River Tweed Megabimble - 17/12/2006

The Edinburgh Kayak Club's Christmas Night Oot at Viva Mexico, the Malt Shovel and the Bongo Club was followed by a Hair of the Dog Bimble on the River Tweed. Ali, Robin, Alan and Magnus showed up with kayaks. As far as open canoes went, Charlie paddled his Mobile Adventure Symphony and Amy paddled the club's Old Town Discovery with me. With all the rain, the Tweed was moving. We reckoned the Lyne to Peebles run would take about five minutes, so we headed upstream to a random spot on the side of the road to Stobo that looked reasonable enough for access. Despite the flush-like conditions, the River Tweed offered us our first proper bimble of the winter.

We launched probably around 12-12:30. Robin took advantage of a first descent opportunity in the wee burn at the get-in. Amy and I attempted a ferryglide from the burn and got flushed downstream instead. Amy and I couldn’t set the angle properly from the burn and the flush of water wasn’t going to let us fix it afterward.

Flush was fine, we caught up with the rest of the group within seconds and caught a river left eddy along the bank. I violated the first rule of canoeing, sort of. Thou shalt not teach thy significant other how to paddle translates to tandem canoeing as thou shalt not tell thy tandem partner what to do. In my defence, I was learning, too. Amy and I caught lots of eddies as we learned how to edge the boat, hold the edge and not crash into the banks instead of turn into the eddies. Gradually we got it figured out and our breakouts and breakins became much more smooth. We chose our eddies and hit nearly all of them. Amy took to paddling on the right pretty quickly, which I expect will make Bram even more jealous.

We stopped for lunch at the normal get in (Lyne) for a Tweed bimble to Peebles. Amy shared her wee chair with me and we had a lovely view of the river as we lunched. After lunch, we paddled on through the section that I remembered.

Past Neidpath Castle, we found an awesome surfing wave. Everybody saw it and everybody lunged for it. We spun our nearly 17 feet of canoe and paddled forward frantically to slow ourselves down. It worked beautifully and the surf was magic. At one point, I think Alan, Robin and Charlie were sharing the wave with us.

Further downstream, we found surf wave with a much more convenient eddy beside it. The wave was smaller so the community surf wasn’t an option. We took turns with Alan and Robin playing. The nice thing about big, tubby boats is they’re slow to do anything. Slow to slow down means slow to be kicked off a wave. Inertia has its perks!

The second wave was the last good surf of the day. Our bimble took us into Peebles through a park, so we had spectators as we inadvertently beached our boat during a break out. The last rapids of the day were at the weir in Peebles. The water was high enough that it was easily runnable. We were last to run, choosing a line left of centre through a friendly stopper. Amy got splashed as we bounced over it. Ali had a look of horror on her face as we caught the eddy where she sat on river left. She was expecting 10 tonnes of canoe to come slamming into her and for that, we let her down. We parked the canoe very gently beside her and helped her out. Amy hopped out and beached the canoe so I didn’t even have to get my feet wet. Bram would be so jealous.

At the getout, everybody was jealous of my changling cocoon. Before the drivers departed, Robin asked if there was room for two. We found room – he got an arm hole – so then Ali asked if there was room for three. Charlie and Amy took pictures of the resulting sight. Then Charlie decided it was a perfect opportunity to run behind us and kick me in the butt.

It felt great to be paddling tandem and paddling stern no less. Better still that I (along with too much alcohol the night before) actually made Amy feel tired by the end of the trip. Hopefully more open canoe adventures will await this winter!

Open Canoeing on the River Tweed – 26/8/2007

After a few miscommunicated weekends, Charlie got his open canoeing trip on the Tweed organized. The boat layout had Charlie in his solo boat, Emily paddling with ¾ of the Bassetts in their open canoe, Charlie’s in-laws in the EKC open canoe and Brian and I paddling his Prospector. Charlie’s logic was pearls before swine, putting us in the Prospector and his in-laws in the larger, more stable Discovery.

We ran the section from Peel to Galashiels, which was supposedly flat save one set of rapids. We were off to a leisurely start around noon. Imogen and Freya Bassett had a great time helping their mum and Emily steer the canoe. I tried to show Brian a few open canoe manoeuvres, but quickly remembered the first commandment of paddling, and tried to teach myself how to use his skills to make those manoeuvres. We sort of surfed one wave.

