We talked about the trolley and concluded it was bodgable , and Lyle would take it away to duly bodge for us to collect from Granite Adventures HQ as we passed by . The conversation turned to the characterbuilding nature of this trip , and rather than deter , this was inspiring ; what a great way to teach Liv about overcoming adversity .
We finally agreed to start at Crathie Bridge , more famously known as the entrance to Balmoral Castle . Unloaded and having said our farewells to Lyle , Liv and I set about prepping Joycie ; we took our time ; I wanted to get organised and the trim just right ; this wasn ' t just going to be a character-building trip .
Our bag inventory ended up as ; one 20L roll-top dry rucksack with all the emergency stuff in , shelter , first aid , pin kit , dry clothes and micro towel , poo kit , and repair kit . We had a second , slightly bigger roll-top dry rucksack for things such as hats ( woolly and sun ), waterproofs , lunch and snacks , flask micro first aid kit , wallet etc . A much larger roll-top dry rucksack for the tent , sleeping bags and roll mats , and finally , a 60-litre final holdall with our clothes , cooking kit and food !
NORTHLINK FERRIES The staff and crews for Northlink Ferries are fantastic ; in all my travels with them , they are always polite , courteous and happy to go above and beyond ; a speedy reply to my email confirmed I could bring the canoe on at no additional cost .
Thoughts and conversation drifted towards our trip as we both became excited at the reality of this . As usual , we got no mobile signal from the ferry , so we hadn ' t been able to communicate with Lyle ; we just hoped he ' d remembered ! Disembarking is a pretty orderly affair , and as we were on the main deck near the front , we needed to get ready for the off-early doors ; the excitement and trepidation were at a peak now as we took hold of Joycie and began to wheel her off , oh hang on a minute she ' s not moving ? She was resting on a wheel . A bit of shuffling and moving about and , nope , still stuck ! Further investigation identified that one of the trolley supports had bent in the middle ; there were a few expletives at this point !
Because the cause wasn ' t clear , the ferry chap was keen to get it all documented in case I claimed against them ; photos and form filling meant we were now clearly last off . I hoped Lyle was still there ; if he ' d turned up at all , I thought ; my excitement was rapidly disappearing ! When the opportunity arose , I went to find Lyle , and with the help of a forklift and a ' don ' t worry , this happens all the time , take it in my stride ' crew member , we got Joycie unloaded . Have I told you how fantastic Lyle is ? Even after I tried to kill him with six litres of water landing on his head as we flipped Joycie onto his car ; being held up by our delay , Lyle calmly set about helping us find a suitable get-in .
SO ENOUGH OF MY WAFFLE ; HERE ' S LIV ' S ACCOUNT OF THE TRIP ITSELF , We started at Crathie Bridge near Balmoral on July 14th . It was a long day with quite a bit of walking the river , and there were some small ripples but no real rapids . We paddled to Ballatar , where we stayed at the campsite beside the river . They were full but took pity on us because I looked so tired .
On day two , we started paddling at 10.00 because we went to a cafe called ' The Bothie ' for breakfast . It was a much better day than yesterday , with fewer shallow bits . Dad got out to push three times ; he let me stay in the boat . There were better rapids today , which I like . The weather was sunny , and I got a bit sunburnt . I had forgotten what warm sunny weather was like . We camped just past the bridge on the right at Aboyne , opposite the pub where we shared chips , and I had sticky toffee pudding ; we were also quite thirsty . It was nice to see the sunshine .
SHALLOW IN PLACES Day three was another lovely sunny morning , and although we thought it might rain at some point , it didn ' t . The river level had gone down again , so it was a bit shallow in places , and dad needed me to get out and help push again . There were more rapids today , but some of the ones that looked the most fun were rocky in places , and dad had to line the canoe down them . At the bottom of one big rapid , we met a family swimming and playing on a paddle board .
When we paddled the River Spey , the rapids were exciting because we didn ' t keep stopping , but even though the river here was low , we still had to get out and look at them before deciding what to do . We met many fishermen and ladies , and they were all lovely and happy to talk to me ; most said they were struggling with low-level water too , and they weren ' t catching anything even though we saw fish jumping around us .
ThePADDLER 101