Feburary 2000
As you know, I have now been in England for almost a year after a number years in Idaho. When you are used to paddling the brilliant rivers of the north-west US, the British rivers seem a bit... small. In Britain, the season runs during the winter when the rivers get plenty of water from rainfall. But even with the amount of rain you get here, many (most?) of the rivers only come into condition when it rains solidly for a couple of days in a row. That means you cannot get as much paddling in as you can in place where the rivers are snowmelt and damfed.
In spite of this, I have managed to get quite a few trips in this season, and most have been brilliant. (See my kayak log.) In general the rivers are what the Americans would call creeks - really steep, rocky stuff with lots of potential for getting the boat stuck in nasty places. I haven't had any serious pins yet, but it requires constant technical paddling to keep away from problems.
The best rivers I've done have been the Upper Dart in Dartmoor and the Mellte in South-Wales. The trip on the Mellte approached epic quality. The river is full of very steep, narrow drops, and a bunch of waterfalls. One fall is 25ft but none of us had the bottle (British for guts) to do it that day- I want to go back!! Lower down the river I broke my paddle in half going over a 10 footer and paddled the rest of the river in C1 style.
Every Wednesday I still go to the local swimming pool to play kayak polo to keep the paddling muscles warm.
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