It has been over 5 months since I posted. Until yesterday my last post was the last time I paddle something other than the Kent or the Leven. This winter and beginning of spring has been terrible due to lack of rain. To the non kayaker the weather has probably seemed miserable, unfortunately for the kayaker the weather was just never quite miserable enough to get the rivers pumping.
Thankfully this week some heavy rain arrived. Sunday night I managed to paddle the Roeburn again, this time at the highest level so far. Still holding out for even more water in this continuous grade 3 local gem.
Then on Wednesday more rain arrived to the East of Lancaster. So I headed over to Settle to paddle the upper Ribble for the first time. I found the river at a solid medium level, which made the first 2 km very continuous grade 3+. Fairly big volume by UK standards. I will definitely be heading back to do this river again. After this I headed on up to Sedbergh to paddle the Clough. The drive up wasn’t looking promising, Barbon beck, Lune and the Lower Rawthey were all empty. Thankfully (and strangely) the Clough was flowing at a nice cruisey medium level. The Rainchasers gauge for the Clough is actually on the lower Rawthey below several other tribs so in my opinion it is highly unreliable.
Lastly, its 10 days and counting until I head off to the Alps!! I will be out there for 17 days, the first half based in Val Sesia in Italy and then the 2nd half heading back towards the French alps to paddle the classics around Briancon etc. Can’t wait!! Stay tuned for videos and pictures from the trip.
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