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On Saturday morning a group of Unit members set of from the HQ at Helmton Road with a reluctant Lee Plumber and a very enthusiastic John Hall. In all there was seven of us who intended on taking the river trip from Deepcar to Oughtibridge, this included Ben Nuttall, Louis Sheeran, Andrew Taylor, Matt Ellis, Harriett Ives-Owen , Matt Goldsbrough, the aforementioned Lee Plumber and Myself (Charlie Newton). John came to drive the bus for us and I’m almost certain he also came to laugh at us.
It was my third down-river trip, that I have been on with the Unit. I was pretty confident until the night before when I happened to bump into John, who assured me I would go under at least five times if not more! According to John the trip was going to be hard and on fast flowing water.
... He was half right!
When we eventually got to Deepcar (after the seemingly mammoth task of tying the kayaks to the trailer and actually getting out of Helmton). We unloaded the boats and said goodbye to John, who in my opinion seemed very snug in his extremely warm big red coat. We headed down towards the river.
It took forever to actually get on the water, as we had to chuck the boats down a slope to Louis at the bottom. Even when we all got to our boats we were distracted by a tap, which Louis found by the side of the river (Yes a tap, where you can get water from) And even then when we thought we were ready to go, Goldie realised he had the wrong type of spray deck on and had to run back to the bus to change it. Ben decided to tuck the tap into his buoyancy aid and take it home ... something to do with this.
When we were all eventually on the water (nearly three hours after we met at Helmton), we realised it wasn’t going to be the smoothest of rides. I don’t usually complain about warm sunny weather but it could have rained the day before just a little! The river had gone really low and there seemed to be a hell of a lot of rocks in the way! You could hardly go more than 20m down stream before getting stuck on another rock.
After a while we actually started paying attention to our surroundings. It was at this point we realised why we were so cold. Even though the sun was shining, there were icicles hanging by the sides of the river, and to our dismay up ahead were even more rocks. It is probably appropriate to point out here that we were all really cold and rather frustrated from not making much progress (it took an abnormal amount of effort to move forwards as every stroke hit a rock).
Any little splashes of faster water were welcomed with a cheer by Louis. To give you a picture of how slowly we were progressing, Lee managed to get through two cigarettes whilst we were on the water, up to this point. It was only when we got further downstream that things started to happen.
Harriett was the first to go over, but after a couple of star jumps on the bank she was in her boat and we were off again. But then further downstream the same thing happened again, however I followed very quickly after and went over in the same place. When I say it was freezing I mean it was FREEZING. When I first went over, it took my breath away. It was cold. Again we were in our boats and off again.
Well sort of, anyway. A further five meters down stream I was over again. This time, I panicked, I knew I was being carried up to a drop and I couldn’t roll, so I tried grabbing the front of my spray deck but in blind panic I couldn’t find it, it was only when I finally managed to get out that I realised how cold it was.
When I surfaced I stood up only to find I was being pinned to a rock. Even after the panic I couldn’t help but laugh when Louis told me to “Stay there a moment” and the realisation that I couldn’t actually move from the waist down, as the water was pushing me against the rock. However Louis, Taylor and Ben managed to get the boat and paddle and then Louis pulled me across to the side using the paddle. I have to admit, I did find it a bit of a shock to the system at the time, but now I guess it was quite funny. I don’t think I have ever been that cold though. I think the best thing about me capsizing was I managed to find the deepest part of the river, which Taylor pointed out was an achievement! Irony is a funny thing…
Well the rest of the journey I spent shivering and chattering my teeth (luckily we weren’t far from the end). We reached what looked like out intended get-out point, but we couldn't see the minibus from the river so Louis got out and checked from higher up the bank, and when he saw the white bus he signalled to us to get out. We had a bit of trouble getting the boats up the bank onto the road but with a combination of the lads' brute force and initiative in constructing a pulley device from rescue equipment and dragging the boats through the forestries and up the bank. We were all to happy to get changed into warm dry clothes and grab a hot drink. We soon warmed up and got the kayaks back on the trailer while tucking into a box of chocolates.
