A Trip to Devon

It’s been raining a lot. Like, a lot a lot, and this is something that, as a kayaker, I like. A proposition came my way in the latter half of last week about the prospect of boating Saturday (the 21^st), which I was keen for. A decision was made to take a road trip down to Devon to have a look at the River Dart. With all the plans set, I was to pick up Helena and Jonny in the morning and meet Stu, Max and Alex down at Dartmeet.

I remember Friday evening thinking an early night will see Saturday morning come even quicker. I liken it to the feeling as a kid on Christmas Eve. And like magic the alarm went off at 0700, and I was like, ‘Wait… what the f**k? Why the hell did I want this early morning wake up to come quickly. This sucks balls!’ Early mornings do tend to be the worst part of a kayaking day, and with the chilly weather it was not a welcome feeling. However I got out of bed, changed, packed and got to Helena’s ready to go. A quick load of the boats onto the roof and we were off. Some hearty banter ensued and we were in Devon as quick as a flash.

The Dart looked bum-clenchingly high, and when Stu and Max eventually turned up we decided to run the West Dart in the (late) morning. This was a nice river, with a couple of tasty sections in the first half and an exciting ending before the get out. Good clean fun by all, with everyone looking good on the water.

Helena on one of the rapids

We stopped at the get on for the upper section of the Dart to have lunch, but with only a few hours of light left, and with the levels still lapping above what we really wanted, we decided (in a cowardly manner) to jump on the Loop section.

The Loop was bouncy and had some cool waves. About a third of the way down, we saw a canoe in the middle of the river, caught on a submerged tree. No one was about, and we stopped to make sure everything was OK. Not finding anyone bank side, and luckily no one in the canoe itself, we decided the manly thing to do would be to get the thing out of the water. With Jonny at the side, and me just below the canoe, we managed to get a line attached to it.

The canoe, mid-stream

Jonny's perfect line!!!

Then came a while as we decided the best course of action to pull the boat in. With some intelligence at the helm, and a bit of brute strength, we got the boat to the side. So far the team consisted of myself, Jonny, Max and Stu, whilst Helena and Alex were watching from the other side.

Max, just chilling it on a tree. No biggy

We told the two spectators to head downstream and we would get the canoe to them (which was the side with the road on). Once we paddled it across, Helena and Alex dragged it out and proceeded to take a vast array of hero photos of them with the canoe!!! As proper gents, the four of us would have not done anything of the sort; our plan would have been to stay humble and maybe just write about the ordeal in a blog, post footage of the heroic rescue in any video we ever make (until we do something else manly) and forever embellish the story when told, until it becomes a tale of saving a poor child’s life whilst simultaneously fighting off savage bears with our bare hands. However to ensure that there was evidence of our achievement, we swiftly exited our kayaks to get the great shot.

The four Musketeers

We got off the river just before sunset, and a quick change saw Jonny, Helena and I on the road back to Cardiff. I managed to head the wrong way to start with, so we took the scenic root, through Dartmoor, back to the M5 and home. In all a successful day out, with some good kayaking and laughs with mates.