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| Reviews & Photos | Wye 22-24 February 2008 | |||||
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Wye oh Wye oh Wye?!
I finally went on a long overdue river trip to the beautiful Wye river in lovely Wales and despite the low volume of water, thoroughly enjoyed myself! Nice uneventful drive to the bunkhouse, until that is my wonderful directions ran out on the road where, somewhere, the bunkhouse was hiding and it became a gritted teeth effort to beat Lee – both to the bunkhouse itself and the race for beds - a 31 to 15 ratio was not promising. (Tip - be a driver, you get one anyway!!) Great, great bunkhouse with separate bunk rooms and three separate bathrooms – and plenty of floorspace (key point, see above ratio!). The separate rooms really made this a trip for all ages and talents……. Those of us who wanted to sleep could slope off quite happily in anti social heaven, bed down and be fresh faced for a days paddling, whilst those of us (mad fools) who wanted the jug of doom could indulge until it was down to the last doom laden drops….. (Lee, £1.50 is not a promising price for Port…..) Anyway, more doom later, first the paddling! Despite low levels, the Wye was still well worth a paddle with some excellent parts to try new skills, reinforce old skills and practice swimming (note, blue hair dye doesn’t mix well with river water..)! The great part of being a mixed ability group is that there is loads of experience if you do want to push yourself, but it’s cool to walk if you feel more comfortable. A nice leisurely 3 hour or so paddle (and the odd scrape) started the weekend off beautifully with a few good swims, an excellent seal launch (which Louis masterfully combined with a good swim…) and a wee bit of fast water for a bit of adrenaline – fish steps at the end finished the paddling day nicely! Great evening in the pub, although the poor staff suddenly faced with 30 hungry paddlers may not have agreed……good rugby (judging by the huge “swing low” rendition) followed by excellent cheesy “dangerous Dave” disco which started surprisingly well then plummeted downhill - all that was missing was the Macarena (No Marco you see)….. Step in the drivers to rescue the poor misguided club (drunken more like….) and take them back to the bunkhouse for more doom and Father Abraham! Several surreal moments follow: 1. Walking into communal area for cup of tea to find entire canoe club with trousers around their ankles and Dave, once again, flashing his arse 2. Lying in bunk listening to repeated “Who oh who put cake into the jug of doom?” 3. A surprisingly tuneful happy birthday (to lovely Lucy) followed by the much less tuneful sad story of someone who used to work in Chicago but for strange reasons no longer did……(you really have to join the club to find out more……) Day 2 9 a.m.Excellent nights sleep and fresh for another day of paddling! Or…… 10 a.m. Drunken nights sleep querying days paddling and desperately needing carbohydrate cue Lee with cooked breakfast! 11 a.m. In the damn bus or no paddling! Slightly fewer paddlers than the day before (not everyone has your stamina for drink and paddling Lee…) decided on the slightly fuller River Usk and a brisk hours paddle to the get off. A smooth river with few excitements but a couple of bits to practice skills on (got the hang of that old ferry thingy – thanks T.D!) More swims - if you want an award this year I think the current (geddit?!) best is 7….. (over two days). Mill falls provided a little excitement although kayaks were almost more likely to get stuck on a rock than go over (some of us did manage both most skillfully naming no names ….poor Sarah…). Team “No Swim” must’ve been very cautious that’s all I’ll say! Then loading up vans, shivering in hoodies and traveling back to beautiful Brighton for another full week of life (and Ben and Duncan unloading boats at the lock up with their trousers mysteriously around their ankles again… someone buy those boys a belt!)! Great trip, thoroughly recommend it! I’ll definitely try another, albeit under a new presidential reign, well done Duncan for your term in office! by Victoria Bonnett |