I hadn't paddled the Erme for a couple of years, and my last encounter with this steep, technical grade 4 gorge included a fairly frightening experience on what is know as the 'drop and slot' (I had vowed not to run that particular fall again).I joined Victor, Andy and James from Poole Harbour CC for this year’s trip. Technically it was a Solent CC trip but, having tied my boat on the rack on the Saturday night Mike Tonkin phoned to cancel. Having then removed my boat from the rack, Victor phoned after 11pm to say he was going anyway. Increasingly, 3 clubs get together to muster up enough bods for this kind of trip.
It proved to be low conditions, just above 'paddleable' limit - but it still provided a lot of fun with some very tight and steep falls and much 'boofing' off slabs. The drop and slot was no problem.
But we found an even better gorge to paddle in the afternoon - awesome (but I have promised not to divulge it's location to anyone!!)
