Braided Rivers

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I was told by Jan that the river kayaking was different on the Waimakkarri to anything I would find in Ireland so on his advice I was hiring a new demo model of his Eclipse Total xl for the race. A Carbon /Kevlar constructed boat weighing in at 13kg. It looks good and I was hoping it would get me down in one piece and upright. I put in for a training session and immediately felt the difference, the boat sat up in the water a lot more than the racing kayak I had practiced in and the rudder system so much more efficient than the tiller/rudder system employed on my boat in Dublin. So having seen the river during my run training earlier I thought I could see the lines I would take but the owner of the campsite (a jet boat driver also) told me paddle for the high banks and you’ll find water. With my intended route scrapped I went back to my early years of reading the river blind when I first started paddling in the Wicklow mountains, this time instead of a plastic 2.23 mtr kayak it was a 6 mtr composite that was on hire to me and hadn’t a scratch before I christened it.



The christening didn’t take long as I hit the shallows after about 200mtrs, not that I missed a line or anything like that it was just shallow all the way across so head down and push on through. I didn’t feel so bad from then on in as I leaned the kayak this way and that( to avoid going directly into boulders slightly submerged below the waterline) only to etch a new line onto what was a perfect skin not 30 minutes previous.



So I got to grips with the steering mechanism and began to push on and then of course you get too big for your boots and nature decides to teach you a quick lesson. Going down this nice fast flowing channel got into the fast lane only to have a tree trunk straddle my half of the river. Tried to go backwards, sideways but eventually gave in and held onto the trunk and sheepishly worded my way out until I was clear. So after having a few harsh words with myself I concentrated on the river and completed the 12 Km training run happy to have gotten out experienced the good and bad of braided rivers and I’m now praying for rain over the coming days to bring the levels up just a few inches to make it interesting.

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Photos

nice day?
Too nice for Irish legs though