By Sarah Webster
Photos: Alana Pain
Holly Webster
Tom Merritt-Webster
& Sarah Webster
Low-down on a Highland paddle
Canoeing the River Spey
The Spey descent idea was born on a paddle on the Thames from Cricklade to Lechlade in April 2019, long before the Covid Pandemic. Following this lovely, but very lowland paddle, some of us fancied a highland adventure. There were nine of us, ranging in age from 20-70, including my family of five, my friend Robin Buxton, Robin’s friend Hanne, and Alana and Trevor from our canoe club.
At first, we debated whether we should go for the Spey descent or the Great Glen. The crucial deciding factor was that there are no portages involved in the Spey descent. Robin, who had polio when he was 18 months old and is now 70, has reduced mobility (50m walking). He is also the most stoical person I know. As a former marathon kayaker, with experience of paddling a wide variety of boats in many places including dug-out canoes in Pongo Songo (Cameroon) to his own big wooden Canadian on the Thames, he told me he was unconcerned about the distances we would need to paddle, but much more concerned about the distances we might need to walk.
A paddling friend put me in touch with a wonderful organisation, Equal Adventure, coincidentally based in Grantown-on-Spey, on our route. Suresh Paul, their Director and Principal Advocate, advised that Robin would be fine, provided he was prepared to ‘cuff it’. Suresh made an extra-strong, high viz bag for Robin’s wheelchair, so we could take it in a canoe without it becoming an entrapment hazard, as well as new knee-pads for Robin.
Covid pandemic
With the Covid pandemic came all sorts of uncertainties: would we be able to travel freely from England to Scotland? Would a group of our size be allowed to meet outdoors? Would Hanne be able to travel from Denmark to Scotland and back without quarantine? What if one or more of the group contracted Covid?
I accepted that Covid and its associated restrictions might stop us from going, I was determined that uncertainty itself must not deter us from preparing in every other way. So we read the excellent guides by Nancy Chambers and David Craig, and arranged boat hire. We practised paddling for relevant distances on moving water, experimented with packing our boats, checked the tides, and asked friends who had made the trip about the best campsites to aim for. We devised separate ‘cooking clans’ or households so that we were not sharing utensils and crockery. And we lived in hope.
As it turned out, at the time of our trip, up to 15 people from five households were allowed to meet outdoors. Hanne was able to fly from Denmark via Manchester, and I was able to book accommodation for the night before the trip. We hired our boats from Active Outdoor Pursuits, in Newtonmore, a mixture of Silverbirch open canoes and Dagger Stratos touring kayaks.
Finally, the day arrived, and we started our descent at Loch Insh, putting on near Kincraig Church. We had opted to start the trip on the last day of August when the days are still long, and air temperatures are warm. On the other hand, river levels were low, and we were still in the main fishing season.
On this first day, we started in the afternoon and paddled for a couple of hours, stopping when we found a wild camping spot just below Aviemore. As we paddled through the majestic scenery of the Cairngorms, we were lucky enough to see both red squirrels and Osprey – first one bird, and then a pair – still here before embarking on their long flight to Africa for the winter.
We successfully negotiated the sharp dog-leg in the river that we had been warned about, where the river flows relatively fast past fallen trees. The camping spot we found was in an area of long grass under alder trees. In Scotland, you are allowed to camp on most unenclosed land, provided that you are well away from roads and habitation and leave no trace. Definitive guidance on this can be found @ www.canoescotland.org/coaching-and-leadership/guide-modules.
No stinging nettles
In the morning, we awoke to sunlight streaming through the trees and saw a pair of roe deer moving through the vegetation along the nearby railway line. Robin pointed out the absence of stinging nettles, indicating the lack of extraneous nutrient levels in the soil. We continued on our journey, seeing herons, dippers and a flock of fieldfares making their characteristic calls.
It was a windier day, but as the river flows north-east, the south-westerly winds blew us along. We were treated to a surreal experience of paddling through a snowstorm of thistledown. Small globes being bowled along the water surface by the wind, without being swamped, like tumbleweed. We stopped for lunch in a field full of the violet-blue flower-heads of devils-bit scabious, a plant rarely seen in such profusion in southern Britain.
We went aground quite a bit in this section, but eventually reached the beautiful 15-span timber Broomhill Bridge, which was built in 1894. Two miles further on, we reached the commercial but basic campsite at Boat of Balliefurth, run by Ronnie and Adelaide Macpherson. We had booked in advance, and Adelaide met us and showed us around.
There were a tap and a loo and piles of brushwood that Trevor used to build us a lovely campfire. A group of canoeists soon joined us on a guided trip with Wilderness Scotland. The next morning we awoke to a different sort of day – cloudy and drizzly.
We established that on balance, we were going slightly faster than the Wilderness Scotland group, so we overtook them, although we were to see them several more times during the trip as both groups stopped for breaks. They warned us, however, that there was a Covid cluster in Grantown-on- Spey, so we paddled on to Cromdale Church seeing red-kites and oystercatcher and a lot of salmon leaping close in front of us.
