Dart Weekend – 14th & 15th January 2017
Friday night people started to arrive at the bunkhouse (when they eventually found it) and were swiftly dragged into the fun and games of charades with the aid of a mobile phone! – Warning – don’t let Maxine near your mobile! For some reason that has yet to be understood, almost everyone voted to sleep in the smelly crowded room rather than the half empty, bright and airy room! :-/
Saturday morning we were up early and setting off in different directions. Dale, Matt, Martin, Mike & Fraser set off for the Upper and Nick followed… then realised that he wasn’t feeling that brave (or insane?) and came back to find the rest of the group at the start of the Loop. The water level was low… to be precise, a scrape, but we had come a long way and we were determined to paddle.
The Upper Dart (Grade 3/4) trip involved a lot of rock dodging and Martin getting stuck on rocks (not always the right way up – EDITOR: :-o) but everyone made it down in one piece and without swimming. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough water to paddle the infamous Euthanasia Falls or Pandora’s Box. After the Upper, the group continued down the Loop to meet the rest of the group in the River Dart Country Park café.
I led the Dart Loop (Grade 2/3) with Ro and Abi’s help. Rob H, Rob N, Richard, Maxine, Nick M and Row were all along for the ride and all got stuck in playing on waves and practicing ferry gliding. Dragging Rob H away was often almost impossible and he was very disappointed when I wouldn’t let them run the weir. Rob N meanwhile had made it his mission to ensure a thorough riverbed survey was carried out and that he got his name on the list for rubber duck nominations this year ;-). (EDITOR: But didn’t win – ha ha – oh wait, hold on, I did :'( )
We finished both trips in the café and forced ourselves to eat there to ensure that we got our parking money back! 😀
That evening we went to the pub for dinner and then rolled back to the bunkhouse for more fun and games with adult charades 😮 and card games. River levels were not looking good for the morning and it was anticipated that paddling would be off the cards.
Sunday morning I woke up needing a wee so shuffled off to the loo still half asleep only to find Ro & Fraser in the kitchen with good news – the river levels were up – they were now “low” (an improvement from yesterday’s “scrape” :-D). That woke me up. We emptied the bunkhouse, gathered our kit from the drying room and set off for the river again.
This time it was Dale, Matt, Mike, myself and Ro on the Upper and it was a much better trip with some water in the river! Last time I paddled this river (I’d only done it once before) it was the most fun but terrifying thing I’d ever paddled… this time I’m glad to say it was nowhere near as terrifying as I remember. Despite that, the build-up was me trying to reassure Ro that it would all be fine, whilst simultaneously talking about my own impending death…
Ro and I warned Dale to expect to do some rescuing today. However, it was Mike who started the swimming off trying to “flair” a rock… unsuccessfully. We then had Lucky Tor which I managed to drop into backwards and subsequently upside down! I eventually managed to roll back up to a round of applause from some walkers on the bank! We came to another rapid and were instructed to take the slot so Mike decided he would go first and paddled straight at a rock shelf and promptly fell sideways off it into the water below… upside down… swim no.2 of the day. Ro and I opted for a different line and Ro was so happy he’d made it up the right way that he tripped over the eddy line and had to roll back up!
Next came Euthanasia Falls. We got out and inspected and watched Dale paddle it, making it look easy as usual. Myself, Matt and Ro spent about 10 minutes asking each other “Are you going to do it?” Dale spent that time going round all of us asking “Are you doing it?” Eventually Mike decided to paddle it and survived. Some other paddlers came down and made it look easy so in the end we all decided to do it and we all made it down the right way up! Success!
Then came Pandora’s Box. We inspected and then Dale ran it. After watching Dale’s line, Matt gave it a go. No problem they assured us. Ro and I headed up to the top to do it just as Mike set off. We then saw Dale live baiting Mike! :-/ Errrrr… Ro went next and then I saw Ro standing in the river and Dale live baiting again! :-/ Suddenly I’m not feeling so sure. I decided to take it one step at a time. I managed to get myself grounded but eventually freed myself and made it down in one piece! I was extremely happy as I’d never paddled either Euthanasia or Pandora’s before… yay!
There was one more fairly long boulder garden with a huge boulder at the bottom… which Matt managed to pin himself on, resulting in him having to climb out, throw his boat down the river and jump in after it. Apparently this doesn’t count as a swim because he was able to walk around on the riverbed and wasn’t actually swimming… I’m opening this up to a public vote!
Apart from Mike’s technical step out at the end of the day, that was the best of the river over for the day.
Martin and Fraser had opted to lead the Dart Loop (Grade 2/3) and Lower Dart (Grade 2) today. Today’s water levels made it a slightly different, and slightly faster trip than yesterday and everyone enjoyed themselves. Today it was Richard’s turn to carry out the riverbed inspection, one just before the Country Park and one at a rapid on the Lower that snuck up and surprised everyone, including Abi who also took the opportunity for a cool down :-D.
After meeting up in another café and eating more food, we all set off home, many tired enough to sleep for a week.
A brilliant weekend with great company – thanks everyone that came and thanks especially to Fraser for organising it 🙂