The weekend trip to Scotland had been planned well in advance, this normally means we will have no water. However, on this occasion a solid forecast was in place. Myself and Ewart travelled up Friday eve to Sam’s student digs in Glasgow with the intention of hitting the west coast early on Saturday morning. After a few too many beverages this didn’t happen! We eventually arrived at the Falloch around 1 o’clock to find it at a good level for a first attempt at the 7 dwarfs in the gorge. For those of you that know me you will know I am about as useful as chocolate fire guard when I have a hangover. So I had made an early decision to paddle/portage and run safety. Sam and Ewart both styled the 7 dwarfs and ‘twist and shout’.
After the Falloch we realised that the majority of the rain had fallen towards central and eastern areas so we ditched the plan of staying in the Fort and headed back to Glasgow. This time we did get up at a reasonable hour and headed North Eastwards and paddled the Blackwater (Perthshire) and the Braan gorge at good levels. We planned to paddle in the same area on the Monday but we couldn’t be bothered to camp so we crashed at a friends place in Edinburgh.
Monday saw us with only 1 car but this didn’t matter as we planned on paddling the Tilt which is a walk in (sort of). Despite not much over night rain to top levels up and the gauges being down Sam was confident that the Tilt would hold its level. We were not to be disappointed! What we found was a continuous gorgeous class 4 gorge. Definitely now up there in my top 3 rivers, if you are up in the area I highly recommend you paddle it.
To finish the road trip off we drove back via the Falls of Dochart
Ewart on the Falls of Falloch
Blackwater
Blackwater
[vimeo https://vimeo.com/77532986 w=600&h=338]
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