Leisurely start meant lunch stop was not far down stream, maybe a few miles and perhaps 1/3 of the total trip distance.

After lunch, we spent perhaps more time working our way downstream and less time playing. Having not been in the Tweed Valley for many months, I had forgotten how much I enjoy the scenery there. I spent much of that second 1/3 of the trip ruddering and enjoying the views while Brian provided most of the boat’s momentum. He had two speeds, paddling and not, so my guilt was minimal.

The bridge at Fairnalee signalled the only serious rapids of the day. The low water level would mean they were more challenging than usual, but still navigable. Retrospect suggests we should have scouted and perhaps walked the wee ones around it, but it’s a bit late for that. Charlie led the way. Emily and the Bassetts went next and unfortunately ended up in the drink. Imogen and especially Freya were not happy about that. Brian and I saw the end result from the eddy above the bridge and we motored past the in-laws (Anna and I forget her husband’s name) to see about helping. Unfortunately, sort of, we were too late for screaming child rescue, but we did get to pick up a paddle and other bits of kit. Fear tears became show tears as Freya became adamant about not getting back in the canoe.

Debbie and the girls stayed at Fairnalee and the rest of us forged downstream to Galashiels. The last 1/3 of the trip passed quicker than the previous 2 and the familiar tall bridge at the get-out was soon in sight.

Although I felt really good for being back in a canoe, I was barred from boat loading duty when we packed up and prepared to drive back to collect the Bassetts. The girls were in much better spirits when we arrived and waved all of us in. The Woods took Brian and me back to Peel and we parted company with tentative plans for boat unloading later that evening.

(Mostly Annual) Hair of the Dog Tweed Bimble 7/12/2008

Saturday night was the kayak club's annual Christmas night oot, which meant that Sunday morning(ish) was the annual(ish) hair of the dog bimble down the River Tweed. I missed last year's night oot and I don't know if there was a hair of the dog bimble. This year, we had competing trips with Tom leading a throw yourself off a hillside advanced trip. I think we lost Chris W. to that group but Robin, Charlie, Jean, Ali and I ventured out of our warm, cozy beds for the bimble. Babs was one of a few who were wavering but decided her bed was more tempting than a cold, wet river.

The original plan was for a 10am start from the boatshed, but Ali phoned Charlie to slow it down a bit. The shift to 10.30am meant I could bat my eyelashes at Brian and get him to drop me at the boatshed. He had absolutely no interest in the cold and the wet. I couldn't tell if he was laughing or shaking his head at us as he drove away.

Robin decided that he, too, wanted to paddle an open canoe, so he packed the swimming platform, the club's 9ft Dagger Prelude whose outfitting I still need to fit. Had the weather been about 10 degrees warmer, I would have been sorely temped, but that morning I had no envy of Robin whatsoever.

While Charlie and Robin ran the shuttle, Jean, Ali and I dragged the boats down to the water. We didn't have to wait too long.

Launching from below Manor Bridge, the current was swift enough that Robin wobbled a lot in the Prelude. He managed to stay upright, though, and all of us were impressed. We headed downstream pretty quickly in large part to stay warm. The random forecast generator suggested a high of 5C but we certainly weren't there yet.

Getting back into the spirit of open canoeing, I convinced Jean to help me get into whatever eddies we thought we could fit the club's Old Town into. Some efforts were more successful than others. I explained the two different bow draw strokes and suggested Jean mess around with them as she wanted. Occasionally, the wrong draw made things more interesting, but that's all part of the fun of learning.

It took us no time at all to reach the weir at Peebles, the one place where everybody expected Robin to end up in the drink. I didn't think he would. Two reasons. The first was motivation and the second was momentum. Robin hit the line just fine with not so much as a wobble until the eddies below.

We continued downstream, playing in the eddies a little bit less as the cold wore on. I could tell that Charlie was disappointed for not starting higher up, but knew the tea room waiting at the get out would make up for it. I felt a little disappointed, too, but not by much. On a warmer day, I might have appreciated more distance, but I think that may take a while to find again.

The tea room was perfectly timed. We reached the awkward getout and I could barely move my hands. Teamwork helped get the boats to the cars with reasonable speed. Charlie tried to ban us from the tea room while he and Robin ran the shuttle but that didn't even last until they left the car park. The hot bowl of soup was a perfect end to the trip. It's a shame the boats couldn't load themselves in the meantime.