Loch Faskally Bimble - 14/9/2008

Brian and I demoed two kayaks from Brookbank Canoes in Perth. It was a good chance for Brian to try out the Dagger Approach, a kayak that had been suggested to him by a previous instructor. We headed to Loch Faskally aka the River Tummel below the Linn of Tummel, just above Pitlochry, for a quiet paddle in the rain. Brian took to the Approach, aka the Tub (or BattleTub if I can poach Charlie's boat name), pretty much immediately. I had a Dagger GT 7.5, which I would have enjoyed more if the hip pads had been a little more girl shaped or non existent. Circulation is for sissies.

We explored the base of the Linn of Tummel and the last few hundred metres of the River Garry before heading down toward the Pitlochry end of the loch. Skeg or no skeg, I couldn't keep up with Brian. On the Garry, Brian found an old Tennents can which formed a game for the next hour or more trying to land the can on each other's boat. I had to rely on skills more than speed because Brian was far too fast in the Approach. Most useful skill? Trickery.

A bit below our get in/out, we swapped boats for about 10 minutes. I didn't like the BattleTub at all, far too big, but I could see immediately that it or it's smaller 9.0 sibling would be a great boat for Brian. The GT was a bit too snug for Brian, but he thought it would be genius to paddle it with his knees sticking out. That lasted less than 30 seconds before he was in the drink. Sadly, Brian found that inhaling while dunking into the water doesn't work as well as exhaling. I shoved the boat toward the beach while he coughed and dragged himself there. He was much happier and more comfortable back in the BattleTub.

We pottered around a little more after Brian's excursion before calling it a day. On the way back to Brookbank, we stopped at a cafe for warm drinks, food, and most importantly meringues for pudding. The conclusion of the boat demo was reached on the way back. Approach 9.0, pending a final test in the shop. When to buy it is another matter that we will figure out sooner or later.

Apprehensive Brian slides into the BattleTub, aka the Dagger Approach 10.0.

This trip was the first time I had seen the Linn of Tummel at a normal level.

Brian and the BattleTub got much farther upstream on the Garry than I could in the GT.

Brian liked the Dagger Approach. It was stable and reasonably easy to control. A bit big, but good.

I barely fit into the GT 7.5. If the hip pads allowed for a little more hip, I would have liked the boat.

Brian lasted less than 30 seconds in the GT. He may have fared better if he could actually fit his legs into it. Instead, the loch level dropped a few centimetres after Brian took his drink.

The S-Bends on the River Tummel a year ago, when the dam broke originally and repairs meant that the water level was higher than usual. From my vantage point a pile of rocks in river centre, the main chute was a foam pile between a big pourover on river left and a small, submerged rock that isn't so obvious here. The water level was slightly higher in this spot the day we paddled it. The next day, when the kayak club came through here, they got to spend a few hours recovering a pinned boat from that slightly less submerged rock.

The S-Bends approaching spate, yesterday. The pile of rocks where I was standing are river centre, just to the right of the tall, skinny tree in this photo. The big pourover I didn't like when the river was high (river left and slightly upstream from the now submerged big pile of rocks) looks even less inviting now.

The Linn of Tummel at spate, yesterday. A year ago, it looked like this (view from opposite bank). I saw a line last year. I didn't want anything to do with that line, but I did see it. Yesterday? I saw less vertical drop and some sharp, pointy teeth where that second drop is normally.