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Open Canoes on the
River Tweed 2020 A bank holiday adventure |
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News items or reports on club activities
should be sent to website@liverpoolcanoeclub.co.uk |
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The
August Bank holiday was fast approaching, and several ideas were put forward,
white water, sea kayaking and Open Canoeing. Strong winds on the Llyn
Peninsula, lack of white water resulted in a three-day trip down the river
Tweed on the Scottish border. Club open
canoes were available, but we ended up with 6 paddlers all paddling their own
craft: Brian, Keith, Ian, Graham, Andrew and Gareth. We all headed up on Friday evening / night
and camped, bivvied or stayed in a hotel.
We met up early on the Saturday in Peebles
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Brian Green |
Graham Rowe |
Gareth Jones |
Ian Bell |
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Andy Garland |
Day 1
(Saturday) 29th August – Peebles to Melrose
Brian, Ian and Andy
had borrowed a small trailer and travelled up together very late last night and
had kipped in the camper in Kingsmeadow Car Park. Keith and Graham had found a small forest
track and camped while Gareth had booked a room in a hotel and enjoyed breakfast. We all met at 8:30am and were on the water by
9:00am. The plan was jump a taxi at the
end for the three drivers and this would give us the flexibility to finish
where ever we liked.
Most
loaded the boats with a couple of large dry bags with tent, stove and three
days food and clothes. The river was
high for August with the current flowing swiftly – 1.5m to 2m on the Norham
Gauge. Consequently, paddling was a
delight with many small 
waves and
ripples, a few tricky bits but we were whizzing down the river being pushed
quickly by the current.
We paddled past
large houses, wooded valleys, castles and great countryside. This was going to be a relaxed trip with
improving weather. We sped through
Innerleithen and found a good spot to stop for elevenses at 11:00am! and
immediately put a brew on and enjoyed a quick snack.
Back on the water we soon approached a level horizon, a sure sign of a weir at
Walkerburn. We could hear the white
water below and standing up we tried to spy a safe route through. One of gillies with a client called out “you
will need to inspect it”. We landed on
the left and Graham immediately pronounce he was going to line his Cedar Strip
homemade canoe down. Ian and Keith
decided to run a small gap on the left with Andy following. Brian and Gareth decided to line their boats
safely down.
The
next 10 or so km were very enjoyable with many small rapids and good
scenery. Ashiesteel rapids followed by
Yair Cauld (weir) and Fairnilee rapid.
All a good grade 1-2 and ideal of open canoes. We passed Abbotsford house on the left and
soon came across Melrose Cauld (weir).
This had waves below and was mostly washed out.
Soon
after we found a left-hand bend with cut-off making a kind of island with a
large red cliff on the river right (30m high).
We decided to stop on a small stone beach and camp for the night as we
were well out of site of the houses of Melrose above. Stoves were fired up, tents erected and most
managed to find a comfortable spot. Only
Andy failed to test his sleeping spot and suffered a pebbly and uncomfortable
night. We chilled out next to the river,
Gareth made used of an old “men at work” sign to set his stove up on. We were early to bed after our late evening
the day before.
Day 2 (Sunday) 30th August –
Melrose to Upsettlington
After
a good night’s sleep, we were up and sorting breakfast and packing tents away
early. We were on the water for 8:30am
but the river had dropped a little from the previous day but was still at a
very good summer level. We very quickly
came across the triple bridges (An old railway Viaduct / Old road bridge / new
A68 road bridge).
We soon came across Merton Cauld (weir).
This had massive waves below and most portaged on the river right. Keith got out on river left and managed to
find a good route over a sloping weir face with plenty of water. Clearly there was far too much water to take
the slot in the middle.
After a further 5km we were expecting another
weir (Rutherford Cauld). There was a
small rapid ahead and it did not look like a weir, so we drifted up to the edge
and then one after another paddled over.
The waves were considerably bigger than expected but we had little time
to prepare and get settled in our canoes.
