I went up to the far North of Scotland for a few days last week. No guidebooks, no prior info and virtually no road access. Just blue lines crossing brown ones on the map. Perfect. The actual river features become mere details against the setting. I'll let Steve and Kris's photos tell the story, as my camera is dead. No details are included, so its all still fresh for you :-) ...

Well the new bike has arrived;

After stripping it of the EU regulation reflectors, bells and a ridiculous number of stickers, I had a nice ride out to get the feel of it and rediscover my legs! It feels funny spending more money on a second sport than on the first. LVM recently asked the quetion "Why are we happy to pay for bikes when we are reluctant to pay for kayaks?" Well having done both, here is my stab at the answer;

Bikes are complicated, have many moving parts, require precise engineering, there is loads of component choice, they have warranties that are worthwhile and are well screwed together. Kayaks have no moving parts, are simple, the warranties are patchy, the outfitting is of questionable quality and the choice is limited to colour and basic design.

I cant help thinking that the breakthrough in kayak retail will be when we can buy shells and spec them up in component form. Aftermarket options become possible. Replacing a shell halves the price of a worn out boat (some companies are quietly supplying now). Then I could reuse old outfitting, or source the parts from wherever I like to suit my needs.  Im sure some companies would get into the market pretty quickly. The first manufacturer that does it gets my vote. They always protest that the outfitting is difficult.... so just sell shells, like bike manufacturere make frames and the rest is outsourced.

On the theme of 'toys', whilst dog walking the other evening I saw these guys. The spec in the photo is a remote control glider (about 6 foot wingspan). They were really flinging them around dramatically over a ridge in pretty high and swirling winds. I was impressed. Probably more fun if you actually left the ground though?

I feel like the time has come to review the Grande. I dont know how some reviewers suss boats  without really paddling them for a good while. Of course first impressions are valuable, but it takes more than that.

Ok first up Im on no commision for anyone (unfortunately :-)! ) but I like the Grande. Im 5'9' and between 12 and 12 and half stone so am in the lighter range on the manufacturers recommendations for the boat. I feel that the essential difference between the standard Jefe and the Grande is about confidence. The Grande gives you more. Maybe it does feel less precise , but it more than makes up for it when your staring down a drop thinking 'Whats gonna happen in there?'. I just feel I'll come out right way up. The big rounded back end is a lot more trustworthy through squeezes,  slots and out of holes.

Every time Ive moved up a size I've been worried about that loss of control or 'feel', but the worry never materialises. Sure, there is a compromise, but it's a decent trade off. The Grande, boofs, tracks and scrabbles down slots perfectly reasonably, yet it has a built in 'get out of jail free' card. I guess it comes down to what you want from a boat, but personally I feel that when I'm out there for humour or practice, Im willing to compromise with the boat. Then the effort always comes from within me anyway, yet when im looking for the boat to do its stuff, big is beautiful.

The outfitting is lasting well (and so it should). I took the foam off the bottom of the seat and left the rest in place. I have never been tempted to put it back on. I would recommend this to anyone with any of the Jefes. The seat is quite high, the boat is all about stability and being solid so why jack it up? The plastic is really quite soft compared to the older models, which could become an issue in time.

I've tried a few of its competitiors and they are fine. The Nomad and Habitat are a bit more pointy, faster but less 'floaty', so they tend to get pushed around more as they are less able to get 'over' things. I can see how you get used to them, but for me the Jefes leave a bit more choice to the pilot, which I think is what its all about in this class of boat. Let the wave push, or get through it, its a choice I can make. I dont get the Burns/Everest. I've said it before but I think they are backing a loser. I can see the advantages of the edges, and am not being niaive about it, being different is good market positioning, but its not enough. I hope Pyranha get it togther with their next model. Every day out on the river it feels like there is one less Pyranha boat with us. Surely there is room to be different and innovative without making square creek boats?

A guest blog entry from Poke;

Exploring Mill Gill

A year or so back I was driving home from my girlfriends place in the Lakes, when I drove over a small bridge that I'd not really noticed before, and it clicked that there must be some sort of watercourse going under it. The next time I went past, I made sure I had half an hour to spare, and went for a wander upstream. What I found was a tight little gorge, a bit under a kilometre in length, but pretty continuously steep tight and interesting. According to OS maps it's name was Mill Gill. I'd passed over it a number of times since, and always stopped to check the level. Even after some fairly heavy rain it only seemed to come up to a "just paddleable" level. However, last Friday (5th Sept 08) I checked the forecast and it looked like we were in for a wet one, so loaded my boat onto the car before heading into work. It poured down for practically the whole day, so I made a phonecall or two and a mate of mine agreed to meet me after work.

After work, soon turned into an hour after work, and as we carried our boats to the put-in at about 7pm, the sky was already looking gloomy. First up was a dodging a few fences, then a nasty 15m long, possibly less than boat width slot, which may have been possible, but probably only for the certifiable. After this though, things started looking up. Tight and technical was the name of the game. Last gasp micro eddies above horizon lines and twisting drops round tight bends. Despite the narrow and tree lined nature of the run, we only had to portage two trees, and only one of them was across a bit of a rapid, a definite bonus.

