We left the lock up at about 5 on Friday afternoon and made good time to Wales, arriving at the caravan site in Llangorse in time to go down the pub for a drink or four, finding a corner already valiantly occupied by some of the club members who had made their own way to Wales. By closing time it was freezing outside and even colder in the incredibly thin walled caravans.

Clearly if we could feel the cold we weren’t drunk enough so we turned on all the heaters and ovens in the party caravan (the one furthest from all the people who wanted sleep, but from what I’ve been told not far enough!) and had a drink, a sing song, a drink, a game of Jaffa Cake cricket and another drink. Whilst arsing about in the caravan Lee discovered a Jug which was promptly filled with a shot of coke and a lot of vodka and christened THE JUG OF DOOM. After several rounds of JUG OF DOOM enhanced with Baileys, lager and more vodka everyone was a lot drunker and the caravan was a lot messier but unfortunately just as cold. Considering it was supposed to be the warm up night everyone was quite drunk and there were several pukers, including a still unknown mystery one who had trouble aiming for the toilet.

Saturday morning bought a few sore heads which were promptly sorted out with a fried breakfast. After some faffing and tidying up of the caravan, which resembled a bomb site, we set off for the river. Saturday’s section was Talybont to Llangunidir. I was unsure what to expect as this was my first time on a river but the flat bit to begin with eased me in nicely, although not nicely enough that I managed to stay in my boat in the first two rapids we came to. With two swims I had secured 1st place in the swimming competition for the weekend and after that resolved to stay in my boat (the other entrants with 1 swim each were James, Siobhan and Stuart). The water level was very low so there was a lot of scraping going on in places, but after my two swims it was relatively easy going and by the end I was feeling pretty good and had got back a lot of confidence.

After a trip to Brecon to stock up on supplies, we went down the pub to line our stomachs with some tasty grub before the evening’s festivities commenced. It was the last open weekend for the campsite so they had to sell off all their booze cheaply whilst entertaining what felt like the whole village with an ‘amazing’ fireworks display (it was bonfire night after all) and a disco (only in Wales…). Before the dancing could commence everyone drank copious amounts of super cheap alcohol including, for the braver (stupider?) amongst us, more JUG OF DOOMS than anyone would probably like to think about. Suitably warmed up, the Sussex Disco Club got into full swing with all sorts of shapes being thrown on the dance floor. With the exception of certain early leavers who shall remain unnamed, most people stuck the evening out and after literally drinking the bar dry, everyone returned for either bed or another drunken singing session, which managed to make an even bigger mess of the party caravan than the night before.

Sunday dawned to even sorer heads than the previous morning which were only partially sorted out by breakfast. This resulted in a great deal of faffing and whinging at the get on at Sennybridge but eventually everybody (with the exception of a few bottlers) managed to get sorted out and get on a very low river. Despite the sore heads, most people I spoke to enjoyed Sunday’s section (Sennybridge to Aberbran) a bit more than Saturdays. Again, there was a lot of scraping on rocks on the low river but it was a good chance for beginners like me to learn a few things and gain some valuable confidence.

All that was left was an uneventful trip home and then some well needed rest.