The Outdoor Adventure Group

A typical river paddle

I'm not good at telling stories, so this is just the bare facts of a river trip last February. Remember last winter was very cold.

We met in car park to sort out whose cars to take, in this case the car park was at Lancaster junction 34 M6. Two cars were left behind and two cars loaded up with all the boats.

We arrived at the "get in" ( the place where we start to paddle down the river) and all the boats were unloaded. The get in on this trip was a couple of miles south of Tebay on the river Lune. The drivers then shot off to leave one car at the get out approx 5 miles away.

When the drivers arrived back, we all got on the water together and ambled down the river. We were the first paddlers to pass along the river and in places there was very thin layer of ice on the water, it was a bit of a sureal experience paddling through the ice. We paddled through some wonderful scenery and although the air temperature was just below freezing, the sun was shinning and helped to warm us. We saw, a just awakening buzzard up close, the usual dippers, ducks, yellow lapwings and kingfishers buzzing past, but the wildlife highlight on this trip was a pair of deer.

It is grade 2 for nearly all the way with two interesting bits of grade 2+ (3) both of which are only 20 - 30 meters long and easily walked round. Some paddlers did not attempt either interesting bit, some did one bit, and some did all of them. No one went swimming.

It was a great trip fantastic weather, sights, company and some enjoyable paddling. Time on the river was about 3 hours, so we were home just after lunch.

If you would like to come on a river trip have a word with a coach.

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