A view of the last half of the nasty slot from below.

Following a by-now tried and tested formula we eddyhopped down the river, with one or the other of us getting out to inspect if we needed to. Finding ourselves in a gorged in section faced with another horizon line I grabbed an eddy, only to turn round and see Mark disappearing over the lip. He reappeared at the bottom, only to get swept into the next rapid. Peering downstream into the gloom I could see a helmet and paddle bobbing around about 20m away. Was he in a stopper or an eddy? At least he seemed to still be in his boat. Clambering onto the bank with my rope I eventually managed to get out of the gorge, and ran down the bank to see where he was. A long couple of minutes later and I saw that he was fine. He'd broken out and clambered onto a small ledge on the opposite side of the river. Downstream was the meanest looking horizon line yet. A metre wide, and pretty high. I could see why he'd tried to climb out! Unless we could conjure up some nifty ropework, he was going to have to run it. I clambered round to look at the fall. Just shy of 10 feet high, it was sloping at a difficult-to-boof 80 degree angle into a churning stopper. It didn't look too dangerous though, and I'd managed to get into a good spot with my rope, so signalled Mark to get back in and give it a whirl. As he landed the nose of his boat rose suddenly and I thought he was going to backloop, but he managed to control it and came out unscathed. I got back up to my boat and ran the whole three-steps without incident. Fortunate really, as I couldn't even see from the top to the bottom of the rapid now with the fading light.

The final main drop before the old mill, which I imagine gave the river it's name, was a two tiered affair. The left side being a straightforward small-drop/big-drop combo, but all the water after the first step was pushing to the right side into an unpredictable twisting chute. I later decided to call this drop "Pontoon" - you either stick the left line, or twist down the right (damn I'm a comedy genius). Leaving a 20 second gap we both ran Pontoon with no problems, leaving a terrifying final 200m of in-the-dark grade 2, keeping our fingers crossed there were no fences lurking to catch us.

Given the light situation, we took out just after the A595 roadbridge instead of carrying on the last kilometre of flatter water to the sea. We'd bagged the best of the whitewater, and given the fields below, neither of us wanted to risk running into any fences. Taking out at 8.30pm we were both grining like loons. It's not everyday you get to bag a first descent after work.

The "Pontoon" rapid. The line was over the left of that
big green rock you can see centre-flow in the pic.

If anyone is planning to continue where we left off, or just repeat our exploration, then heres the beta...

1) What's it called?
Mill Gill

2) Where is it?
Drive northwards over Corney Fell. As you rejoin the A595, the river is at the bottom of the hill, about 100m past the junction. See the google map here.

3) Where's the put-in?
Just on the north side of the river there is a farm track that leads up the hill. Drive for about 1km, till you reach a bridge over a rather small looking stream. Park up and follow the stream down about 100m 'till it looks like there's somewhere to put in.

4) Where's the takeout?
About 10m downstream of the A595 roadbridge is the old bridge. River left downstream of this is a public footpath with a convenient eddy. Alternatively, venture on down to the sea. I think there is a driveable track to the south of the river, but you'd have to look that up on a map.

5) What are the water level indicators?
Looking upstream from the A595 roadbridge, all boulders were well covered (about 3 inches under?) for our run. This was a nice level, but required a good 8 hours of rain, on already wet ground. It may be possible (but scrapey in places) lower, and scarier higher.

6) Basic Description and Major obstacles
- Many fences and trees in the first 100m from the top bridge. Not really worth paddling. Just walk to the confluence of the other streams which make up the river.
- Soon (50m) after the confluence there is a fence to duck under, followed by the Twisting slot of Doom (probably Grade 6). Get out at the fence to inspect as there are no eddies on the lead-in.
- The rest of the river after this is pretty continuous. Too many rapids to really mention. Just be on your toes and keep an eye out for trees. - Mark's gorged in triple-drop combo is a good giggle, but make sure you have a look at the final slot, as I imagine at some levels you could get quite a towback here.
- The final bedrock fall - "pontoon" is soon after and probably worth inspecting at the same time as the triple drop.
- From here to the A595 bridge is fast grade 2 with one chossey 3+. No fences when we ran it, but a high potential for tree hazards.
- Below the A595 bridge looks like it has far less gradient, but may still be worth exploring.

7) I'm only claiming this as a first descent as it's not in any guidebooks, and I'm a glory hunter!! :-) If you've done this one (or even just walked up to inspect it) before, get in touch, I'd be interested to hear how you got on.
Anyways, enjoy yourselves, and if you run this one, do what we didn't mange to and get some piccys! I think some of those drops will be pretty photogenic in the daylight!

Its been a grand weekends boating. The flood water of Friday night stuck around long enough to enable me to get on some decent stuff and rekindle the enthusiasm for boating. A big shout to Rob for the effort to get right up high on the Esk on Saturday. Sunday saw a good humoured jaunt down the Swale.