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Swaledale Roller Coaster

It snowed on the 4 February, how glad I was that I couldn't get the motivation to get out of bed to meet at Bowes at 9:15. The guilty feeling ended when I heard that 8 inches of snow and the A66 being closed had stopped the trip anyway. During the following week, the weather did the usual, and the snow ended up flowing down the rivers. Wednesday brought floods and closed roads. This was not looking good for a Grade 2/3 trip on the Sunday.

Typically, the rivers dropped off quite quickly, and I thought that a trip to the Wharfe might be on. It rained a bit on Saturday night, but nothing too much at home.

Ten of us met in Leyburn market place. A brief discussion was followed by the comment "the Swale is massive, looks great" - that did it, Wendy and I went to sort access at Marske, whilst everyone else went to Richmond to drop off cars, and to check that there was a place to take out before the falls.

From the put in at Grinton, the water was running fast bank to bank, with few breakouts. It was a bit of a shock not to be dodging rocks or shuffling across shingle banks. The speed was incredible. Even just floating with the flow, it would have been very difficult to keep up with us on the bank, and when we paddled, we seemed to fly along. The normal spot for the lunch stop was reached in a little over half an hour.

Wendy started taking a fair bit of water in from the big standing waves, so she pulled in to the bank to empty out. Westy's assistance ended in him capsizing, and both him and his boat being washed under her boat to surface at the downstream side. This was the only incident of the day.

The rest of the trip was a bit of a blur, bashing along, keeping away from the trees and bouncing through and over big standing waves.

All too soon, we were in Richmond, and pulled in to the bank upstream of The Green Bridge, to avoid the embarrassment of accidentally shooting the falls. We were all grinning like little kids. It had been a very fast, bouncy and exciting roller coaster ride. The bit that really hit home how fast we had travelled was that we took just an hour and forty five minutes from Grinton to Richmond. Usually, this would take between three and four hours!

What a crackin' trip.

Pete Bridgstock

Last Modified: 7 May, 2003