Glen Feshie

The CWWs have a wee hidey hole just at the point where the River Feshie joins the Spey. At some point of the year we always end up paddling back to the house, and the spring melt water made this an attractive trip on Saturday. It needs a fair amount of water to make it worthwhile as a large stretch is shallow and bouldery.
There is something pleasingly odd about being abandoned with boats at the top of the Achlean road. The river is a wee trek away, and sometimes we end up carrying boats alongside hillwalkers with ice-axes and crampons.




A lot of the paddling isn't wonderfully exciting, but the scenery is wonderful and at times the river feels very remote. I'd taken my big boat due to it's extra soup carrying capacity.



The upper river has a few easy bedrock rapids, then there's a long braided stretch through the open part of the glen.



This is where I once saw a wild capercaillie- my only encounter ever.
In paddling terms the main event of the river is a short gorge running down to Feshiebridge. This is a bit of a tourist attraction, but there was no audience today.



Once upon a time I spent a long time in this stopper, and I was a bit wary of it again. Luckily it had wee line round the side today.









From this point the Feshie has been artificially rearranged over the years. It spreads out into a kind of delta before dropping into the Spey. We stopped for a bit to eat, then Little Miss CWW, who is more of an indoor polo sort of a paddler, came out for a quick float down to Aviemore.