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The Gene 17 weekend at the River Dart Country Park marked the end in our series of post expedition lectures. Simon Westgarth had ordered a healthy dose of water and there was a fantastic turnout with over 300 people attending on the Saturday evening. Six of our nine strong kayakstan team managed to attend the event, with Graham making the long journey all the way from Glasgow.
A heavy downpour on Thursday night, saw good levels for Saturdays paddling, and after much umm-ing and aah-ing over whether the Plym would go, we rocked up to the Erme. Everyone else, it seemed, had come up with the same plan and soon the put in was chock-a-block with cars, boats and paddlers. The time taken the run the section varied greatly, and depended strongly on the groups decision whether or not to run "the slot" which was at a meaty level. Regrouped once again at the takeout it was back into the cars to get to Dartmeet for a blast down the upper, which was running at a fun level. "Eddies are for the weak" came the tongue-in-cheek order at the top and off we all went. Euthanasia falls provided entertainment for those who got down first with a number of people getting a few seconds downtime, even in creek boats, in the funny water at the bottom. Following some tea and hotdogs at Newbridge, the remaining keen paddlers continued down the loop, finishing it in the dark.
The lectures kicked off a little later than expected (we are kayakers after-all), and contained a good variety of stuff ranging from Palm and Pyranha’s de-mystifying of the process of kit and kayak production, to video documentaries, an enlightening Q&A session with some of the sports well known figures, and a few expedition reports. Ours included.
For some reason we were on last. We were unsure whether this was meant as an honour to be headlining, or whether everyone else had shot-gunned the earlier spots to minimise drunken heckling. Rob did a fine job, and the videos went down a treat. The beatdown one in particular brought a huge round of applause following Wouter’s trashing on the Kichi-Naryn. More beer was consumed and tall paddling stories told until we were turfed out of the bar and sent stumbling to bed.
A more leisurely start to the day saw another descent of the Upper Dart, this time entertainment in the form of carnage being provided by Surprise Surprise as the lower levels sucked boats into the slot and flipped them.
Those that got to the takeout early enough sped off to the East Lyn for a blast down before nightfall, some of those that finished the upper dart later on trying to make it and being beaten by the fading light. Damn British winters. All that remained was a long drive home to reminisce about a good weekend well spent.
Thanks go to Simon at Gene 17 and everyone else involved in the organisation of the event.