Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Up, Up, Up to Scotland

(Far too) Early in the morning on Good Friday we loaded up the mighty Ford Focus with 2 shiny slalom boats (Mike's k1 and c1), one battered slalom boat (my k1) an unnecessarily large tent (Mike's), a case of lager (Mike's), far too much paddling kit (Mike's), far too many clothes (mine), and a hyperactive collie (Bryn - no-one takes responsibility for him). The reason? Grandtully Division 1/2 slalom on the Tay, of course! The Grandtully races are always fantastic, being held on an interesting stretch of natural river, with courses that are generally both entertaining and challenging, and the surrounding countryside is stunning - all of which combine to make this one-day race well worth the 8 hour drive to get there.

We arrived just in time for a quick practice session on Friday evening; the water level was quite high, creating a deep, fast flow with a large number of surfable waves rather than the shallower, more technical stretch of river we had raced on in last August's Grandtully race . The course design took full advantage of this, with three crosses designed to test a paddler's wave-surfing ability. This suited Mike, but I had to quickly brush up my surfing skills ready for the race the next day! The course designers had also used the new 'single-pole' rule extensively - 15 of the 18 gates were single pole gates, which some paddlers criticised, but it certainly lead to fast and smooth runs from the top paddlers, and of course a huge number of clean runs!

Cat tackling the Tay

The water dropped quite a lot overnight, making the water slightly less white (which suited the division 2 paddlers), but also meaning the waves were slightly less defined. Mike put in a fast first run in K1, but acquired a 50 second penalty on the second-to-last gate by going a little bit too fast, and failing to cross the gate line with the whole of his head; his C1 run was steady but solid. I dropped off the back of a wave on my first run and missed a gate as a result - so it was all down to second runs for both me and Mike in K1 - oh, the pressure! Mike went for broke on his second k1 run, and put in a fantastic run that saw him finish 12th overall in Division 1; he improved on his C1 run as well, finishing a respectable 6th. I opted for a steady-but-sure second run, and avoided any 50s - phew! 4 races into the season, and both Mike and I are sitting comfortably (and in Mike's case in K1, spectacularly) above our bib numbers, so cause for celebration all round. Thanks to the organisers for another excellent race!


Mike and Bryn above Glen Nevis

After all the excitement of the slalom, we decided to head further north for a couple of relaxing days around Fort William - we stayed at a lovely campsite in Glen Nevis, and were lucky enough to have fantastic weather for the time we were there.

Bryn on the snowy peak of Ben Nevis

We spent a day climbing Ben Nevis, which was hugely satisfying; I was exhausted afterwards, and even Mike was tired, but the 16km hike had no discernable effect on Bryn the collie-dog. We also visited Inverlochy Castle and had a walk up past Neptune's Staircase (a series of locks on the Caledonian Canal) as well as spending a suitably large amount of time testing out the local inns.
Cat and Bryn at Inverlochy Castle

All in all, a lovely extended weekend - and all 3 of us are looking forward to our next trip North of the border for the August Grandtully race.

Cat


posted by Mike @ 1:40 PM

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