Canoe tour on the Tweed

The Easter holidays brought a few quite days at work and gave us a few days off and the idea of a canoe tour in Scotland was soon on the table. A quick Google gave a number of trips over a variety of days and we narrowed it down to the river Tweed just north of the boarder.

Starting snap

 Peebles down to Berwick-upon-Tweed is 110k, with Scottish Canoe Touring putting it at 3 to 4 days, so we went in with an open mind with no planned camp spots or distances for each day. 

Evening paddle

 We jumped on the river from a massive lay by, near the golf course down stream from Peebles as it had no parking restrictions and easy access to the river. The evening paddle gave a great relaxed start to the trip and we were soon looking for a camping spot after Innerleithen and Walkerburn, which came in the form of an island tucked out of view from the road.

Warm and hazey

 The weather was great sunny, hazey and warm, which made the paddling sweaty in our dry cags. The flow was constant with numerous shale rapids and a couple of bed rock rapids and weirs.  The water levels were nice and friendly being in the lower normal level on the gauge at peebles, with no scrapes and friendly stoppers for open boats. The first Rapids at Fairnilee farm gave us a taste for more technical water and we were left wanting more.

Gattonside wear

 The sightseeing rolled in with Melrose and the excitement peaked with the broken wear at Gattonside. Chilled out paddling followed until Mertoun bridge weir where we decided to easily portage river right and soon we found a fantastic island for the night.

Lining up in the Makerstoun rapids

 A chilled out start finished with Rotherford wear and a nice chat to the beat owner, who was out guiding with two anglers. We were soon on the Makerstoun rapids and after a quick inspection we off down river right which gave great grade 2/3 paddling leaving us wanting more.

Bottom drop at Makerstoun rapid

 Kelso was a great lunch spot with a friendly garden centre where you can ask for a water top up. The river however quickly widened and slowed right down, after a read of the guide we decided that we were happy with what we had done and called it a day a few kilometres after Kelso.

 A great river that I would recommend and it has the possibility to be carried on with flatter and wider water to Berwick. One thing I would consider which we didn't, is the time of year in relation to the fishing season as we must have encounted 30-40 fisherman, giving a slalom feel at times.

A day in the clouds on Stob Ban

With a half decent forecast, we headed for Stob Ban with the idea to climb the north ridge and the possible extension of the devils ridge.
The conditions seemed very different to the day before with large amounts of new snow, which transformed the ridge into a very exciting snow arête.
Once we arrived at the steepening we found three teams under instruction roping up the ridge and decided against a doggy attempt. So Paul and Indie headed back and Lucy and I headed up with the plan to meet in the valley. The ridge was great, with some good voids on both sides and a short terrific narrow section. Unfortunately above the start of the ridge there was extensive hill fog so we didn't get many photos. We kept it short in the end and came down the east ridge which had a giant track cut out all the way down.
A nice day out with a new Munro to the tick list.