Half paddling, Half swimming the Avon

The water has finally arrived in the Avon river. With a few last minute phone calls I met Mark and Andy at 6am in Bells rapids car park to start the car shuffles to go up to Posselts Ford where we started our valley run.

It was pretty cold at around 3 degrees in the fog that hung onto the river. We got paddling and soon warmed up. To the first rapid, super shoot – I fell in. Amazingly the water was warmer than out! I was a bit miffed at falling in as I had expected to have better balance this year compared to last with all the sea paddling I have been doing, but obviously not.

We made it down to Emu falls, this is probably one of the harder rapids on the river. Not crazy but a few nasty rocks that catch you out easily, we go out and had a look at it to try to remember the lines through it

By the time we had been looking at it for a few minutes we were all shivering uncontrollably. I hadn’t been this cold for some time.

Andy took the honours and went through. He cleared all the hard bits but managed to bang into a rock at the end which tipped him in. I made a mental note to avoid that rock.

Next up was Mark – flash twat got through it no worries and made it look easy.

Then it was my turn, a few star jump and sprinting on the spot to try to get some warmth back into the body

Got my line perfect, thought I had nailed it, remembered the bottom rock that had caught Andy out….. where is it?…. There it is, stop staring at it… steer, steer….. THUMP

Next time I will have it.

the ‘Valley run’ as it is known, is 42km + change long, and what is cool about it is that once in the valley there is no points of access for 30km along it, so it is pretty committing. I think that is half the appeal, the only way to get into it is by paddling, and if something goes wrong it is a long nasty walk through bush out. The sun was beginning to burn off the fog now – still wasn’t that warm though, if we stopped the shivers came back pretty quick but it was nice to have the sun on you.

A lovely day out, hopefully manage to do another valley run before the water disappears for the summer. Both Andy and I got pretty beaten up while swimming down the river bouncing off rocks after we had been tipped in at numerous rapids along the way. Good bruising and good memories.

Weekend in Guilderton

Spent a lovely weekend up in Guilderton camping next to the Moore River. Was lucky enough to witness the sandbank break and the river empty out into the sea ( apparently it happens 10 ish so times a year). Started as a little trickle and ended up huge all within 2 hours. A great weekend camping with the Staffords, biking, paddling and playing on the beach with the kids.

: Family bike ride

: Ellis and Kai riding together on their new bikes

: a HUGE change with the 16″ wheels for ellis

: Ellis and Kai tying to see how deep a hole they can dig

: Before the sand bank was broken

: Ellis and Lara riding around the River

: Of course stopping for flower picking

: Mark and I went for a paddle

: In some cool T trees, trying to get the Avon feeling

: great day for paddling

: saw a sand dune on the river so had to drag boat up it

: and slide down it into the river

: Huge pelican eyeing me up

: the dam thing followed me

: Breaking of the sand bank ( about 10 minutes)

: Ellis and Kai enjoying playing in it whilst it was small and manageable

: mark trying to stay on a stopper

: getting bigger ( about 30 minutes)

: Mark running down it

: My turn

: Was getting bigger all the time

: great fun white water

: the point i fell out and got washed out

: the state of it after about 1hr 15mins

: 1hour 30 minutes

: 1hour 40 minutes – was just huge and amazing to watch the river empty into the sea

: the mess of water as the river met the sea surf, why i stopped paddling it as it got too big and scary!

: Ellis and Lara playing on the beach

: what it looked like after 2 hours and when we left

: a good fun day on the boats

: Ellis and Kai playing in the tent

: Ellis after shower

: Night time tree climbing by head torch

: After it had emptied the next day.

: Lara and Sam’s turn

: Ellis running after mum telling her she forgot her paddle

: another great winter day

: sunday afternoon explore up the coast from Guilderton to seabird

: stopping at the little beaches not he way

: a lovely coast, shame camping is not allowed here….

: green tongued tired girl!

Morning paddle Sessions

Most wedensdays during the winter I go paddling before work. I have been meaning to take my camera for ages to try and capture how beautiful it can be in the mornings paddling in the middle of the swan in the dark, paddling away as the sun slowly comes up to another day. We usually go out for around and hour doing Will’s lovely pyramid sprints and finish with achy tired shoulders. The fear is always there of falling in when it is dark as who knows what lurks in the water. Usually it is dolphins but they still put the shits up you!

