When Things Go Wrong

Sometimes ambition exceeds ability/technology. I learned that the hard way a few weeks ago.

Where it was taken

The photo above is something very rare indeed. A photo of the Auchenlillian Spout, a narrow gorge through the rock at the head of Carron Glen. To get here you need to park at Carron Bridge than make your way down the bank of the river. The Sothside of the river gets you to the place the photo above was taken. The north side is arguably easier to access ( though ther eis a very steep slope at the final drop) but it doesn’t afford this particular view and the gorge is harder to see.

On Location

Let me set the scene.

As well as being a keen Photographer and hobbyist Drone pilot, I also love my angling. If you want to read more about my Fly fishing in Scotland have a read at my Blog, The Unfamous Fly. One of my regular fishing river’s is the River Carron that starts in the Campsies north of Glasgow and nowadays, by way of Carron Valley Reservoir flows down into Carron Glen then Dunipace/Denny, Larbert, and onwards downstream through some former industrialised areas out to sea near Grangemouth.

While I consider this river familiar territory, there are a couple of areas I have tended to not fish mainly through lack of knowledge of where the boundaries are and how accessible they are. The bottom section of the river beyond Larbert, and the top section of the river through Carron Glen.

I decided in this closed season to make the effort to explore both ends with a view to finding some new water to fish, but also to maybe find some photographic opportunities. The bottom section I explored in an afternoon, but the Carron Glen proved to be an altogether more challenging task.

On one reconnaisance I explored up through the Fankerton nature reserve until I could go upstream no more. This was a good two and a half miles of trekking through some fairly undulating ground often finding yourself a good 100 feet or so above the water level as the steep walls of the Glen pushed in upon the river.

All the way up the Glen you have lots of waterfalls and areas that in the right conditions I feel would maybe be quite nice photographic subjects. On my two outings it was dull and grey so not particularly conducive to photos.

While I went as far as I could I had not located the upper river barrier to migratory fish, the Auchenlillian Spout. I assumed this was some sort of steep waterfall that fish could not jump up. Never having seen a photo of this, nor heard much about it at all, I was keen to locate and try get a shot of this.

I had a second outing to the Glen and entered from the upper end near Carron Bridge, I opted to work my way down the south bank as it looked easier going, frankly but as I entered the top of the Glen it soon became apparent I wasn’t going to get too far. The north side actually looked like it had more options but crossing the river wasn’t going to be achievable without walking back the way I had come, a good mile cross-country.

I decided to fly my drone and see if there was any sign of the “mythical” spout. I flew it out no more than a few hundred metres away over the trees and thought I could indeed see something. I noticed there seemed to be a way around the plantation I was at and on down the valley bypassing the high glen walls I was blocked by. 

Edging round the plantation I made it back into the Glen a little further down and following my ears I located, finally, the Auchenlillian Spout.

It was a bit of a scramble to get somewhere to take a moderately decent photo. It then struck me how cool it would be to get a picture of the full majesty of this natural feature, but sending my drone down the gorge cut by the river. There was no practical way to do this other than by drone.

While this is very much dense woodland there was a narrow channel through the trees and I was pretty sure I could with a little care and by switching off collision avoidance (necessary as the walls were tighter than CA would permit), fly the drone down the gorge and get a shot looking up the falls. That would have to be a first worth trying.

I switched on the drone and it registered 12 satellites for its fix. With Collision avoidance off, I edged it out into the upper area of the gorge and still things were fine, I had to fight the drone a wee bit to get it to go under one branch of a tree directly in front of me, for some reason it seemed to want to rise, and I was having to give it full stick to keep it low but I cleared the branch and edged into the gorge ahead of me.

I was going slow, the drone no more than 20 feet away, I turned it to get a view back at the falls more or less below me when suddenly it started acting erratically. It was reporting it was in the non-GPS mode and seemed to be moving off to my left. I decided to prevent errors on my part it would be wise to face the drone away from me, where left is left and right is right, then pull it back towards me, but it wasn’t having it, it turned about 90 degrees, under I think, my control and then just drifted to my right into the side of the gorge. Nothing I could do would stop it. I lost sight of it as it seemed there was an undercut ledge, like a shallow depression in the wall, almost like a cave and it seemed to go in here and out of my sight, and presumably clipped the glen wall. At first, I thought it had fallen in the water but then realised it seemed to have landed upside down or at least facing the rocks and was still actually transmitting, but I couldn’t see it and it was reporting motor shut down due to overheating ( something obstructing the props).

Gone!

I couldn’t see it or get near it and made a special trip out the next day to get there from the north side of the Glen. Unfortunately, I still could not see it and though I worked out a potential way to reach where it might be, it would be at least a two, probably three man task and requires ropes and equipment that I don’t have or the physical abilities to use these days.

Alas I have to face that it has gone.

Ps. I have secured a replacement so normal service has resumed!