The Paddler Autumn/Fall issue 2017

onto my PFD and I went into the water as ‘live
bait’ in order to retrieve as much kit as I could
from my boat in order to make it as light as
possible before attempting to haul it free.
The first priority was of course to retrieve my two
Downcreek Paddles. All the kit inside my boat was
well-organised & carefully packed so although it
was partly submerged and I only had one fullyfunctioning
hand, I got everything out reasonably
quickly and being organised on an expedition
makes it easier for things to go right but also easier
to solve problems when things go wrong.
Day five
Having meandered along Loch Tay and River Tay
twice previously, I was familiar with the final leg
of our journey. Passing through Dunkeld and
Caputh, we made our way towards one of my
most favourite locations, the grand point at
which the Tay passes through a narrow gap,
Campsie Linn. Although the current was carrying
us along, the pain and attractive crunching sound
in my wrist was getting progressively worse. The
usual strategy of dunking my bare forearm in icy
cold water had become a way of life for the past
few days and that had been pretty successful.
The constriction caused by the latex wrist seal
on my paddlesuit had made my forearm swell up
to the size of a small pink marrow and make
noises akin to a badly lubricated old wooden
door. Taking this and the water levels into
account, we decided that rather than paddling
over the main section of Campsie Linn and risk a
large boil area and haystack-filled swim, we'd line
the canoes and kit down one of the smaller side
chutes. Discretion is the better part of valour
and all that jazz.
What followed next can best be described as
‘The Tale of the Two Point Broach at Campsie
Linn’. What should have been a relatively simple
manoeuvre resulted in being very complicated. It
was entirely my fault. I was a split-second too
slow in releasing my painter and the fast-moving
current swung my boat and it ended up being
jack-knifed solid across the base of the chute
with the force of the water holding it in place.
It’s not really something to be proud of but Adam
did say it was the worst pin location that he’d ever
seen. There was only one low boulder that we
could use as an anchor point and we’d somehow
need to lift the boat up by about a metre, as well
as peeling it. It clearly wasn’t going to be an easy
release. We constructed a system using pulleys and
two strong floating lines which Adam reckoned
was about an 8:1 haul. He attached a safety rope
The icy-cold raging water meant that the
swelling in my forearm was much less and an
added bonus was that my cuticles were
extremely clean. It was like a little trip to a little
natural beauty spa. Apart from the relaxation. I
don’t think that jet-washing your hands is a
conventional beauty treatment but it definitely
worked! With a liberal application of rope work
magic, muscle power and a fair dose of luck, We
were victorious and recovered my Paddy from a
watery grave.
Retrieving my beautiful boat and my well-loved
expedition kit without any loss or damage was
an extremely emotional moment. The only sign
of what had occurred was a minor blemish to
the edge of my Downcreek Dipper.
Very crunchy to slightly floppy
The original plan was to line the small chute and
then have a short break for a bite to eat but as
we'd lost time, we decided to press on hard in
order to reach the get-out at Perth Racecourse.
Without wishing to sound like a wimp, the pain
in my wrist was now getting progressively worse
and had changed from being very crunchy to
slightly floppy. I figured that I couldn't make it any
worse than it already was so I'd just ‘man-up’ and
get on with it. Rather than wild camping for
another night, I was spurred on by the thought
of having a shower under copious streams of hot
running water in a real bathroom and the
promise of beer and curry at the Balajee Spice
Indian restaurant.
Adam paddled on ahead slightly so that he could
locate the somewhat non-descript get-out point
and we reached our destination as the sun slid
down behind the horizon.
The final lugging of kit and boats up the steep
wooden steps and onto the canoe trolleys
heralded the final portage of this mega trip. True
to form, this wasn't as simple as we'd anticipated
but hey, nobody said it was going to be easy. If it
was easy, everyone would be doing it!
ThePADDLER 79