Donned our helmets
At this point, the river is starting to pick up the pace, and we donned our helmets; unlike many other rivers, the Spey gets faster as it is joined by tributaries that drain the surrounding hills, while it keeps to a relatively narrow channel. On this day we somehow managed to break two paddles (one canoe and one kayak paddle) – a salutary reminder of the need to take spare paddles!
The next feature which the guides warn about was Advie Bridge. Here, at low water levels, the main flow is to the left of the island immediately before the bridge, yet the left-hand gap is to be avoided, as there are submerged bridge pillars from an earlier bridge. It was helpful to be forewarned about this, and we successfully steered to the right.
We then arrived at the ‘Washing machine’, a big, bouncy wavetrain, which Jamie and Alana inspected before leading us all safely down it. Immediately afterwards, we arrived at Blacksboat Bridge and started looking for a campsite. We phoned the estate before leaving our boats under the bridge and found sufficient flattened grass to pitch our tents among some recently planted saplings. At this point, it was getting distinctly windy, although we were treated to a beautiful evening sky.
We were now in the prime fishing beats of the river. The Spey is a premier salmon fishing river, and anglers spend considerable sums of money to be able to fish a given stretch of river for a day. While there is a right of navigation through the water, it is perhaps inevitable that tensions arise. A tremendous amount of work is being done to build good relationships between the paddling and the angling communities. These depend on mutual respect, and paddlers are advised to alert anglers to their presence using a whistle (although we found a ‘whoop, whoop’ with the human voice worked better), and then pass on the side that the angler indicates. We found the great majority of the anglers to be friendly and cordial, although on occasion we had a distinct impression that we were being filmed or photographed.
capsized
We left Blacksboat in glorious sunshine and soon reached the Knockando Rapids. This was to be our longest day’s paddling (30km), but also our fastest. One of our tandem canoes was tripped up by a rock in a shallow rapid and capsized, but was quickly rescued, and only a water bottle was lost overboard. We saw lots of grey wagtail, heron, and mergansers, but we were also starting to see the invasive plants Japanese Knotweed and Himalayan Balsam.
When we stopped at a beach for lunch, we saw both lupins – a naturalised garden escape – and the shells of the Freshwater Pearl Mussel, a threatened species for which Scotland is a stronghold. We paddled on, eventually reaching the beautiful Victoria Bridge (also known as the ‘penny’ bridge, referring to the toll that used to be charged) at Aberlour.
We stopped here to visit the renowned deli, the Spey Larder http://speylarder.com and bought all manner of provisions for a feast at the end of our trip. Astonishingly, some fellow canoeists had retrieved the lost water bottle from the river after an angler spotted it, and returned it to us! We were all a little exhausted when we arrived at the campsite just above Boat O’Brig and were easily lulled to sleep by the sound of the river lapping the stones on the shore.
Seven Pillars of Hercules
On our final day, we set off especially early, unsure whether we could cover the remaining 20km in a morning’s paddling. We need not have worried; the river sped along, past sandy cliffs with sand martin holes, and the lovely red earth pillars, known as the ‘Seven Pillars of Hercules’ taking several tight turns that required active paddling to avoid going into trees.
Finally, we reached the old railway bridge at Garmouth and knew that we were soon to reach the sea. We arrived at lunchtime, just as a spring high tide was pouring into Spey Bay. Suddenly, the wind was in our face, whipping up waves, as if to rebuke us for our pride. The storm soon passed, however, and we hugged each other in our ‘clans’ and went to skim pebbles into the Moray Firth.
Top 10 tips
- Research the trip before you go – read Nancy Chambers’ excellent River Spey Canoe Guide and David Craig’s River Spey guide which is available online: www.speydescent.com/speyguide.htm
- Nine people in seven craft/tents represent a maximum reasonable number for a group, as both camping spots and eddies are limited;
- With no portages, and camping spots in easy reach of the bank, this makes a good trip for paddlers with restricted mobility; although we took Robin’s wheelchair in a canoe, we did not need to use it;
- You need one or two experienced river leaders and rescuers, as it is not always clear which is the main channel, and the presence of anglers and rocks complicates decisions;
- There is undoubtedly a trade-off between the longer days and warmer conditions of summer on the one hand, and low water levels and clash with the salmon fishing season on the other;
- Practise paddling the necessary distances, as well as on moving water, before you go – one of the paddles was 30km (18 miles);
- Practise packing your boat, especially if you are in a touring kayak. Packing kit in multiple small dry-bags gives you much more flexibility than one or two large ones;
- A mixture of canoes and kayaks works well, as the canoes offer greater capacity for transporting some of the communal items;
- Have some back-up camping sites in case the ones you aim for are taken;
- Take spare paddles!
Equal Adventure
Resourcing and inspiring, inclusive adventure and active lifestyles since 1995
Equal Adventure designs, manufactures and sells training and equipment to enable inclusive outdoor adventure and active lifestyles with disabled people. It works with disabled people and their families in outdoor adventure and expeditions. With over 500 items of equipment from postural supports and assistive paddling devices to all-terrain wheelchairs, and all the support to facilitate successful experiences, get in touch to discuss your bespoke or off-the-shelf requirements.
