Last weekend our kayak club had a trip planned to Loch Duich near Kintail, West of Scotland, a 4-hour drive from our house. It's a long way for just two days but it was worth it as we couldn't have had any better weather. High pressure, freezing, wall to wall sunshine and no wind on the Saturday. Kintail Outdoor Centre was our base for the weekend.
We launched our kayaks at the bridge of Dornie, just around the corner from iconic Eilean Donan castle. From the moment we arrived, most of us were more involved in taking photos of the stunning scenery in golden light than preparing all our equipment!
It was actually more of a photography trip on the water than a kayak trip. Well, at least for me! I had to pinch myself regularly because it was as if we were paddling in a fantasy world.
On the 30th December 2015 disaster struck in Deeside, Aberdeenshire, when the River Dee had to cope with extreme amounts of water due to heavy rainfall in the mountains caused by storm Frank. The river had never been as high as this since recordings started. A large part of the village Ballater flooded so people had to evacuate, almost all bridges over the Dee closed (right up to Aberdeen), some historic ones were badly damaged by the force of water and a 16th century castle was about to fall in the river. Even a 300 meter section of the main road between Ballater and Braemar got washed away completely!
There were many people who posted videos and photos on YouTube and Facebook. This particular video of a mobile caravan being taken by the river as if it was just made from paper was the most shocking one and made the national news.
In the evening we walked to the bridge in Banchory and we just couldn't believe our eyes. The arches of the bridge were barely visible! Around 6pm it reached its highest level, about 5.2 meters. Normally it's about 2 meters!!
On New Year's Day the river had retreated again and we went out for a walk to see what had actually happened. It was just shocking and impressive at the same time to see the devastation. Below is a selection of photos I took:
Via Facebook I got involved with the group Hope Floats, consisting of people (about 6,000 members) who wanted to help the local community by volunteering. Even though Aberdeenshire Council and the emergency services are mainly responsible to deal with events like this, many Council employees were not back yet from their holiday. Also, this crisis was just too big for the Council to take care of in the first few days of the aftermath. Hope Floats coordinated the supply of sand and bags, the filling and transportion of sandbags, receiving and storing donations like food (supermarkets were flooded), clothes and furniture, liaising with people and businesses for pumps and dehumidifiers, etc.
One day I was helping out in the village Aboyne which was flooded too by going round the houses to see whether they needed anything. Then I learnt that people can also be affected by flooding indirectly, especially vulnerable people who are less mobile or ill. Someone from the local radio station joined us on our round and interviewed us. When I came back to our base station BBC Radio Scotland was there to interview the initiators of Hope Floats and they also interviewed me! Here's the link to the programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06vk1ld
You can hear me talk from 1:04:57 till 1:06:17. For more background
information about what has caused this disaster and what could be done
about it I would recommend listening to the whole programme. Especially the
interviews with the president of the National Farming Union (0:11:00)
and the Hutton Institute (0:17:00-0:24:00) are insightful.
A week later, after about 9 days of consistent rain during another low pressure front, there was another flooding, only this time Donsidesuch as Inverurie, Kintore, Alford and Kemney was hit too. People had to evacuate here as the river Don had burst its banks.
While this was happening it was still ok in Banchory so I walked to the River Feugh so see the state. I had never seen it that high! Not long afterwards the bridge was temporarily closed and you can see why in these videos:
Although it will take years for this area to recover and major changes have to take place in the way land is managed here sooner rather than later, there are already some positive things happening. The main road that was washed away has been temporarily replaced by a road further inland, the Invercauld bridge near Braemar that was closed for more than a week has been repaired, the 16th century Abergeldie castle is still there, the government has pledged millions of pounds and charities have raised a lot of money for the restoration. And hopefully more awareness is created that climate change will affect us one way or the other. So after rain comes sunshine, eventually!
With temperatures of 22 degrees, Scotland was even warmer than some Mediterranean countries yesterday. How lucky for us that we both had booked a weekend away, this time separately. Jaap went down to Fort Augustus for the Great Glen Fest and improve his canoeing skills. I went to Kingussie for a trip organised by the ski club. Although we weren't able to do any skiing at all, the weather couldn't have been better for a hike in the Cairngorms.
We started our walk to Ben Mheadhoin at Coire Cas carpark. After 8.5 hours and a total of almost 2,700 meters of ascending and descending we came back, tired but exhilarated by the magnificient views and great company!
Area map
Elevation map
After our first ascent
Descent to Loch Avon
I'm looking quite tired already after a very steep descent!
Fascinating rocks and tors
The landscape looked quite surreal!
Beautiful rock textures
Finally at the top of Ben Mheadhoin
The lightest person was able to ski down on his boots from the smallest patch of snow
After a good night sleep in the hostel Woodlands, I decided not to tag along for another hike, but instead go for a bike ride on my own. I started at the carpark along the river Spey in Aviemore and followed the Speyside Way through Boat of Garten, had a lunch break at Loch Garten and then cycled back. A total distance of 37 km. My blisters were fine, but at the end of the day my buttocks were the problem.
I finished a perfect weekend with a well-deserved soft ice cream in the village, aahh....Life's good!!
Area map
Derelict trainwagon
Sculpture in forest
The Speyside Way meanders through beautiful moorland
