Fresh from a nice long haul flight and sweaty cross London journey I arrived in “the bush” and met up with two fifths of the team for our jaunt to Portugal; namely Patrick Clissold and Lowri Davies. A brief break to watch kayaking porn, and we were on our way to salubrious accomodations provided by Rob Tuley and family close to Stanstead. After a brisk morning’s travel we were met in Porto by Theo, who had flown in from Sweden. Notable by their absence were a few others, put off by the poor forecast in the preceeding weeks. I don’t doubt they all had a cracking time sitting at home/going to scotland/driving into big puddles.
A mark of how welcoming Portugal is; even the baggage handlers are paddlers, speak good English, and pointed us in the direction of a new kayak shop in Porto. We didn’t visit in the end, which is a shame. Having collected the hire cars, paid up the waivers, and noted the damp nature of the weather we set off into the hills. After a good deal of beard scrathing, Theo’s “trusty” TomTom sat nav brought us to the top of the Rio Castro in Northern Portugal. The river was a good couple of feet below the advised maximum, but being keen to see what was coming we cracked open a beer or two and went for a walk. As it turns out we walked the length of the chossy lead in, and heading back with the horizon line of the granite gorge just in sight.
Camponatrual di Portugal, Lowri fastibreak o granitorock. Pic Rob T
Carros hiro dependablios
After a spot of wild camping we awoke to discover the mist had lifted to yeild a mountainous version of Dartmoor. Excited by this we paddled/walked into the top section of the Castro. We were treated to a fantastic gorge of steep, clean slides (or tobbogans as the locals call them) and drops.
Rob a kayako di unknownio.
Patrick tobogano, Tom a filmo Pic Rob T
After a few fun warm up slides, it was time for one of the main events. Known as back breaker, a gang of Irish paddlers ran it blind last year. Being a bit more cautious, we had a good scout!
Tom a “Back Breaker”, nae boofo! Pic Rob T
After Back Breaker, there are a couple of tight rapids, before a couple of large portages off cliffs. Carelessly, my boat suffered a little more than most off these cliffs, and a good session with the duck tape was required before we could carry on.
Lowri e Portagio a Castro Pic Rob T
After the portages the river relaxed, loosened its belt and filled up with boulders. After a km or so we hiked up to a nearby village, chatting to some local cows on the way. Victory dinner was taken in a casino in Spain, followed by some frosty wild camping.
Mornio e chillio di Portugal Pic Lowri D
From here we headed accross to Melgaco, and met up with Simon “Gene17″ Westgarth and his lady wife, the Irish, and some locals. After a wander round town picking out things that might mend my boat (thanks George + others!) we were fired up to hear about a river right there in town. The Mihno is Portugal’s answer to the Afon Dee. Still, it was sunny, sociable, and after a massive breach of shuttle etiquite the Irish took pitty on Patrick, Theo and myself and fed us.
Boat brokeno
NewYear was celebrated Portugal Style in the basement of a restaurant that was arranged for us by the locals (cheers again guys!) and would have been memorable, had it not been so alcohol fueled. There were a lot of courses, and a lot of wine and other spirits, followed by a club that turned out to be just round the corner. The next day we checked out a few rivers that looked a bit low, a bit easy, a bit hard, or a bit too much like they would make us sick, before trying to wild camp, giving up and finding a Motel near the Cavado and getting an early night…
After some more sodding TomToming we made it to what we thought was the start of the walk into the Rio Cavado. Theo was feeling delicate so drove shuttle.
Rob E Patrick sloggeo a Cavado
For reference, you will note the river in the top left of the picture, and the track leading to the river top right. We didn’t use this track, we walked a good hearty distance over a hill and through bogs, vines, brambles, gorse and a ploughed field. The river was well worth it. A short portagey lead in, followed by an excellent granite section.
Pot de Melto a droite, boofio a left! Pic Rob T
Trainio di Slopejamo!
Rob a nae concussio a Cavado
Team Runio di Maxifun Pic Rob T
We had a few blasts on super fun happy slide at the end of the gorge, which gave the river time to come up a fair chunk, and both Rob and myself time to fall a good 25 feet down cliffs into the river. Not for the unpadded behind. The short paddle out was made more entertaining by seeing how far I could paddle before I sank. (Further than you think!)
Back to the motel (for Theo’s health) we made grand plans for all weathers. These were pissed on by the fact that our maps weren’t detailed enough to show all the roads, and we had no gauges to go on. In the end we got on “7Km of Class III”, as it was getting dark. It was 7km of flat, and 3 rapids at the start. Swines! The only consolation was making up plays on the name of the damn thing. “Tamega”.
For our final night it was rude not to wild camp, and then paddle the Paiva “sex up” section. I’mlead to believe this was a fun section, I walked out of it, after the lead in finally killed my boat.
Lowri a SexUp Paiva Pic Rob T
All in all, a cracking trip, well worth the perseverence, and of course, thanks to Metcheck for putting off the people with real jobs!
We used the Kayak Portugal guidebook, which would be well complimented by some good walking scale maps of the area. We flew with Ryan Air (cheap and cramped, no probs with boats) and rented with Easy Car (cheap, and you can trash the car if you pay the excess). Big thanks to Rob’s parents for the late night driving, to the people of Portugal, kayakers and others who made our trip so delightful, and especially to the owners of Restaurant Central in Melgaco who opened their family dinner to 14 odd kayakers, including one who tried to elope with their daughter, and one who took a shine to wife!
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