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| Reviews & Photos | Tryweryn 17-19 April 2009 | |||||
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A few of us decided to go up to the Tryweryn this April for what turned out to be fun in the sun (complete with hand tans, yay). The drive up consisted of perfect kayaking weather (ie pouring rain) which seemed to disappear as we got closer to Wales. We were staying in the Goat Inn, which is good as the room you sleep in is directly above the bar, which is open til 0100, result (if slightly pricey). Despite rain throughout most of Southern England, looking at the water levels in North Wales made us realise how lucky we were to get a Tryweryn release this weekend, if only for 1 day. On arrival at the pub, I got tactically tipsy, which meant I slept through all the snoring in our room that night. I think I’ll have to use this tactic in future cos its far more effective than earplugs. In the morning we drove over to the Tryweryn in the sunshine. Being the only river running in Wales, it was quite busy. We got on to the Upper section and went down in teams of 2. Team Burger (myself and Si) boshed down, with Simon showing me how to get all the smaller eddies and me showing Si how to just miss them and run everything until the next medium sized eddy afterwards sideways or backwards, all captured on film for your amusement by Rosie, who was official photographer. It was a great day for Tyweryn-ing cos it was sunny and warm for once and everyone had heaps of fun, with lots of decent wave surfing going on by the café. Charles looked pretty pleased with herself as she managed to beat her sister by having no swims on her first run of the upper section. This proves (rather unscientifically) that Sussex Uni paddlers are better than Birmingham Uni paddlers! After a well earned lunch we carried back up to the top (don’t they have Sherpas in Wales?) and ran the upper again. I managed to paddle half of it without a drainplug in- luckily I didn’t swim after failed rockspin led to an upstream pin (on the only rock in the river at that particular point). This didn’t lead to an upside down moment where I inexplicably let go of my paddles. If this had happened, which of course it didn’t, it would have been the moment I remembered I can't handroll so I would have had to bail! I could have gone for a t-rescue but I think everyone would have been laughing too much to paddle up to me. All speculation of course. If anyone tries to tell you any different I think its because there was something in the water which caused a group hallucination. I’m considering phoning the EA and reporting this contamination. After an evening in the pub and a morning of F1, we drove over to the Dee to run Chain Bridge to Town Falls. We had a fun run down a rather low section, with a bit of hole* surfing and a bit of surfing. Followed by town falls watched by a large crowd of tourists, and a banquet burger- woohoo! By Duncan Stokes *not Rosie’s. Infact Rosie asked me to be nice for once in a trip report so I will say I was impressed by her paddling, and she didn’t do anything mock-worth all weekend! |