I enjoyed the trip, despite the cold weather and the rocks, and for some strange reason my worst and best bit was when I capsized the second time (I'm glad I didn't capsize five times like John openly predicted, as I think I may have actualy physicaly frozen). I think the general trip was well not very exiting to say the least, I think every one agreed we may have done better on the Derwent, but it think it was definitely better then spending the Saturday sat at home or working! Thanks to Ben, Louis and Taylor for taking us out there, and thanks to everyone else. It was a great day! (Well ok, it was a different day ...)
It was my third down-river trip, that I have been on with the Unit. I was pretty confident until the night before when I happened to bump into John, who assured me I would go under at least five times if not more! According to John the trip was going to be hard and on fast flowing water.
... He was half right!
When we eventually got to Deepcar (after the seemingly mammoth task of tying the kayaks to the trailer and actually getting out of Helmton). We unloaded the boats and said goodbye to John, who in my opinion seemed very snug in his extremely warm big red coat. We headed down towards the river.
It took forever to actually get on the water, as we had to chuck the boats down a slope to Louis at the bottom. Even when we all got to our boats we were distracted by a tap, which Louis found by the side of the river (Yes a tap, where you can get water from) And even then when we thought we were ready to go, Goldie realised he had the wrong type of spray deck on and had to run back to the bus to change it. Ben decided to tuck the tap into his buoyancy aid and take it home ... something to do with this.
When we were all eventually on the water (nearly three hours after we met at Helmton), we realised it wasn’t going to be the smoothest of rides. I don’t usually complain about warm sunny weather but it could have rained the day before just a little! The river had gone really low and there seemed to be a hell of a lot of rocks in the way! You could hardly go more than 20m down stream before getting stuck on another rock.
After a while we actually started paying attention to our surroundings. It was at this point we realised why we were so cold. Even though the sun was shining, there were icicles hanging by the sides of the river, and to our dismay up ahead were even more rocks. It is probably appropriate to point out here that we were all really cold and rather frustrated from not making much progress (it took an abnormal amount of effort to move forwards as every stroke hit a rock).
Any little splashes of faster water were welcomed with a cheer by Louis. To give you a picture of how slowly we were progressing, Lee managed to get through two cigarettes whilst we were on the water, up to this point. It was only when we got further downstream that things started to happen.
Harriett was the first to go over, but after a couple of star jumps on the bank she was in her boat and we were off again. But then further downstream the same thing happened again, however I followed very quickly after and went over in the same place. When I say it was freezing I mean it was FREEZING. When I first went over, it took my breath away. It was cold. Again we were in our boats and off again.
Well sort of, anyway. A further five meters down stream I was over again. This time, I panicked, I knew I was being carried up to a drop and I couldn’t roll, so I tried grabbing the front of my spray deck but in blind panic I couldn’t find it, it was only when I finally managed to get out that I realised how cold it was.
When I surfaced I stood up only to find I was being pinned to a rock. Even after the panic I couldn’t help but laugh when Louis told me to “Stay there a moment” and the realisation that I couldn’t actually move from the waist down, as the water was pushing me against the rock. However Louis, Taylor and Ben managed to get the boat and paddle and then Louis pulled me across to the side using the paddle. I have to admit, I did find it a bit of a shock to the system at the time, but now I guess it was quite funny. I don’t think I have ever been that cold though. I think the best thing about me capsizing was I managed to find the deepest part of the river, which Taylor pointed out was an achievement! Irony is a funny thing…
Well the rest of the journey I spent shivering and chattering my teeth (luckily we weren’t far from the end). We reached what looked like out intended get-out point, but we couldn't see the minibus from the river so Louis got out and checked from higher up the bank, and when he saw the white bus he signalled to us to get out. We had a bit of trouble getting the boats up the bank onto the road but with a combination of the lads' brute force and initiative in constructing a pulley device from rescue equipment and dragging the boats through the forestries and up the bank. We were all to happy to get changed into warm dry clothes and grab a hot drink. We soon warmed up and got the kayaks back on the trailer while tucking into a box of chocolates.
I enjoyed the trip, despite the cold weather and the rocks, and for some strange reason my worst and best bit was when I capsized the second time (I'm glad I didn't capsize five times like John openly predicted, as I think I may have actualy physicaly frozen). I think the general trip was well not very exiting to say the least, I think every one agreed we may have done better on the Derwent, but it think it was definitely better then spending the Saturday sat at home or working! Thanks to Ben, Louis and Taylor for taking us out there, and thanks to everyone else. It was a great day! (Well ok, it was a different day ...)
