Somehow I never got around to writing about our trip to Scotland last October. oops.

We went up for a whole week, for some paddling (of course!) and also for Sharon and Duncan's wedding

looking across Loch Laggan

I'm a sucker for autumn colour anyway, but the highlands were particularly orange and beautiful.  Not that it hasn't been just as pretty at easter, of course - just a bit more green.

Paddling wise, we were quite lazy and could have done more rivers if we'd felt arsed.  But instead there were hangovers, trips to the shops/pharmacy, and some faffing about driving up to Invermoriston for no real reason.

Anyhoo, rivers:

• Lower Nevis - bouncy grade 2 with a 4 right at the end. Lovely warm up for those of us with sore heads (everyone - though 2 of the 6 didn't make it into their boats...)
• Etive - yes, I found some balls and finally got on the Etive again!  Didn't entirely end well as I ran triple on my head (again) then had some spraydeck 'issues' (it imploded.  twice.) so didn't do the full run.  Next time, definitely!
• Arkaig - after aforementioned faffy driving about, they put on the Arkaig with not much daylight left.  I didn't paddle, and did the shuttle instead so they wouldn't have to get off in the dark.  again, next time..
• Pattack - carnage!  I'd looked at the final rapid and decided against it, then stood and watched a lot of other paddlers run down and get trashed.  Good decision!  But I'll do it at some point, because it looked good.

fishing my boat out of Triple

Then we headed down to Ayr for the wedding, which was lovely.  More sore heads the morning after, fixed by a huge fry up and a walk along the seafront (plus several large cups of tea).

tags: paddling Scotland