Wet West took place on the 15-17th September and was a boat load of fun as per usual! For those who don’t know, Wet West is a large kayaking festival that takes place every September. Typically people arrive on the Friday night where there is time for registration, reunions (and inevitably some pints), Saturday takes us to the river Moriston – located between Fort William and Inverness – where the Upper and Lower sections provide some of the best grade 4 Scotland has to offer, there’s a party in the evening and then laps of the Garry on Sunday for those who manage to recover from the night before. This year I went with Glasgow University Canoe Club (GUCC), and it was lovely to see how far people had progressed in the last year!
Inevitably – being a university canoe club – we missed the registration on Friday evening at The Highland Cinema, so we picked up our wristbands on the Saturday morning along with several sheefs of raffle tickets. Due to the incredibly high price of camping in Fort William (I assume they’ve wisened up to the fact that an incredibly large number of boats fill their campsites every September) we shared three large tents for the two nights. I would have said ‘marquee’ is a more accurate description for the one I was assigned to, given that our tent was a box with one layer and a groundsheet too small to cover the entire floor. Thankfully the weather both nights was superb and all we had to deal with was some damp sleeping bags each morning.
After being woken up by Calum stomping around the marquee, Osian, Junyi and I drove the club van to scout the Upper Moriston before the rest of the club arrived. It had been about two months since I’d last done any paddling due to holidays and university commitments, so the idea of dropping straight into Top Drop (where several people have recently dislocated their shoulders) made me a little apprehensive; thankfully I felt great hopping back into my T-Rex and after one warm-up lap taking the righthand line I was back on form and hyped for a lap down the left! Top Drop went perfectly the second time around (we won’t talk about the first), Sticky Hole (main picture) was just as satisfying as usual and Cheese Grater grated my elbow so I was thankful for the elbow pads. I think it’s safe to say that mine and Osian’s lines improved with every lap (of which we did three), and Junyi styled the one he joined us on – although was apparently too lazy to walk up to the top for another… tut tut tut.
I had a quick lunch consisting of a large butterless sandwich, then the whole club collected at the bottom of the Upper Moriston to start the Middle, but not before Osian and I slid down the bank – which was a laugh (although the step was more painful than expected). The Middle was as flat as a pancake – barring a few small grade 3’s – and minimal swims were to be had. After dropping everyone at the car park, where – being a university canoe club – they left with two minutes before it was locked for the night, Osian and I rushed off to paddle the Lower before the sun set. After an amusing and unexpected pin (leaving Osian with a large dent in the front of his Axiom), we scouted and ran Gunbarrel, both upright and facing in the right direction by the time we reached the bottom which was refreshing. From there it was a gorgeous walk back through the sun-dappled forest back to the car park when the club van was waiting for us.
After a long day’s paddling it was time to head back to the campsite, my meal of couscous and mackerel was somewhat overshadowed by Matthew’s medium-rare sirloin steak and Robbie’s beer-pasta. I wonder at some people. The walk from the campsite to the Ben Nevis Hotel was definetely a bit chilly, but we soon warmed up with the cèilidh and a few drinks (see above for the most enthusiastic dancers in the room). At the raffle prior to the cèilidh I was lucky enough to win some NRS roof straps – which came in handy paddling the Orchy last weekend – and a certain member of GUCC even won a cag! Great stuff. Despite the lack of an actual band, everyone present appeared to have a temendous time and as the night went on the dances became more and more violent, morphing into what was effectively a mosh pit.
Sunday morning was a rude awakening, but egg sandwiches and coffee helped to ease the sore head (as did an incident with the Trangia while cooking). The Garry was busy, but some paddlers had obviously decided to sleep in. After getting people to surf in the Playhole, we reached Hey Diddle Diddle and had the first proper club carnage of the weekend. Several people swam, some boats floated downstream and one person ended up on the wrong side of the river… all in all, some good rescue practise. Two laps later it had started to drizzle, everyone was getting tired and clean clothes and a shower were at the top of the to-do list. Unluckily due to a last minute safety inspection of the club storage shed (which found boats on the floor “unsafe”) we had to spend half an hour tidying up when we got back to Glasgow, but then it was time to drop everyone off and head home from a great weekend. Thank you once again to the organisers and volunteers at Wet West!
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Patrick Kyak 