Most of the Spey in a day

We were guiding on Ben Nevis on Saturday, then on Sunday we decided to do a fairly quick descent of the Spey. By the time we had sorted kit and shuttled the van to Spey Bay, it was 5pm when we finally paddled away from Kincraig Bridge. The clouds were heavy and grey with the odd rumble of thunder but it got better and the evening turned into a very still, bright one. There was hardly any wind either. We stopped to camp just past Boat of Bailliefurth at 11.00pm as it was quite dark and there was a thick mist developing. By 6.15am we were off again into a still, sunny, misty morning, the kind we dream of canoeing in. We carried on to Craigellachie where we had a quick lunch at 1.00pm before heading off for Spey Bay which we reached at 5.30pm.
It had been a superb paddle, the low water level kept us on our toes as there were more rock gardens than usual to negotiate. Lots of birdlife, jumping fish and friendly fishermen!