The River Thurso - a 4 day journey through the Flow Country
Altnabreac Station - a railway station so remote that Wikipedia can only offer The reason for the station's construction is a mystery! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altnab...ailway_station It is the red dot just right of centre on this map.
After a 600 mile drive to Thurso, Altnabreac is a request stop about 40 minutes train ride south west into the Flow Country - an area of 4000 sq km of peatland and wetland habitats making it the largest expanse of blanket bog in Europe.
Several rivers drain the Flow Country but we chose the Thurso River due to the (relative) ease of a train based shuttle and the possibility of some white water adventure along the way.
The plan was to walk roughly south to the start of the Thurso River where Rumsdale Water and Glutt Water combine near the abandoned farmstead of Dalganachan.
Leaving the vast and rather gloomy forested area you emerge into a landscape punctuated only by the squiggly lines of estate tracks and not much sign of any river
You may well wonder, as we did, whether it is possible to walk straight across the bog rather than use those tracks......it may well be possible but with 60 year old joints, 30 kilo packs and lacking the physique of Royal Marines we didn't much fancy being dug up in 3000 years and our leathery mummified skin displayed in the Nicola Sturgeon Museum of Dumb English Folk - not to mention that all the good names like Pete Bog have been taken.....a photo to demonstrate....
Anyways, after a bit of a yomp we spied the River Thurso......this is Robin (Bare Gills)
And this is me, Patterdale Paddler - we are in our 4th decade of paddling together but this was our first yomp/packraft trip - it was to have some lovely peaceful paddling, some rather serious open loch paddling and some surprisingly good white water paddling too.....stay with us!
Dalganachan farmstead - sheep have been living in it for a good few years and it is slowly disintegrating
By the time we got to the river we were rather knackered (diet and training regime start tomorrow, as usual!) and decided against any paddling that first day......whichever way you look it wasn't too shabby a place to stop the night
Next morning, and without too much faffing we transmogrify into packraft mode
Most of the time there is just about enough water to float along
Sometimes even enough to cause a riffle
A fair bit of the time was spent dragging/lifting/shouting at......after 3 days of abuse I am in awe of the treatment these packrafts can withstand
But it was never boring
By Loch More the wind had reached Force 5 - fortunately from more or less a favourable direction
After a 600 mile drive to Thurso, Altnabreac is a request stop about 40 minutes train ride south west into the Flow Country - an area of 4000 sq km of peatland and wetland habitats making it the largest expanse of blanket bog in Europe.
Several rivers drain the Flow Country but we chose the Thurso River due to the (relative) ease of a train based shuttle and the possibility of some white water adventure along the way.
The plan was to walk roughly south to the start of the Thurso River where Rumsdale Water and Glutt Water combine near the abandoned farmstead of Dalganachan.
Leaving the vast and rather gloomy forested area you emerge into a landscape punctuated only by the squiggly lines of estate tracks and not much sign of any river
You may well wonder, as we did, whether it is possible to walk straight across the bog rather than use those tracks......it may well be possible but with 60 year old joints, 30 kilo packs and lacking the physique of Royal Marines we didn't much fancy being dug up in 3000 years and our leathery mummified skin displayed in the Nicola Sturgeon Museum of Dumb English Folk - not to mention that all the good names like Pete Bog have been taken.....a photo to demonstrate....
Anyways, after a bit of a yomp we spied the River Thurso......this is Robin (Bare Gills)
And this is me, Patterdale Paddler - we are in our 4th decade of paddling together but this was our first yomp/packraft trip - it was to have some lovely peaceful paddling, some rather serious open loch paddling and some surprisingly good white water paddling too.....stay with us!
Dalganachan farmstead - sheep have been living in it for a good few years and it is slowly disintegrating
By the time we got to the river we were rather knackered (diet and training regime start tomorrow, as usual!) and decided against any paddling that first day......whichever way you look it wasn't too shabby a place to stop the night
Next morning, and without too much faffing we transmogrify into packraft mode
Most of the time there is just about enough water to float along
Sometimes even enough to cause a riffle
A fair bit of the time was spent dragging/lifting/shouting at......after 3 days of abuse I am in awe of the treatment these packrafts can withstand
But it was never boring
By Loch More the wind had reached Force 5 - fortunately from more or less a favourable direction