Gay Outdoor Club: Canoeing Events Reports 2007

Canoeing the Fowey, Cornwall

Marcus, the gay owner of the Penmarlam Campsite, told us that we had hired all the canoes on that side of the River Fowey. Two canoeing companies, Adventure Cornwall and Encounter Cornwall pooled their resources, cobbling together an odd mix of two person Canadian canoes, two person kayaks and one-person kayaks. Together with an inflatable safety boat and a rescue kayak, we made quite a fleet. People were reluctant to accept kayaks, preferring the Canadian canoes they were familiar with from canoeing the Severn in previous years. However, those using them were soon appreciating their stability and manoeuvrability as we moved out into the middle of Fowey harbour. We crossed over to the picturesque fishing village of Fowey and landed, consuming Cornish ale and pasties, whilst waiting for the tide to change. When we relaunched, we had ten miles to cover up the river to Lostwithiel. In flat-water conditions, it would have been a hard slog; with the rising tide behind us, we
did it easily. By the time we reached Lerin Creek, we were making such good time that we out-paced the tide itself and had to beach on a sand bank whilst the water deepened around us, allowing us further upriver. After a break for Cornish cream teas, it was nearing high tide. This was perfect timing; the river was brim to its banks as we canoed under the arches of the medieval bridge at Lostwithiel to finish a great day.


Kayaking on the sea at Porthleven, Cornwall.

About a dozen of us travelled on further into Cornwall to the amazingly sited campsite at Treen Farm near Land's End. This backs onto the cliffs by Logan Rock, above some of the finest coves and beaches in the country. Seven of us undertook sea kayak training provided by Waterborne Kayaking. These are based at Porthleven, which was about 10 miles down the coast. This was a new departure for the canoeing group, so we were all novices. The wind was offshore. Drew, the instructor, was concerned that we should not be blown out to sea; so training was carried out in the harbour entrance. Most importantly, we were familiarised with the techniques to use when the kayaks overturned. No fancy Eskimo rolls for us beginners - just swimming out of the kayaks underwater then getting back in assisted by Drew. We tried this with and without the attached skirts. By the end of the two hour session we were confidently playing a kayak version of British Bulldog in the harbour: confident
enough to sign up for further training involving a short trip along the coast to the next day.

Both these canoeing sessions worked out well, thanks to everyone involved. It would be great to come back to the Penmarlam and Treen Farm campsites and do something similar again - perhaps in two years time.


Rafting the Soca River in the Slovenian Julian Alps.

We had to cross a pass over the shoulder of Mount Triglav on a hairy mountain road involving 50 switchback hairpin bends to reach Bovec, a town given over almost completely to adventure holidaymakers, at the head of the Soca Valley in the Julian Alps. It was difficult to believe that the surrounding, seemingly unscalable, ridges could have been the scene of the desperate fighting between Italian and the German forces described in Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms".

After an afternoon spent learning safety procedures, we were ready to launch, some kilometres above our campsite, the next day. This first stretch had been chosen as a relatively gentle introduction involving only class 2 rapids. UR-Nomade had brought two rafts over from their base in Spain. However, there were so many (17) in our party that five of us had to use inflatable canoes. These were great fun, but much more likely to turn over in the rapids than the rafts.

At first, only the more experienced were prepared to try them, but, with growing confidence, quite a few people had a go. Those in the rafts, meanwhile, were learning paddling commands and techniques required to position the raft in the rapids so as to avoid the rocks.

Next day, carrying our rafts down steep woodland paths into the gorge, we continued on downriver. Gradually, the rapids were increasing in seriousness and were moving up to class 3+. Those in the canoe-rafts were soon turning over with almost inevitable regularity. However, this only added to the excitement; a few people collected a few bruises, but nothing more than that. The rafts would position themselves ahead of the canoeists so as to be able to help drag them from the torrent and in any case there were two rescue kayakers on the water at all times.

On our third day, we had time to lark about jumping off the cliffs into deep pools in the river before we started. We were to cover only about 6 km, but the rapids were getting really serious now - going up to Class 4+ - so even this short distance took us several hours: negotiating each rapid separately and positioning guides with rescue ropes on the banks in advance. Only the most experienced people were allowed to use the canoe-rafts and even these seemed to spend more time in the water than in their craft. There were some daunting falls to negotiate, but Txus and Garten managed to get their rafts expertly over them, losing only a few of their crews along the way.

After this section, we had to shift our campsite further down river. From here the river was easy and people started larking about, trying out the kayaks and canoe rafts. Finally we all abandoned the rafts altogether and floated downriver to the bridge that was to be our final ending point.

Next morning we packed away our tents for the last time; that night we were to stay in Jerezih Trilawski Refuge by a lake surrounded by mountains in Triglav National Park. Early the next evening we were back in Ljubljana, drinking an appreciative farewell toast to our guides. It had been great to meet up with Txus and Beñat again and to make two new friends, Garten and Iñigo. Our rafting trip to Slovenia was the third organised by UR Nomade. I look forward to organising more trips with them. (Anyone fancy whitewater rafting in Nepal in 2009?)