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River Eden

Sunday 29 October and we were on our way to the River Eden Open Day. As usual, I was a bag of nerves, deciding which excuse to use when we arrived, so that I didn't have to paddle! Too much wind? - no, too much water - no - too much wind. The A66 was closed to high-sided vehicles, so I had that to back me up! What a surprise when we arrived at Lazonby. There wasn't a breath of wind and, although the river level was up, it looked fast, but friendly.

Ten of us set off (and arrived, actually). Shaun and myself in our solo open boats and eight kayakers - Pete, Kay, David, Richard, Anne, Francis, Jonty and Clare. It seemed ages since I last paddled. The 60 miles the previous week down the River Spey didn't count, as I was in the front of a double, with Shaun dipping his stick in occasionally at the back! But, I digress. We floated on down the Eden , chatting, whizzing around and practising ferry gliding (how DO you do a back ferry??) as we quickly arrived at the first set of rapids - nice gentle thing that everyone got through with no trouble. The good thing about lots of water is that you don't have to worry so much about hitting/avoiding rocks.

As the river gets older, the rapids get bigger. The current seemed to be going all over the river and the waves were coming from all directions at once (read with an edge of panic in the voice). Group ethics were brilliant that day, everyone breaking out at regular intervals to check on the rest of the group, and comment on the size of the waves.

I was behind David at one point and he totally disappeared in a hole. Oh me, oh my, I thought as I realised I almost inevitably had to go into that same hole as I couldn't move across the river because of the other waves. Luckily I managed to scrape around the edge of the hole and only caught a bit of the wave.

We had one or two spills along the way, but it was an excellent way to spend an hour or so (5 mile trip). I imagine the scenery was very pretty, but I was suffering from "tunnel vision", only looking at the river ahead of me. We all even got off the river at Armathwaite without being washed over the killer weir!

Wendy Bridgstock

Last Modified: 7 May, 2003