The weekend started when I left my flat in Harrow, NW London at 1845 to start the drive to our accommodation for the weekend in Capel Curig, North Wales. Picking Amy up from the station in Harrow, we headed to Henley to collect her kit and meet Emma. I made the foolish mistake of believing that I know better than my sat nav and promptly got us lost before we’d even made it 5 miles from my flat! Unfortunately, this was only the start of the delays.
Having made the stop-off in Henley and now with three people in the car and three boats on the roof we continued with the journey. All was going swimmingly until, a few miles short of the M40/M42 junction Amy suddenly realised that she had left all of her paddling kit in her house in Henley. A few phone calls later and it was decided that she would borrow Caz’s kit for the weekend so we headed to her house in Sutton Coldfield. Shortly after arriving at Caz’s, Amy changed her mind and decided she didn’t want to come to Wales with us. Dropping her off in Birmingham, from where she was to be picked up, Emma and I set off again for Wales. Teh time was now about 2300. As we left Birmingham we had a call from the guys who had left uni in the minibus a few hours before and were already at the location of the hut and all they had to do now was locate the actual hut. An hour and a half later, we reveived another call from them saying that they had finally managed to find the hut. They had been looking for almost two hours!! The long drive across to Wales was made even tougher by the dense fog – which at times reduced visibility to just a few metres! At 0130 we finally arrived at the hut and immediately joined in with the drinking games.
Waking up on Saturday morning we were treated to a stunning view with the sun glinting off the frosty ground across the valley
View from the hut on Saturday morning
Deciding that a breakfast of cereal was not going to cut it, we headed off to find a cafe from where more suitable sustenance could be sought over a chat about which river to paddle. Knowing that levels were low, the Llyfni was decided on as it was most likely to have enough water to paddle. After some faffing and getting changed, the shuttle was run and we prepared to get on.
The Freshers. From left Dave, Robert, Yen, Jude, Ben, Miles and Vicky
Unfortunately, looking immediately downstream from where we were supposed to get on, the path was blocked by trees. A few of us walked down the bank as far as we could go (only about 50 metres) but we were still unable to see if there was a route through all the trees. Even a quick paddle down through the trees did not provide a route through – at one stage I couldn’t even work out which direction was downstream! This resulted in the decision that we could not paddle this section. Instead we headed to the beach for a little paddle.
Emma walking up the beach at Pontllyfni
Sunset from the beach at Pontllyfni
Saturday night saw the usual activities – dinner, drinking, a bit of playfighting, a pillow fight – all ending with Joe falling out of bed from the third bunk!
Sunday morning started earlier than the previous day, aided with a sausage sandwich. A quick pack up and clean meant that we were on the road by 0900 as we headed towards the River Dee, from Chainbridge to Llangollen. It seemed that everyone other paddler in North Wales had also decided to run the Dee on Sunday as everywhere you looked there were groups.
Breaking up into two groups of seven, my group set of first. Serpent’s Tail was quickly upon us and this is where we had our first swims of the day. Dave managed to swim just above the rapid after colliding with Robert. Sion went into the stopper first and promptly went over. Vicky, who was following Sion, followed his lead and went over and swam. Emma managed to go through unscathed but the rest of us weren’t as lucky. Robert went into the stopper, capsized and swam, quickly followed
by Steve. For some unknown reason Steve decided to join Dave, Vicky and Robert and partake in an “out-of-boat experience” – his first proper whitewater swim! To make matters even worse, he was only wearing neoprene shorts to keep his legs warm! A rapid set of rescues later and we were ready to carry on. Instead, we waited for the other group to run the rapid. However, they were in the process of re-uniting Ben with his boat following a short swim upstream. Jude and Ben decided to portage Serpent’s Tail, but both Yen and Miles decided to run it. Miles ran through without any problems, but Yen discovered how the Nano likes to play in stoppers – resulting in a swim.
The trip down to Town Falls was uneventful, except for Robert and Ben who both took swims immediately above where we were due to get out and inspect Town Falls. We watched a few people run down the left-hand line of the falls, but we were looking at running the main line. I volunteered to demonstrate the line and luckily managed to run it without getting my head wet. Returning to the bridge, Emma P and Steve had both decided not to run it, and Miles was the only fresher up for it. I ran the falls first and got myself into a position from where I could provide safety cover, while Emma B lead the others down. Emma managed to get down, but rolled. Joe got down upright. Miles followed Joe and went over at the start of the rapid – only to roll up just as he dropped into the main part of the rapid. Expecting him to swim – he had never rolled on a river before, let alone in whitewater like this – we were all surprised to see him roll up at the bottom of the rapid. Dave B came down next and was treated to a bit of skyward action courtesy of tail-squirt. Sion followed Dave down and also managed to stay upright.
Me running Town Falls, River Dee
Joe (foreground) and Miles (background) on Town Falls, River Dee
More photos from the weekend are available on my Picasa site