Paddling tips, tricks, news and gear reviews from an Unsponsored point of view

Category: Northern Territory

Movie Monday 15 February 2021

Welcome to Unsponsored and Movie Monday 15 February 2021.

Movie Monday 15 February 2021

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Northern Territory – Yorkshire Dee

Tucked away just outside the village of Dent this Class 4/5 gorge section runs fairly regularly with significant rain although there may be occasions when there can definitely be too much! It can become a very challenging undertaking at high flows with undercut walls and ‘boiling’ eddies. At perfect, mid-level, flows it is my Yorkshire favourite. A sensible decision can be made at the put-in: if it’s floatable and navigable it’s going to be good; however, if there’s a raging torrent, it will be full-on and the gorge will almost certainly be un-runnable. The river starts road-side around 5km outside Dent and the road follows the river for most of the run. In fact it’s only the last km that feels remote. A series of small slides and boulder rapids lead to a slightly bigger slide that right-angle’s to the left. This signifies the end of your warm up.

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From here the river starts to get a little tighter and steeper with some quite significant pour-overs; nothing too pushy but a confident boof is definitely required.

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Northern Territory – River Swale

The Swale, for many the most enjoyable, hassle free section of Class 4 (occasionally 5) in the UK. It’s all down to preference of course, however, a little time invested in this true classic normally leaves paddlers with a beaming smile.

River Swale

At its source, about 2 miles upstream of Keld, the Swale picks up pace and, set amongst some stunning scenery and isolated gorges, this river drops like a stone and often rises just as quickly: we recently witnessed the river rising 50cm within the hour it took us to complete the run. It rose a further 10cm in the time it took to get changed and do a shuttle; a factor that should be borne in mind when paddling this stretch after heavy rainfall. Potentially difficult to judge accurately, running this little gem has been made much more reliable since the introduction of the environment agency river levels gauge. This provides the source data for the invaluable Rainchasers site (http://rainchasers.com/river): an excellent information resource for which we are enormously grateful to Rob Tuley and crew supporting the site.

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Northern Territory – Langstrath Beck

In April 2009 Nathan Butler and Martyn Sollars embarked on journey across the United Stated of America. Nathan invested in the ‘Whitewater Classics: Fifty North American Rivers’. This book became the bible, a tick list by default – It featured handpicked paddlers sharing their experiences of each river and stating why it is a classic.

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The book was by no means a guidebook, but suggestions made by accomplished and proven pioneers of the sport. Contributors to the Northern Territory project haven’t got the reputation or world titles as featured in ‘Whitewater Classics: Fifty North American Rivers’, but do share the same desire and passion for the sport.

Over the next few weeks Unsponsored will be sharing Nathan’s thoughts and comments on some of the many whitewater classics in Northern Britain.

From Nathan:

Although this UK Northern Territory series doesn’t cover the vast range of rivers the ‘Whitewater Classics: Fifty North American Rivers’ edition does I hope it details those that are worthy of exposure, a mixture of known classics and lesser known sections of whitewater that are carefully selected as not to dilute an abundance of excellent whitewater found in Northern Britain. We hope this works best and gives you the same excitement and is as helpful and as fun to experience as it was for us to produce.

Enjoy and Happy Hucking!

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Northern Territory – River Falloch

In April 2009 Nathan Butler and Martyn Sollars embarked on journey across the United Stated of America. Nathan invested in the ‘Whitewater Classics: Fifty North American Rivers’. This book became the bible, a tick list by default – It featured handpicked paddlers sharing their experiences of each river and stating why it is a classic.

Northern Territory - River Falloch

The book was by no means a guidebook, but suggestions made by accomplished and proven pioneers of the sport. Contributors to the Northern Territory project haven’t got the reputation or world titles as featured in ‘Whitewater Classics: Fifty North American Rivers’, but do share the same desire and passion for the sport.

Over the next few weeks Unsponsored will be sharing Nathan’s thoughts and comments on some of the many whitewater classics in Northern Britain.

From Nathan:

Although this UK Northern Territory series doesn’t cover the vast range of rivers the ‘Whitewater Classics: Fifty North American Rivers’ edition does I hope it details those that are worthy of exposure, a mixture of known classics and lesser known sections of whitewater that are carefully selected as not to dilute an abundance of excellent whitewater found in Northern Britain. We hope this works best and gives you the same excitement and is as helpful and as fun to experience as it was for us to produce.

Enjoy and Happy Hucking!

Continue reading

Northern Territory Series – River Tees

In April 2009 Nathan Butler and Martyn Sollars embarked on journey across the United Stated of America. Nathan invested in the ‘Whitewater Classics: Fifty North American Rivers’. This book became the bible, a tick list by default – It featured handpicked paddlers sharing their experiences of each river and stating why it is a classic.

Northern Territory Series - River Tees

The book was by no means a guidebook, but suggestions made by accomplished and proven pioneers of the sport. Contributors to the Northern Territory project haven’t got the reputation or world titles as featured in ‘Whitewater Classics: Fifty North American Rivers’, but do share the same desire and passion for the sport.

Over the next few weeks Unsponsored will be sharing Nathan’s thoughts and comments on some of the many whitewater classics in Northern Britain.

From Nathan:

Although this UK Northern Territory series doesn’t cover the vast range of rivers the ‘Whitewater Classics: Fifty North American Rivers’ edition does I hope it details those that are worthy of exposure, a mixture of known classics and lesser known sections of whitewater that are carefully selected as not to dilute an abundance of excellent whitewater found in Northern Britain. We hope this works best and gives you the same excitement and is as helpful and as fun to experience as it was for us to produce.

Enjoy and Happy Hucking!

Continue reading

Northern Territory – A Celebration Of Northern British Whitewater

Northern Territory is a great piece of writing from Nathan Butler of Endless Adventure North East and is well worth having a closer look at.

Northern Territory

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