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Cotherstone to Barnard Castle

(Don't worry, you'll be all right!)

Andy said "You really ought to do this trip. If you don't go on a river soon it'll be too late for this year". What he meant was "If you go today, I get to go next week when there's a harder trip".

So he loaded the boat and sorted my gear (was this true love or merely to escape from the party sleepover? Six small children all overexcited and refusing to go to sleep!) Anyway eventually we arrived at Cotherstone to find the place packed with cars, canoes and people. (14 canoes, I didn't count the cars or the people.) There were a few faces that I recognised and I was soon introduced to those I didn't. It was nice to put a few faces to the names that have been repeatedly mentioned in tales of canoeing exploits.

"How much canoeing have you done?"

"Um, well, a couple of rivers, the Wye and the Spey" (the bits they throw abject beginners down, safe in the knowledge they'll survive unless they do something so inconceivably stupid that no one has even considered the possibility).

So I got a crash course in breaks-in and breaks-out and off we went. "You'll be all right," they said, "just aim for the biggest waves", so I survived the first small rapid and several after that. Eventually I was led to understand that we were approaching the first significant obstacle. "Best play wave on this stretch" said Tony.

"You've got to be careful of the tree at the bottom," said someone else.

"It'll be all right," said Tony.

So off we went. I survived that one too.

The next bit I can clearly remember is the bit described in the guidebook as "a small step in the bedrock creates a 0.75m drop, which should perk your spirits up a little". This has clearly been written by someone that regards anything less than Grade 5 as trivial (Nick Doll in fact).

"You'll be alright, it just looks as if you're going to hit the rock face, but no one I've taken down ever has" said Tony, so off we went.

At the bottom I was met by a look of disbelief from Dave and tales of people swimming it from Anna. I was now starting to become suspicious.

We continued on, some of the "hard men" stopped to play on various waves, I was particularly impressed by Claire's demonstration. Wish I could do that.

On we went until the castle came into view. I knew we were now nearly at the end of the trip and there was only one more significant obstacle, Wren's dam.

We all milled about whilst those who knew best considered the best approach.

"They don't usually faff about as much as this", said Wendy.

"I'll go and have a look" said Tony.

"Mummy, I don't think you should do this," said Sarah.

(By this time Andy and the children had walked up from the footbridge and Andy was preparing to take photos of everyone going down the weir).

After a certain amount of wittering it was my turn.

"Follow me," said Tony.

"Are you really sure you want to do this?" said someone (Richard, I think, apologies if this is incorrect).

Off I went, at the bottom I looked back. "B***** H***", said I, "I'm really glad I didn't look at it first".

Richard (with the ears) came next and lost his paddle. He was left floating downstream until he managed to grab a rock. It was ages before his paddle eventually reappeared and was rescued (Adrian, I think),

Then Anna, who showed us how it should be done and then Wendy. There was some debate about the chances of Wendy's Canadian fitting through the gap. However, she just went straight down looking totally elegant and in complete control.

The last small rapid followed and we were at the Demesnes where most of us got out. A few of the hard men continued on to Abbey Rapids. Andy did a quick change into his gear and went with them. (Something tells me he thought this might happen).

We collected them from Abbey Bridge and retired home for tea and cake.

There followed the usual discussion in these circumstances with tales of ever increasing bravery until at some point someone said, "Who's going to write up the trip?"

They all immediately ganged up on me "Mary should, it's her first trip".

Thanks everybody for putting up with me, I really enjoyed myself.

The cast was: Dave West, Pete and Wendy Bridgstock, Claire and Jonty, Pete Ball, Richard and Richard, Adrian, Clive, Tony, Anna, Johnny, Mary (and Andy a bit at the end).

Mary Waddington

Last Modified: 7 May, 2003