Rannoch Moor to Perth by Chris Bolton Part 2

The entrance to the Garbh Ghaoir is well hidden and the first 800m is really still part of the loch. Lunch was taken before inspecting the first rapid – this was our first paddleable rapid, although still with less water in it than was ideal. The route down to the first drop (grade 3) went cleanly, and we broke out to have a good look at the drop itself.



This also went smoothly, but once down I was in the kind of boulder field that was to become very familiar, but moving quite fast without much water to get a paddle into and my boat took a hammering. Andy improved on my lines. A deep flat section followed, after which we approached the railway bridge. I’d read of a big rapid here, but it was a long boulder field (grade 2), mostly paddleable but a couple of places where we waded with the boats.



The big rapid was 500m further down, next to a section of forest on the right bank. At that fairly low water level, there was no obvious line that wouldn’t lead to hitting a rock at speed (so more then grade 3 at that level). We broke out on the right and lined down the bank.