Spey Decent

---

The Spey is a great canoe touring river, it runs north east, past Aviemore. We got on at Newtonmore, from a campsite right on the river bank.

At this time of year (end of May) we had a mixed bag of weather, ranging from blizzards and squalls, to balmy sunshine and blue skies, all in the space of four days! Still the Cairngorms looked pretty spectacular covered in snow.

Our journey started at Newtonmore, and from here we paddled down to Loch Insh Watersports Centre, where we camped in their grounds, and made use of their excellent facilities - Bar, Resturant and Showers! (well it had been snowing and raining most of the day!)

Day two started well, after watching a bunch of kids being towed in a long line across the Loch in their Optomists, we set off. The river passes through some spectaular scenery, and we were lucky to see an Osprey one one of the quieter sections, as well as lots of other wildlife. We also met lots of Anglers along the way, most very amiable, but they do have a habit of standing right in the main current where the flow is deepest!  The second night's camp was at 'Boat of Balliefurth' which again is right on the river bank. It's a very basic site, with only one toilet and one water tap, but we met up with another bunch of paddlers, who had already got the fire going - so we joined them for tales of big water and waves on the Spey!

Day three again started well, we'd got much more confident of our abilities to paddle the rapids we encountered, and so went sailing down Blacksboat Rapid, without much thought! Sue was giggling like she was on a rollercoaster! but just as we looked back to watch Pam & Jon shoot the rapid, we saw them capsize! So they swam it instead. It didn't faze them too much, but we decided that they had their boat loaded slightly heavier to the bow, and so it dug in abit more and in they went! After that, we all became a little more cautious at rapids, as we didn't want another soaking, but the day went without further dunkings, and we arrived, after a very long paddle in the evening sunshine, at Craigellachie. We camped again, right on the river bank, and while eating tea, watched a couple of chaps begin their night fishing!

Our last day's paddle was in beautiful sunshine, and spectacular scenery, very different from three days previous! And as we neared Spey Bay and the sea, we began to see how the winter storms had changed the course of the river! We had plotted our route into a GPS, and when putting it back into the computer, it was obvious how much the deep channel had changed! There were some pretty hefty trees that had been washed down the river and wedged against the bridge stantions!

We reached Spey Bay after 34 kms, and having pulled the boats up out of the water, made our way to the tearoom sheltering in the dunes! We celebrated with tea & cake, before unloading the boats. We secured Sue & Pete's boat onto Ena the Camper, and they set off south. Libby, Pam & Jon awaited Jock the taxi driver, for our shuttle back to Newtonmore! and ultimately - home!