourselves doing a bit of sledging on the hills.
That night a few (many) beers were had, and a good time all round while we waited for the rest to turn up.
Next day, the boys in big blue inflatables (rafts) were coming out to play. They were rafting the middel section and we were paddling the upper and middle section. This turned out to be a VERY long day.
Sunday, fun day, the rafts were rafting the upper. I thought to myself we were gonna have some fun with this!!
Us paddlers set off first, running the dog leg, missing middle force and running low force. Saturday night it had been raining causing most of the snow to melt and the river to rise by about 2ft. The dog leg had completely changed and was a chunky fun grade 4/5. Middle force was a b***h of a closed stopper, so walked round that. Low force was nearly one big drop now, really nice, really soft landing - but had to boof!
After walking back up to the dog leg to wait for the rafts, myself, Chris, Paul and Jamie (Burbeck who had joined us for the day) kept running the rapids taking different lines. Me and Chris took about 4 in the end. Jamie only took 1 due to him getting a side surf in a VERY big hole and not enjoying it much.
Then the rafts came, after lots of saferty preperation and atleat 10 throw lines, not 1 person swam! Pretty good lines were had by all, some not so good by some. After a few hours of tarting around we paddled down. They, like us, walked middle force and were going to run low force.
We had already run it in the kayaks atleast 6 times now. Then it was the raft's turn. After watch Ben Stone and Paul Mills run it well (Ben just fell out but they got him on the end of a line) I wanted a go. The next raft went, perfect line, no one swam, great. I was on the last raft down with Gemma. I was told to brace myself going over the fall and hold onto the rope.
Just going over the lip, we both did this, but, we landed a bit wonky. I was flung out of the raft up into the air a few feet and so did Gemma. Gemma was caught on a line pretty quick as she got flung forward. I was flung back into the falls. Lots of down time was then had. I could feel myself running along the bottom, thinking in the back of my mind - s**t this is deep and I shouldn't be here! I pushed off the bottom and swam for as hard and long as I could. Finanlly I surfaced, about 20ft away from where I should have come up. I was down for 10/11 seconds, and starting to think to myself - panic! A throw line was thrown to me but it was only a 10 metre so did not reach me! I was stuck on the line between 2 rather large boils and could not move anywhere.
Then I saw my knight in shining armour - Paul Chapman. He was paddling as hard as he could to come and get me - and I was swimming as hard as I could to get him.
He finally reached me, got to the side and people flooded around me 'are you alright?' ' that was some downtime!' The pressure of the depth water had given me a b***h of a head ache and had popped my ears, apart from that I was fine.
After getting back on the horse (so to speak) we were paddling down the rest of the river we quite ease. The get out was the same as the first day, so it wasnt a long paddle.
Over all I had a really good weekend, and would like to take this opportunity to thank Brian and Gary for organising the trip and accomodation etc.
