Dart Trip Nov 25

Paddy Wilkinson
3 days ago
3 min read

The River Dart is rightly one of the most popular white water rivers in England. There is something for everyone!

We had our largest club trip to the River Dart for a several years with 17 people in total.

One of our members, Lawrence, went down early in the week to complete a white water leader assessment, which he succeeded in passing. Will had joined Lawrence on Thursday night and did a quick recce of the Loop with Lawrence before his white water leader assessment, which was booked for the weekend. Some of us left early on Friday morning in order to do a quick paddle on the easiest section, (The Lower), in the afternoon. Water levels were lowish but it was a good introduction to white water paddling on the Dart for Amy and Daniel. John arrived later than planned. He thought we were paddling on the Loop section and went to the Newbridge put in. He got on tried to catch us up, but did not succeed as we were on the Lower!

Friday night was a table for 10 at the Dartbridge Inn.

The rest of the group arrived on Friday evening at various times. Heavy rain was forecast overnight and duly arrived . The water levels on the River Dart go up and down rapidly after heavy rain. High water increases the risks of paddling due to the increased flow. The more experienced group decided to run the West Dart. Will's assessment was postponed till Sunday. The rest of the group went for a walk alongside the Upper Dart from Dartmeet, whilst waiting for the water levels to subside. The plan for the less experienced group was to run the Lower Dart with Paddy in the afternoon. Tim and Lawrence would join the group, after paddling on the West Dart, to help with group safety. Things did not go to plan. The group on the West Dart had a couple of swims and lost paddles. Time was spent trying to retreive them. A whatsapp message was sent to Paddy saying that Tim and Lawrence would not be back in time to join the group on the Lower. The group for the Lower was change and ready to get on at the put in, having had a lengthy safety briefiing and warm up excercises! Unfortunately the size of the group was too large and we had to cut numbers to just four. This was disappointing for those not paddling but group safety was more important. Paddy, Jayne, James and Rosie set off on the Lower, which was still fairly high. We had a good paddle with no swims and only a few wobbly moments.

Saturday night was dinner at the Dartmoor Lodge Hotel followed by drinks back at the Country Park bar.

Sunday morning and the river levels had dropped further to low-medium. Will had his white water leader assessment booked on the Loop. Jayne, James, Rosie and Daniel were his guinea pigs. All went well and he passed the assessment. Meanwhile a group ran the Upper Dart with help from Chessie's friend, who is a local coach. There were a few swims but all got down safely. Our third group on the water on Sunday ran the Loop section from Newbridge down to the River Dart Country Park. One of our newbies to white water had several swims and two others also swam. Due to the number of swims it took us a while to reach the Country Park and we arrived just before sunset at 4pm.

All in all it was a great fun weekend with everyone having a good tiime. It was great to have a large group again. Hopefully this will continue on future trips.