Wednesdays seem to be getting popular for midweek paddling. Mary and Sarah were away at Plas-y-Brenin (climbing, not paddling), and Michael was at school, so a phone call suggesting that the Upper Swale was up was most welcome. Dave Peel, Tom Rawlings and Ant Stewart soon appeared at the front door and we headed over the Stang and via the Tan Hill to Upper Swaledale. The river had been well up, but was dropping off – still high enough to be worth putting on at Hoggarths Bridge, but down to 0.64m as we passed the Park Bridge gauge. Somewhere around 0.7m is reputed to be about the easiest level – less than that and the line on Rainby is getting very narrow, and the ledge run of Lower Kisdon is a bit spine-jarring. However, Upper Kisdon goes much more easily on the right, and ‘The Rapid’ is a lot less intimindating than on my previous run at 1m, when I walked round this bit. Catrake Force also goes nicely on the right, where the drops are unbroken by ledges and the landings not quite so shallow.

Dave, Tom and Ant now headed off to do the Tees Greta (I shuttled to Greta bridge for them), but I had to go off for the school run 🙁 They only took 40 minutes, so I might have had time, but it’s usually a bit slower than that, so better safe than sorry…