Viel Wasser und eine gebrochene Nase...

Hi lads,

on Monday we had a great trip with the UCC.C.C (University College Cork Canoeing Club). We went down the Upper Bandon River with some nice drops and rapids. Several people capsized... Here is the story Gunther wrote for the messageboard:

Well the first half of the river went pretty well, some misplaced shuttles, learning new names, everybody budgying up, plenty of speculative lines, a few swims, an almost lost sling, lots of attempts to throw paddles away, lots of jumping around rocks picking freshers out of the water...nothing too hectic so far.

Then the big drop, not too hairy at less than zero on the gauge and the left line running, so most of the newbies were up for running it. Some very nice lines here. Mary got absolutely beaten on the drop, her buddy Jessie beat her down and Mary proceeded to run (intentionally?) the right line and get beaten there. Fiachra swam at the top, got back in his boat and then ranthe bottom drop upside down, using his helmetas a rudder...nice!!!
Conor swam at the top, then Willy decided that his boat should run the drop unaccompanied-resulting in a dislodged seat and centre pillar (Conrad you might want to take a look at this-it's one of the H3's!)
Siobhan decided halfway down that she didn't want to run it but Ferguson changed her mind! Irene capsized at the top, but was uprighted due to mammoth efforts by Ferguson and myself. Did she want to get out at that stage? No, she was too lazy to walk so she ran the main drop!

So far so good, but the real fun was just starting
After many calls of "Is this it?" the boulder garden finally arrived. The first hundred metres went ok but as I turned a corner a scene greeted me that will remain with for the rest of my days....
Absolute carnage!!!
Bodies everywhere, people clinging to rocks with the fear of God in their faces, boats pinned all over the place, paddles floating downstream. As I was rafting with a fresher who had lost her paddles I came across Matt pinned on a rock with two H3's pinned on top of him and a fresher swimming pinned on the boats, and Johnson Job trying to haul them all out! Clancy, Siobhan and Conor were all stranded halfway down with no paddles. Poor Ellen was sitting on the bank nursing her battle wound (she had tried to see if sandstone was as hard as Willy said it was!)

All in all it took a half an hour to right all the wrongs, estimates put the number of swimmers at one stage at about 11!!! Mental!

From then on all the newbies started nailing their lines, having learnt that rocks hurt!! Bit of a float down to the bottom and then lots of biscuits!!!

Well I thoroughly enjoyed myself anyway, and all the frshers can't wait to go back!
Ellen's nose isn't too bad, it may or may not be broken, doctors didn't x-ray, but they said it should be fine. The long wait in A&E was made up for by the resulting trip to KC's!

Well done to all the freshers, the Upper Bandon is a big scalp for your second (or first!) river trip! Cheers also to all the drivers and rescue. Bring on the next one!!!