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Opens in the Garden of Eden by Mike and Ruth Alter

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May be an image of 2 people, body of water and nature

Lazonby to Armathwaite

In what is a fast becoming a staple Christmas time paddle, several open boaters and two safety kayakers headed up to paddle the lovely river Eden.

When I first started to paddle, the agreement for paddling the Eden was a bit of a faff. One of the excuses for the agreement was that by following the agreement, and booking in, you were not going to be (accidently?) shot.

Thankfully things have moved on a bit since then, but I still try to go when there is water and its not a scrape – but that is more fun anyway!

So, following a decent bit of rain, 9 open boaters and 2 kayakers met at the put in at Lazonby and sorted the shuttle to Armathwaite.

May be an image of nature and body of water Sun shining, we headed into Eden – all deciding to wear a little bit more than a carefully positioned fig leaf.

May be an image of 3 people, nature, tree and body of water The riffles provided a great warm up, the flatter sections time to catch up with friends.

May be an image of 1 person, body of water and nature
Soon the riffles grew in size to provide some fun rapids.

May be an image of 1 person, body of water and nature May be an image of 1 person, body of water and nature
We practised, we surfed, some decided they were too hot (no names), but most importantly we laughed and had a great time.

May be an image of 1 person, lake and nature
The open nature of the beginning soon gave way to the more enclosed gorge, changing from wooded slopes to steep sandstone cliffs.

More rapids, some technical, some consisting of large standing waves that love dumping water into opens. But ever onwards with the through of Armathwaite weir. Eventually we reached the famous Eden carvings, rock faces and poems carved into the cliffs. Keep your eyes peeled and see how many faces you can count!

May be an image of 2 people, body of water and nature After the carvings it was time for the weir.

The level was a good level, so the line was definitely river left.

All LCC paddlers made it successfully down the weir. After that, it was simply a case of providing multiple rescues to the following kayak group from Lancaster and a short paddle to the get out just below Armathwaite bridge.

A grand day out!

Thanks to all who make LCC paddles so great, and to Nikki Aldridge for the superb photos.

Mike & Ruth