BOUNCING over white rapids one second, slipping down a weir in my next breath, swiftly avoiding a large rock in another stroke and mainly hoping I wasn’t going to end up underwater in the freezing cold- all made for exciting morning out on Rawthey River.
Meeting the Sedbergh Kayaking Club in the pouring rain on the outskirts of Sedbergh I was confident that my year kayaking experience at university was going to leave me well equipped to take on any river in the Lakes, however I soon realised I was slightly out of my league.
It’s only the start of the kayaking season so the rivers are still quite low and this one in particular was riddled with rocks.
I was very excited to be back on the river though, shooting over rapids reminds me of the same feeling as shooting down a mountain skiing -an experience not on offer in England- leaving kayaking as the next best option.
Due to the vast amount of rocks some routes turned out to be quite technical with drops requiring a deadly straight line -slightly off and I would be going swimming.
We entered the first set of rapids and the memories of speeding down a river came flooding back, less then a second to think where to put my paddle, seeing the white water rolling up then suddenly a small drop- quickly paddling away from anything that resembled a rock.
The Rawthey river, in the flat sections, does offer a chance to see some amazing sites- from tiny waterfalls in the gorge parts, to ancient foot bridges.
My first big splash of the day came when I had been following another kayaker down some rapids, he suddenly became pinned to a rock, only being seconds behind him I had no time to react so I ended up crashing straight into him leaving us both pinned with gushing water on one side and a massive rock on the other.
The next swim occurred when I was kayaking from one side of the rapids to the other. My boat slipped slightly off line and I ended up facing the wrong way plummeting down a small drop, then being dragged underwater upside down, with a huge current paralysing me.
After seconds, which felt like a life time, of attempting to scramble out of my boat in vein a trustee member smoothly made his way over to me allowing me to push myself up.
This for me was enough for one day and I ended my trip there with the intention of returning to the river after so rigid training sessions.
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