Looking back, I saw Brian out of his boat, but it had remained upright –
he was holding on to a cow’s tail at the back and was waving and smiling so all
was good. Ian managed to get to him as
he drifted downstream still in the wave train and Brian managed to climb over
Ian`s canoe and into his. We all eddied
out behind a fisherman`s wing dam or wing dyke (artificial wall into the 
river) to bail
out.
We
were now approaching 58 kms downstream from Peebles marked by Makerstoun House
on the Left. The three rapids that
followed are the most difficult on river however with the river so high they
were relatively easy. Upper and Middle
Makerstoun rapids were large grade 2 in these conditions and paddled down
through picking our way and floating over any rock ledges or obstructions which
were fully covered. Lower Makerstoun
rapid is normally more difficult with a line down the right. Today it could be shot on the left, middle or
right and we did all three. The rapid
was an easy grade 3 minus but could be tricky for open canoes if low. We stopped for lunch on the river left to try
and get away from the Mayflies. An MSR
stove was fired up and we soon all had a warm tea or coffee and food to
recharge our energy levels.
We paddled on a
Further 7 kms or so and soon came across Kelso and Kelso weir. This was easily shot on river right, but
various routes were available in the middle which are more suited to
kayaks. Graham again lined his cedar
strip canoe down to prevent any damage and we were soon paddling through the
town and over another small weir below the road bridge in the town.
After some more small rapids and 5kms we 
came across Banff
Mill and its weir which we took on river left.
This had a series of 4 small drops or weirs with a wave train through
the last.
More rapids and a couple of small weirs led us to Coldstream which was approach
around a large looping meander bend.
There is a statue high on a column on the left bank. The high walls of the town lead to a road
bridge with a weir immediately below.
(Shoot through the right and arch if the bridge).
7km
more led us onto the last of 6 maps and we started to look for a camp for the
night. We found a large river terrace on
a left-hand meander bend just past Upsettington Estate. This had a levee or embankment which would
hide us from the few houses and a fisherman’s cottage beyond. We dragged the canoes up the short slope and
started to set up tents and make the evening meal. It had been a long day, but we were easily
in reach of tidal parts of the river and the sea beyond.
Later a salmon fisherman and his partner stopped to chat about the river and
our journey. It turned out they were
from Chester and regularly came up to Berwick to fish. There is of course no fly fishing on a
Sunday which is why we had seen very few during the day. Gareth found time to walk into Norham and
find a local pub run by a family from Merseyside who were serving food and
beer. He tells us he returned shortly
after dark, but we were all fast asleep by then.
Day 3
(Monday) 31st August – Upsettlington to Berwick-Upon-Tweed
The plan was to
get up early and paddle into Berwick for a late breakfast. We all rose early after a great night’s
sleep, stoves roared away as we packed up our gear and enjoyed a quick
breakfast of porridge. We slid into the
water shortly after 6:30am and paddled past some gravel islands and the first
of 3 bridges. Shortly after Horncliffe
the river becomes tidal and we had timed it exactly right 
to have the last
of any dropping tide scoot us along to the outskirts of Berwick-Upon-Tween and
the A1 road bridge. We paddled through
the town and harbour area towards the lifeboat ramp and an adjoining slipway
and landed for a late breakfast at about 9:00am
After a few photos we unloaded our boats and carried them up either slipway or
rocky beach. Gareth rang for the
pre-arranged taxi and the guy said he would be about 20 minutes but was a
little surprised that we were at Berwick and not Coldstream as arranged a few
days before. The use of the taxi had
saved a lot of time on the first day with the shuttle taking more than 3 hrs
there and back. In the end we paid £100
for the taxi, which was about £17 each, a bargain in the end which reduced the
number of car journeys from 9 to only 3!
We
soon packed up, loaded our canoes and cleared the slipway which now had 3 boats
waiting to launch on the incoming tide.
They were more than patient with us and were interested in our bank
holiday adventure. We were all on the
road heading south before 1pm