11th June - Whitewater rafting

Can't believe I haven't blogged for a week but a quick synopsis goes like this:

Sunday, came down with a cold and felt horrible. Took the dogs out for about 4 mile walk. Monday, very snotty and sneezy. I was working but I had a three hour walk around a caravan park that was set on a steep hill. So by the time I had done I could really feel the pull in my calves. Tuesday I did little other than work.
Wednesday, it was dawgie walking again. Thursday, I cycled 22 miles and felt lots better than I had earlier in the week. Friday it was a lovely longer dog walk early on and I was going to go cycling again but just after I got home with the dogs it absolutely poured it down. I don't mind being out in it but I don't like setting off in it. As I was just getting over the cold it didn't seem like a good idea.

Today though, we went whitewater rafting. We had a good day but a bit dramatic in parts.


Briefing before heading down the river



Some pictures of the river from further down the course


The top of the weir




First time down the river on the raft this morning we flipped it at the top of a weir and we all fell out. I came to the surface with the boat on top of me and when I got to the surface again I couldn't get a breath (suspect it was the shock of the cold water) I didn't feel frightened thatI was in fast water just that I kept going under and couldn't get a breath properly. Our leader, Heath, grabbed me and took the brunt of the rocks and did his bad knee in again. He was brilliant! He held onto me until I was safe.

Some people we know were on the bank and had witnessed it and eventually fished me out of an eddy, where I was now standing reasonably safely. They were going to get me a lift back but I said I was going back in the raft or I might not do it again. So we set off again (my partner Peter and daughter Isobel, were in the raft too) with a shortage of paddles (other paddlers had recovered them further down) and we finished the course.

I went back down again a little later just to make sure I was okay with it.

Then I got talking to a woman who I didn't know and ended up walking her spaniel, Milly (for 'walking' see next paragraph).

Milly's 'mum' on the river



Then Peter went down the course in his own kayak and capsized but set off again. He got to the weir, came down the first part, capsized and came out of the boat down the next part of the weir. He got out alright but his boat and paddle carried on. I ran/walked down the course with Milly, the spaniel, to see what happened to the boat and by the time I got to the end it had been recovered. I loaded it on the van, then r/w the 1.5 miles back to the top of the course.




Peter on the left, near the top of the river
Peter, paddling on down quite happily
At the top of the weir
Ooops, got that wrong

Meanwhile Isobel managed numerous trips down the course with friends (the guy who was our leader, the first time down, Heath and his son, Josh, that is) and she ended up 'swimming' four times and loved every minute.

Heath is at the back of the boat guiding it. Isobel is the one with the black helmet and pink shorts. They were having fun surfing one of the little weirs




We are all a bit battered and bruised but we've had a great day and those two are going back tomorrow for more. I'm cycling!

Water, Walking and Circuits.

Tong Moor Side

Well Octoberthon isn't going to badly.

Monday and Tuesday 4th and 5th October, the exercise I took was walking to and from the car when it was parked up for work. It is about a ten minute walk each way and coming back to the car is a fair trek up hill. I know that's a bit of a cheat for the exercise bit but Monday we went to see Evita at the Alhambra so I didn't have any other chance to do anything else. Tuesday we went to do the weekly shopping so it included more walking. I also resisted temptation of an ice-cream or sweets at the theatre.

Wednesday 6th October. Not a work day so decided to go to aquarobics at lunchtime. That's about three quarters of an hour of exercise that is pretty energetic if you make it that way. My arms were aching after the session as I had been using the big 'weights' in the water.

After that session I went into the lanes part of the pool and completed 30 lengths in 20 minutes.

Thursday 7th October. This morning the weather was beautiful so I decided to go for a bit of a longer walk. We set off down the moors as usual and Bear was very excitable. We stopped at the top end of the moor for a ball throwing and fetching session. Then we wandered down the rest of the first moor and down to the second one. At the bottom of there we have another session of ball throwing. That seems to get some of the spring out of Bear's legs and settle him down a bit.

