The River Walkham seemed like a good way to utilise may day off. I met Gwilym in Tavistock at 12pm to paddle the lower section of the Walkham which joins the River Tavy before the get out point. The level was pretty low due to the lack of rain and abundance of rare November sunshine but that didn't stop the river being enjoyable. Generally the river is easy grade 2 but has one rapid known as 'The Slot" which gets grade 3+. The Slot is pretty straight forward and looks a little meaner in low water due to the jagged rocks being visible and the drop a little bigger, having said that I still managed to mess it up and take a swim (the first one in a little while). The only thing to remember with the slot is to turn your paddles so they are in line with your boat so they don't get caught in the narrow slot. I foolishly chose to forget this and ended up capsizing after my paddles were ripped from my hands. The paddles got wedged in the slot and looking back at the video footage it's amazing just how much a set of carbon Werner Sidekicks can bend without breaking! Oh, and in the process of bailing out of my boat I managed to break the back rest, this made for an entertaining rest of the trip. Overall though it was a good day and swimming every now and again reminds you how your clients feel when it happens to them!!
Click here to see the video!
No comments:
Post a Comment