Winter here is still pretty good fun!

Bye Bye Will

Will is sadly leaving us to go back to Blighty for good. As a last bash he organised a mini race for all of us. He found a cool phone App call Loquiz where he set out an orienteering type course with a three hour time limit. Different check points were worth different amounts depending on their difficulty. We had a choice of how we got to them, Running, biking, paddling or however else you wanted.

teams of two, i was paired with Jo. Three hours and the rest you can see below. A very good fun afternoon – some racing competitively others not so much……

after the race we all retired to the pubs and then onto a gig where the night got messy.

: the man of the hour

: everyone trying to get the App to work which had the course on it

: the idiots

: I got drawn to be with Jo as a team mate. lucky we both had the same idea

: and they are off, this was the north side of the river

: Will had designed a swim into the course as well

: which was in the middle of the boating lane

: jo avoiding boats in the Swan river

: the idea we both had

: hard racing, those crisps were heavy!

: this is how Mark and Ackers did the race, inside someones car! they called it initiative, we call it cheating!

: Jo in the green beast checking out the cliff

: Balck Wall reach boat stashing

: Will climbing up the cliffs

: Me jo and Will

: Paddling back to try and make the cut off

: Will arriving Back

: Mak and I about to get stuck into a few post race beers

: at the end and happy

: all the wives and kids popped down and enjoyed post race drinks and BBQ

: The Smiths

More Avon Descent Training

So two weeks to go. starting to get the feeling I should have trained more, but the nerves are helped out because I have kind of wimped out and entered the race as a team of 2. Having down the majority of the rapids that are a bit more ‘clenching’, the bit I was keen to do was the section called ‘the Tee Trees’.

The normal characters amassed on a cold saturday morning and slipped into some thing tight and neoprene. It was a cold morning as I saw frost on some of the grass as we unloaded the boats from the roof of the car, a rare thing here I am told.

iI was pretty cold on the hands in the water, we put in just upstream from the start of the 8km tee tree section. There was a very picturesque mist coming off the water as we set off. just as we went the sun poked it head up and it was a very welcome warmth.

So, the Tee trees – what is it like. Take a load of dense bushes that sit very close together, then run some fast flowing water through them and put in some tight turns. Whats the fuss about I hear you think, try to manoeuvre a 5.9m surf ski through it. = Nightmare.

This is all I could really take picture wise in them as you are having to try and position the boat so much for each corner, usually failing then getting rammed into the side and falling in, then having to untangle the boat and some how mount it again in fast flowing river.

This is probably where I think most of the time will be lost in the race, as it is pretty difficult to navigate your way through and hard to recover mistakes. I am sure there is going to be huge bottle necks for any of those not at the front and clear from the likes of me at the back causing obstructions ramming into every corner!

There were no real rapids of the day apart from the very last bit before we finished called ‘Posselt’s Ford’ (where we started form 2 weeks prior). Easy little drop that requires not too much concentration or clenching. So we thought, as Will went through it his nose smacked into something and made a huge “THUNK”.

You can’t see it that well in the above photo, but what ever he hit bent his nose right back. Will have to see how he goes fixing this – the next picture shows it a bit better. The skis are plastic and pretty resistant, so hopefully he can pop it back out somehow.

After watching Will knacker his boat, Jo and I still decided we wanted to do it and went down it praying not to hear that expensive sound…..

First one is Jo – no noise, then me………. No Noise. Phew.

A great way to spend a day, really glad I did it so know what to expect. 2 weeks and it will be with 300 others, it is going to be fun!!!!!!

Birthday Paddle

Will, Jo and I went to paddle a section of the Avon river to practise for a race that is fast coming up ‘the avon descent’.

It was a horribly early start to get the cars in place (one at bottom one at the top) and we suited and booted up in clothing and off we went.

It was a long day out for a novice like me, I swam some of the rapids(not on purpose), sometimes arriving at the bottom of them in three separate parts (me, boat and paddle). I have a long way to go yet, but my god was it fun and i will really enjoy continuing trying!

6 hours of paddling and 43km of the river travelled. Look forward to the next time!