Red Clover in October Evie Bear

We then cross the road and go on down a track past a farm or two. Initially this is a nice walk but as the track rounds the corner a bit and narrows we come across an absolute mound of tyres that have been dumped. This is not a nice thing to see at all. However round the next corner there is a long secluded track and there are mounds of rubbish starting with a very big mound. Most of this is due to flytipping as they can't be seen from the road. It is a disgusting sight.

When we come to the end of this road we are actually at the side of a very busy bypass so Evie and Bear are back on their leads. We turn a corner and walk down a fairly busy road and back into Birkenshaw. Up Old Lane and then take a road of there and we eventually come into St Pauls church yard. The view from the back of the church and churchyard



They have recently tidied up the old part of the graveyard and cut back trees and overgrown bushes and put a footpath in. There are some interesting gravestones and sometimes you wish you knew the story behind the people buried there. My ex husband's Grandma and Grandad's ashes are buried in this churchyard so I always go and say hello when I walk through.

We then walk up Bradford Road for a while until we take a footpath off which leads across farmland and through the farmyard. There are some good views from this land as it is high up. Across another field and through a snicket and we come out back in our own village of East Bierley, right by the village pond. This is just behind the junior school that Isobel used to attend. A walk back on the road and we are home.

We were out about 1.5 hours in total.

This evening I went circuit training. I think that was a reasonable amount of exercise for the last two days.

White water rafting

I've sort of spoiled my Juneathon as I didn't do anything yesterday. However I have done two things today so hopefully that kind of keeps me on track.

This morning I did 42 minutes of run 2/walk 1 minute. I got up early and was out of the door for 7.20 am. Found it a little more difficult than last time I went out but hopefully that is just a blip. The weather was cooler than of late but not raining. The streets were pretty quiet thankfully.

When I got back I got my canoeing gear ready as we were off up to the Washburn Valley to go whitewater rafting.


This is the reservoir that feeds the white water area. The bottom of the dam wall is where this starts.






Our canoe club, West Yorkshire Canoe Club, pay for the water to be released from a reservoir so we have guaranteed whitewater no matter what the weather has been doing.

We arrived and got ready fairly quickly and soon found we were in the next raft to go down. Steve Thorley-Lawson was guiding this one and after the briefing we were on the water. It was a fairly sedate journey down but we still got wet. Right at the last minute we went down a small weir and the passenger in front of me lost her balalnce and went overboard. In getting her back in we miss the disembarkation area so had to go a bit further downstream to where we used to get out. Luckily the van had seen it happen so came down to the car park to pick us up.

Second time down we went with George Harrap who is fairly new to guiding on his own but is due to take an assessment for it in October so wanted as much practice as possible. This time there was Chris, Paul, Peter and myself in so we had a right laugh. The ride was fairly tame though. When we got to the exit area, Peter jumped out to pull the boat in and didn't realise it was going to be so deep at the edge so went for a complete ducking.

There was a bit of a wait for the next go so we had some lunch and coffee and then wandered back up to the starting point. We got George again! This time he wanted to do a classic run, so no bumping or trying to get us out of the boat. He did some surfing in one of the bigger weirs though as he wanted to perfect the technique. We all survived this journey intact.

Fourth time around we managed to get Heath who is a complete headcase. He knew we were up for a bit of fun. He purposely hit every rock and tree possible and when it came to the weirs he tried his hardest to get us to tip someone out. Luckily I mostly spotted which way he was leaning and leaned the opposite way to counterbalalnce the raft. Having said that Peter did go overboard and hung on by a toe loop in the boat and I managed to pull him back in.

Heath then got Peter to jump into the front of the boat and we went over the big weir. He then turned the boat around and we paddled upstream and into the bottom of the weir and Peter got absolutely soaked by the freezing water. He then tried tipping the raft up in an eddy but again I counterbalanced this and he failed. We reached the bottom intact again.

We waited for the van to pick us up but this time there was all three rafts and a load of canoeists. I managed to jump into the front of the van thankfully and so did Sandra. Ken was driving but we had no idea how many people were in the back of the van with the canoes (the rafts and paddles were on a trailer). We counted people out, including us in the front, there were 22 of us in a Mercedes Sprinter van!!!! Health and Safety would have a field day with us.

After that I called it a day. It was raining hard and I was quite damp by then so starting to feel a bit cold.