|
The 13th Carlisle Scout Group based at Trinity School is the natural scouting destination for children from the Stanwix community. As a pretty regular group parent helper, I like to do my bit and make sure that I'm not just dumping my kids off for a spot of entertainment at the hands of other willing folk. So what has this got to do with a "Sponsored Open Boat Expedition:
Rannoch Moor to Perth. Monday 20th April 2009 (Probable 5 days)"? ... you may very well ask!
Well it's like this. In August, the older scouts of the 13th
Carlisle Group, many of them Stanwix youngsters, as just mentioned, are
due to visit the international Scout Camp at Kandersteg in
Switzerland. The aim is to introduce them to adventure activities on a
larger scale than our own Lake District can offer and to build in a
progression from the skills already learned here.
There is also
the added dimension of sharing the Camp with scouts from a wide range
of nationalities; not just European either! The learning possibilities
are almost endless, as well as the likelihood of someserious enjoyment.
The young people have to develop their own programme of
activities within a specified budget and will have to prepare
physically and organisationally for their chosen adventures and
environmental activities. Some of the older stronger ones are for
instance deciding whether to tackle the ascent of a 10,000ft peak. As
this is my favourite type of entertainment I anticipate accompanying
them, assuming this dodgy old body still works above 3000m!
With
the exchange rate as it is, it is necessary for the children and
leaders to raise some extra finance. There will be a race night, a bag
packing spree and a variety of other familiar fund raising initiatives
to try and make the visit affordable. We cover a very broad church
within Stanwix and the wider catchment of the Scout Group.
This is my particular contribution to that effort.
Setting
off from the side of the A82, high on Rannoch Moor and paddling the
remote and exposed lochs of the high moorland gives a committing
character to the early section of the trip as we pass through some
stunning highland scenery.
Dropping down the network of
connecting streams that grow into the classic white water R. Gaur we
will arrive at Loch Rannoch, the largest and most windswept section of
water on the trip. If we have a reasonable following wind, I will have
to learn the mysteries of open boat sailing... if its a head wind, then
we might have to resort to a Plan B.
From Loch Rannoch, the R.
Tummel emerges and descends past its namesake loch to the mighty R.
Tay, which leads us past the A9, into Perth to the tidal Island of
Friarton which is at the very tip of the Firth of Tay.
134km
doesn’t sound a lot, for a couple of reasonably capable men. However,
this is one of the most classic tough and committing trips for open
boaters in Scotland. There is grade 3 white water on the Gaur which,
like many of the weirs on the Tay, will almost certainly involve back
breaking portages. Sailing, poling and the sundry other niceties of
staying comfortable in a wet place are going to have to be relearned
quickly.
As a complete novice to the open boating scene, I will
be accompanied by an open boater of considerable experience. Rob
Gregory, is head of Longrigg Outdoor Centre in Sedbergh and has shared
an adventure or 2 with me in the past! His kids are well used to the
wild woods of Canada and long multi day trips of real commitment. I
suspect a steep learning curve this way comes! if we are successful
then it will be well worth the effort. If we raise a little cash
towards the scouts adventures in the summer, it will be doubly
worthwhile.Please keep an eye out for sponsor forms which will be
appearing in premises around Stanwix for the next week.
Thankyou in anticipation of your generous support.
Ray Cassidy
PS if you would like to sponsor me why don't you put a little comment at the end of this post (no contact details though) and I'll contact you through the private message system.
Trackback(0)
 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
We had parked our vehicle at Ballinluig near the confluence of the R. Tay and the R. Tummel, It was only another 5 miles but it was going to take a good hour to portage all of our kit round the Faskally dam - many of you will be familiar with the fish ladder viewing chamber there. Added to that, the dry conditions in Scotland (dry I hear you exclaim!) ... had left the rivers rather bony so there was no chance of even getting to Ballinluig in daylight. Never mind, we had still managed about 95 km of the challenge we had set ourselves. I'd finally learned some real open boat skills and discovered the joys of portaging and dragging laden open canoes over bony rapids because there wasn't enough water to paddle them. I think I can honestly say it was the nearest I've ever come to arctic sledge hauling.
So a big thankyou to all of you imdividuals who were kind enough to sponsor me. The funds which I am still in the process of rounding up, will be passed on to the 13th Carlisle Scouts at Trinity School to help fund the visit to Kandersteg in the summer.
I've got a bit of an itch for open boating now: maybe the Nahanni in Alaska next - with a stop off at Lotus Flower Tower? Who knows?