A trip that was possibly only going to be three paddlers turned into five with Mike Hill joining and Michael announcing that he would be coming too that very morning. This meant that five people, five paddles, fives sets of kit, five boats and a fold up bike were crammed into Martins hatchback. We cut the put in short by about a mile as the daunting cycle Martin faced was a little too much. None the less Martin drove down to the get out, unloaded his bike and began the 10km hill climb back to the put in. Whilst away Mike Hill decided to tuck into lunch nice and early whilst Mike Napier decided to try and abseil off a nearby bridge using a throw line, only to find he’d forgotten the right knot (if any knot at all) and consequently fall off the ledge. That was the end of that game! After that Simon got on the water to head down to a small wave we had spotted. Ross and Mike.N joined him in a rather environmentally unfriendly way by seal launching down a 25ft long river bank. Fun though! So the three lads paddled down to the small wave and had a bit of a surf. Mr Harral returned remarkably quickly from his cycle and the trip got underway.
Although this was only a grade 2-3 trip we had to exercise some caution as no one had paddles this stretch before (in our group). The trip started with some small grade 2 rapids which everyone took with no trouble. The first feature was a nice wave/hole/stopper all in one which proved excellent fun. Plenty of photos were taken here.
Once again more small rapids followed but eventually the river flowed into a narrow, deep gorge. This was full of weird swirling eddy-lines which caught just about everyone out at some point. No one was quite sure how deep it was, so naturally Ross and Michael thought they’d find out…. By jumping off a 20ft cliff! Luckily they discovered it was deep enough although by how much we have no idea.
The next feature split into two stoppers with a rock separating them, a small gravel island in the middle of the river offered an excellent place for a rest. The stopper on river right turned out to be perfectly friendly. Whilst everyone was on this Simon thought he’d try out the particularly nasty looking stopper o river left. Luckily he was spat out after a few nervous seconds. Martin decided best not to play, but Ross (stopper probe) Tiley thought it looked like a good plan, so in he went, and out he popped fine. “Pahh” he thought manlily, “that’s not so bad!” so in he went again, only to be quickly corrected by the stopper that it was in fact slightly bad and was subsequently dished out a most thorough spanking. Three rolls later a tired and rather drowned Ross emerged only to check with Michael the whole episode had been caught on film. Luckily Michael was wielding a camera, not a throw line, and his friends were on hand to laugh from a safe distance. That’s OK then!!!
Anyway, they pressed on into yet another gorge, with yet more swirling eddies. The trip finished with a nice grade 2+ rapid. However Just as Mike.H and Martin reached the end they noticed a nasty looking metre high fall into a hole. Too late for Mike, he ploughed through. But Martin signalled for Ross, Simon and Michael. In Simon went next to Martin, then Ross squeezing into the gap in the eddy, and then Michael… turning… missing the eddy… and shooting the fall backwards! Luckily it went OK and he popped up beneath. Next Martin shot and to Simon and Ross’ shock he flipped over and rolled :S now this doesn’t happen very often so Ross and Simon shot with some caution. However both made it fine and so it has been concluded Martin just isn’t as good as them!
After the trip the guys drove up to have a look at Llyn Brianne slipway, a 350 meter long slide out of a reservoir. Unfortunately Martin Harrall is a little too old for this and he decided we weren’t going to do it.
Good trip overall and as usual a great laugh!
Ross Tiley
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