tweed trekking

i've just returned from a wonderful two-day trip down the river tweed in the scottish borders, where andrew and i paddled roughly 60km in a tandem sea kayak. (check out this map; we began at innerleithen and finished at kelso, stopping for a night in the village of melrose). the river was gushing after heavy rains in the last few weeks, meaning the rapids were frequent (at least 20 sections) and sometimes intense! i've been putting my gangly arms to good use, you can imagine. it was a beautiful section of river, hilly and picturesque, littered with old castles and country houses and just teeming with birds and gorgeous trees and flowers. we saw a heron about every 4 minutes, and spent half the time trailing different groups of baby ducks who would utterly exhaust themselves trying to get away from us instead of heading off to the bank to let us pass. andrew even held a newborn cygnet in his hands (briefly, before the grumpy swan parents came too near)! we had erratic but never too demoralizing weather and encountered a range of characters in the towns and along the way, from a group of evangelical christian performers from washington state sharing our hostel and rehearsing in the kitchen in the morning to a rescue team wading in the river looking for the body of a jumper from the night before.
we took mostly film footage instead of photographs, so a wee documentary shall be forthcoming! for now i have posted the few photos i took; the one at right shows me all suited up and admiring the decaying melrose abbey before setting off on day two. more to come!