After spending a fantastic weekend paddling with the club at Ullswater in the summer, I jumped at the chance of doing another trip when asked if I’d like to go on the Tyne Tour.

However, a weekend with boats and camping were about the only similarities to the Ullswater trip.  This trip was to take place in November, probably be a bit a colder than the Lake District in Summer.  It was descending a stretch of the North Tyne that included some grade 2 and 3 water, definitely lumpier than Ullswater on a summer’s day.

So it was on a very wet and windy November night when we set off up the M6 towards Northumberland.  We all arrived at different times, set up our tents, got all our kit ready for the next day and arranged to meet up somewhere warm and dry.  The cold and rain must have had a negative affect on our thought process, because the only place anybody could think of was………….a Pub.

The next day we woke to clear blue skies and frozen tents.  Breakfast and cups of tea were demolished before we had our first challenge, squeezing 7 boats, 7 lots of kit and 7 paddlers into two cars in order to transport us to the start point.

This was where we had planned to split up into two groups, Andy Rushton and Frazer planned to practice their Navigation skills and paddle an additional stretch of water from Wark.

Navigation skills duly practiced they missed Wark and set off from Bellingham, which meant that they could enjoy an extra 6 miles of heads down, full on paddling past Wark to get back to Hexham by dark.  No wonder they were hungry when they finished but more of that later.

The other group consisted of Tony, George, Graham, Andy Preedy and Andy Malone, the last three being Tyne Tour novices.  We put in at Barrasford after first taking a look at our planned approach to the 1st stretch of bubbly water which was all of 50 yards from where we put in.

The water level was quite low, which meant that the rock magnets attached to the novice’s boats were on full power, resulting in a few cautious wobbles and plenty of bum shuffling over the shallower bits.  The weather was fantastic and we enjoyed the steady decent with some long steady flowing flatter bits of water interrupted by some progressively lumpier bits of water.

The trip was going well, Tony and George were stopping us before each stretch of rapid, advising us of the best lines and which particular stretches to try and stay clear of.  We then did our best to follow their instructions, to varying degrees of success.

As we progressed through the stretches of rapids, so our confidence grew.  This was just as well because it was “The Gorge” next.  Warden Gorge is a 80metre long stretch of grade 3 water, where teams of hopeful rescuers are perched on the rock to the side like a wake of Vultures, rescue lines primed, ready to throw to any vulnerable novice tipped over by what sounded and looked like massive waves.

Tony huddled us all into an eddy, battling for space with all the other paddlers, taking a chance to compose themselves (pray) before they set off into the Gorge. Tony and George gave us their last piece of advice, which although I can’t remember the exact words was something like; “get your heads down, don’t keep looking at the rocks, attack the waves at 90 degrees and try and paddle through them.

Tony went first, confidently head down, attacking the first wave and then disappeared down and around the first bend.

Graham was next, head down, cautiously attacking the first wave and then he gave us a slow motion demonstration of various bracing techniques not given in any coaching session that I’ve been to.  Whatever he did it worked because as he disappeared from view he was still upright…….just.

It was me next and I can’t really say what I did but I popped out at the bottom of the Gorge and managed to see Tony and Graham sat in and eddy, even more surprising I managed to break out and into the same eddy, there was a first for today!

It seemed just as I got there Andy P followed me in with a huge grin on his face.  Next was George in the open boat, he managed to make it look easy as he glided down the gorge and into the same eddy.  We sat for a few minutes watching other paddlers getting thrown around. There were quite a number of “swimmers” which resulted in a bird’s nest of throw lines being hurled across the sky and a scramble to collect boats and paddles

From here there were a couple of smaller rapids where some over confidence after the gorge experience nearly caused another couple of “half rolls” before completing the long slog down to the camp site in the rain.

After picking the cars up, sorting all the kit and ourselves out it was off for a couple of well earned beers and some food.  Andy R and Frazer had kindly booked us into a Chinese restaurant in the town where we all met up and ordered a banquet.

The food arrived, (which apparently, I’m told included Andy R’s favourite a “sizzling beef” dish) and was placed on the big lazy susan in the middle of the table.  I thought these devices were designed to allow the food to be easily shared by all the diners around the table.  However, as Frazer was soon to learn, as he tried to rotate the last two pieces of spicy chicken towards him, they were actually designed to allow Graham and Andy R to practice their impressions of Mr Miyagi (from the film The Karate Kid) catching a fly with chopsticks!!

After the meal it was back to the pub to share a couple of beers and recount the day’s activities and then on to the infamous Tyne Tour Ceiledh where, despite the best endeavours of other guests, we all managed to avoid getting up and embarrassing ourselves on the dance floor.

After a full night of heavy rain, we repeated the process of getting to the start point, where it soon became apparent that the river was quite a bit higher.  We later found out that the water was about 30cm higher than the day before.

With the experience and confidence of the previous day’s trip we set off as a full group down the river.  It was after the first set of rapids that we had our 1st  Hard to believe, it was George! However, I must point out in his defence, that he was sat in his boat in a small eddy, enjoying yet another banana when an out of control canoe full of Scotsmen came hurtling towards him.  swimmer of the trip.

Seeing that a collision was imminent, George was trying to secure his supplies of food required to sustain him through this arduous trip when the out of control boat T boned him.  George was thrown into the water and I was amazed that as he was flying through the air he was still able to identify that the occupants of the boat were all Bankers!

After sorting George and his boat out, we continued down the river.  The increased water meant that we were travelling faster and that the rapids were quite a bit more challenging.  Whereas yesterday we had to shuffle over rocks, today we hardly felt any.  Chollerford Weir saw our 1st capsize of the trip.  Andy Preedy followed Tony down the weir and it was as he was clearing the bottom of the weir that he capsized.  Andy got himself down the river into an eddy where he emptied his boat that Tony had kindly recovered.

Once again, we re-grouped and continued our journey down towards a play wave near where we planned to stop for lunch.  Luckily it was near where were going to stop for lunch because we were just about to have our 2nd swimmer – me.

Following Tony onto the play wave, I thought I was doing quite well as I heard Tony shouting “edge up, edge up”.  Hanging upside down and pulling the deck off, I thought to myself “he must have meant the other edge”.

After lunch it was back on the water and with all the extra water it seemed like no time at all before we could hear the roar of Warden Gorge.  We tried to gather in the same eddy as yesterday, which due to the increase of water was a challenge in itself.  Tony and George gave us some more advice which I remember as basically, there’s more water but the principles are the same, 90 degrees, paddle through and most of all enjoy it.  Then Tony was off, looking around I could see that the other novices were probably feeling as apprehensive as I was.

We all got through successfully with no spills and then all met up in an eddy at the bottom, all smiles and big grins that we’d done it again.  What a laugh, we all agreed that the water was a lot bigger than yesterday and that none of us had seen Tony sat in an eddy half way down taken photographs.  Mind you with my eyes shut most of the way, I wouldn’t have seen a big red Double Decker bus if it had been sat there!!

We got through the last couple of rapids with a couple of twitches and then had a gentle paddle back to the campsite where Graham agreed to join the list of Tyne Tour Swimmers having attempted to roll.

After getting the boats out, dropping the tents and getting packed up, it was off down the M6 towards home.

I’d like to give a big thanks to Tony and George for sorting everything out, the loan of kit and all the top tips over the weekend.  Oh and I’ve just thought of some more similarities to the Ullswater trip, good company, good paddling, plenty of giggles and most of all good fun.

Click here for some images