January Dart 2007
From ICCC
26th-28th January 2007.
People
- Ralph "Whisky!" Evins
- Patrick "Disgusted" Clissold
- Mark "Wretcher" Flower
- Andy "Spun Dry" Turner
- Alistair "New Boat" Cott
- Rory "Best Man" Fyffe
- Terry "Got Tripled" Chambers
- Mathis "Also Tripled" Schwuchow
- Anne Schueler
- Tamsin "TAMSolli" Lowe
- Rob "Where The Hell Is He?" McRae
- Michael "Swam the Upper" Herrmann
- Oli "tamsOLLI" Carson
- Kieron Stopforth
- Chad Sankey
- Theo "Worse Than Ever" Petre
- Holli "Token Club Virgin" Pritchard
Trip Report
Friday 19th
We left London at a reasonable hour and arrived in Exeter at about 10:30. We were staying in another of Ralph’s cousin’s houses. We arrived to find the perfect party house, no furniture to ruin and plenty of space. Can were opened and plans were formed. Apparently there was going to be a lot of water the next day so we decided we were going to get up early and do a quick blast of the upper Dart before we did a club run of the loop. We all fell asleep with images of the Dart with actual water in it dancing through our heads.
Saturday 20th
After a lot of faff we all ended up in Newbridge car park and the whole club got on the loop. Andy surpassed himself, managing to capsize while seal-launching and to then swim under New Bridge. For one member, Holli, this was her first river; talk about being thrown in at the deep end. The loop in uber high levels is quite good fun and there was surprisingly not that many swims. Quite a few of these were at Triple Step, which was very pushy with a big tree in the middle. Most of the rest were a consequence of Ralph leading his whole group into Spin Dryer eddy, or RobM deciding on a tree-based approach to chaseboating.
Everyone got to the bottom buzzing and an ambitious three-pronged plan was hatched. Patrick, Ralph and Theo took another stab at the Upper Dart, rather nervously. Chris lead a second troupe down the lower, a third posse again took on the loop while the hardcore drinkers remained at the takeout lured by the promise of free tea. Three parties, three places, what could possibly go wrong?
Lower was a pleasant bimble. Ditto loop, noticeably lower than first run. Upper had also dropped a little and became a somewhat more manageable. It was still quite a pushy run but everything went. We bumped into Simon Westgarth who was running a five star training course; amusingly most of his students seemed to be swimming. All trips were made at a fast pace, no swims, all takeouts found, no-one wandered off. A most implausible model of efficiency.
All retired back to the house for dinner and drinking games. Various events took place that night which will not be commented upon here due to reasons of health and safety, if not taste. Suffice to say it’s something that neither Patrick nor Ralph want ever to have to try and sleep through again. For the first time ever, they would have been grateful if Rory could have snored louder.
Sunday 21st
As Patrick couldn’t find anyone to the run the Plym with him, everyone went to the Dart again, which had dropped a bit. After another fun bouncy run of the loop a whole posse wanted to have a go at the Upper Dart. Patrick, Ralph, Chris, Rory, Ollie, Michael, RobM and Mark went up to the Upper which had dropped a lot since the previous day. RobM walked off after the top section. There were a few silly swims (Michael x 3, Rory, Mark), and at one point Chris, who didn’t swim, lost his paddles, and Patrick basically soloed the whole thing in search of them. (They were later found on the island at Euthanasia). Everyone made it to the bottom in one piece feeling rather pleased with themselves; in RobM's case so pleased that he wandered vaguelly back up to Surprise Surprise, totally missed the descending group and was last back by hours.
Great finish to a good weekend. An Imperial Dart trip with water in it! Whatever next?
