Weekend Excursion to Snowdonia

Safe to say this trip was not the smoothest ride us at LUCC have had, but it made for many tales of daring do and many moments to laugh about.

Adventurers: Dom, Ben, Graham, Fiona, Chris, Jak, Jack, Gaby, Jess, Sarah, Charlie, Aqueel, Louis, Maeve.

Friday-To Snowdonia, or Not to Snowdonia?

The trip was in jeopardy due to a change of policy with the AU over bus hire, but once this was ironed out by some sweet talking and fast phone work, we had ourselves vehicles. Next step was food; I proceeded to speed around Bookers to pick up the necessary items; but this time not £25 worth of cheese, instead an industrial tonne of pasta and porridge. Packing up our kit into the van and bus was done with minimal faffing, but the usual scurrying around checking everyone had paddles, boats, BAs and the like. I was driving most of the merry band to Snowdonia in the bus, with Graham following on in the van.

So off we went, with jokes every few metres about my driving after a slight disagreement with a hedge in the Lakes the other weekend. The air of mirth was added to by loud music and general hilarity occurring as we zoomed over the water and onwards.

A stop in Queensferry supplied us with non-nut snacks, plenty of alcohol (as Dom had lifted the curfew idea), and other such delights, including a full Indian meal for Jack Ward.

So further in foreign lands we travelled, until the roads became more adventurous and signs for Deiniolen were spotted. And so ensued the usual malarkey of scout hut hunting, a favourite LUCC pastime; around the village we pottered until eagle-eyed Dom found out destination, and without much further ado, we were installed into our lair. The evening was spent deciding who wanted what bedroom; regaling kayaking tales with Spud, Earnie, Greg and Andy; and discussing the lack of water and paddling options for the next day.

Saturday-Menai Straits and River Conwy

The day started early for some people with Jack Ward neglecting to turn off his alarms at 6.10am, 6.15am and 6.20am. Suffice to say, Greg’s room were not amused, as Jack was snoozing happily in the other room.

Dom had a cunning plan to paddle the Menai Straits, making use of the early morning high tide to play around on. So after a breakfast of porridge so thick it defied gravity we set off down the road.

After careering around some picturesque roads of Anglesey, we kitted up and observed what we believed to be a porn film set, then launched into the clear(ish) waters.

We circled around under the bridge, nailing our ferry-gliding (kind of) eddy hopping and soon learnt that the sea is a whole different ballgame to our native rivers; with changing currents, whirlpools and boils to contend with, we soon tired of the sea, and without a change in tide arriving we pottered off in search of adventure around the corner. Only to find swans and some friendly holiday makers. Off the water we came, had a re-think and decided to go in search of places to gorge walk.

We loaded onto the bus and zoomed along the beautiful roads of Snowdonia, wind blowing through our hair and the world at our feet..until  a call from Aqueel brought us crashing back down.

We had left him alone in the car park back in Anglesey, 30 mins back down the road.

We then realised with nowhere to U-turn we had to press on to the next location, reveal our error to the van drivers and Tolly (who had been alerted to Aqueel’s situation via Facebook). While a gang went back to collect our comrade, the others enjoyed sandwiches in a field and chatted.

Aqueel returned we started a system of number checking before setting off anywhere for the rest of the weekend.

Gorge walking was an expedition exploring the strength of our dry seals, and the Freshers ability to withstand cold water immersion. We leapt into pools, practiced our swimming styles and bouldering techniques. As light started to dim we made a move for home, via a tricky loam bank and a march back through the wood, as opposed to the handy pavement.

Back in the scout hut and warm showers soon made everyone much more cheery, and the prospect of 2.5kg of pasta, and sauce cooked by yours truly and Dom. We had fun in the kitchen manoeuvring the pots and pans, avoiding contaminating the vegetarian option with dead animal, and creating chaos. Louis and Graham were put to work hacking into the mammoth tins of tomato, which I then proceeded to explode all over my face, much to Dom’s amusement.

Once everyone was fed, beverages were consumed and talk turned to drinking games; a good game of categories was started; with topics ranging from Liam’s previous lovers (with Dom disputing what was meant by lover) to cities in the UK, rivers in North Wales and brands of beer. Fiona led the pack with a move for bedtime shortly after 10pm, cracking idea.

Sunday-River Vyrnwy and a Field

Another round of porridge fuelled us for the day, a rapid tidy up and clean around the hut, quick feeding of the local donkeys and we were on the road again, facing a nice 2 hour jaunt to the River Vyrnwy. Alas this didn’t work out so nice; we made good headway until turning off towards Bala meant the roads were on the narrow side, and so I met a large contingent of local Welsh drivers pegging it along the highways. From those minor incidents, we progressed to enter the Welsh rally circuit by accident; thus meeting several high speed, suped-up motors around the bends. Finally out of the race and into impenetrable fog, with oncoming drivers failing to turn on their lights, we progressed on to the valley. Both Fiona and myself were knackered, and thankful to be at the get-on.

A quick lunch, and not-so-easy shuttle were completed, with the entertainment being Jack Ward attempting to seal launch in 1ft of water, he was dissuaded by a stern Fiona.

And off we went down the river, with Ben and Chris leading the way around tree after tree, around rocks and corners. We were doing well, along a nice scenic route, with me and Fiona trying to remember any of the river when a completely unexpected drop was done all together and Jak took a swim. The drop was tucked around a corner, hidden away, but some decisive swimming and boat collecting ensured he was returned to his craft.

Much more wary we pressed on, to discover most rapids were fine to run without safety-ing. Our next episode occurred via fallen tree, the line was meant to gently pass under a nice archway in the foliage, but much to Charlie’s surprise, she was tipped in by the sneaky branches. Chocolate and star-jumps were completed before she was back in her boat.

The rest of the river was completed with no great problems, but with shouts of LEFT LEFT, or PADDLE PADDLE AND KEEP PADDLING. We completed the final bit before the portage of a hideous weir/drop, with a couple of swims and rapid lining and Fresher grabbing.

Onto the second half, which no-one knew and expected to be a gentle 2/3.

This is where the excitement started to set in. The river descended into a gorge with some meaty rapids claiming a good few swims from both groups. Maintaining line of sight became a challenge but we managed. The drops were fantastic fun, and claimed a roll from Jack Ward, after accidently going down one unprepared. Jak Hill decided he was going to boss down them all in quick succession after zooming past the eddy.

Unfortunately more than a few people had started to notice light was fading rapidly, and with Aqueel having disposed of his paddles, the call was made to hop off the river. Dom and Chris set off to the end of the river. Graham and Ben were dispatched into the gloom and up the banks to locate a route up and a road. Graham was met with a vertical cliff and impenetrable hedge. So we camped on river left. A shout signalled to us that we would try and ascend the gorge on the left, so the freshers (who were cold and soggy) were sent up with the paddles, while the rest of us set about tying knots and pulley systems to haul up the boats.

The system involved me and Graham hauling the boats from the bank; then up to Louis at the midpoint, then up to Fiona and Jack, then on to Ben and Jess, and finally Aqueel and Jak tugged them into the field. We had no light at all, so throwing lines down was a fun business. With the Kanali, Hoss and Burn boats nearly breaking us, we completed the haulage of 12 boats. Louis was fantasising about McDonalds and I was lying flat out in the mud. Next step was to untie the Italian hitch knots and to get ourselves up the slope. Upon reaching the summit, news that Chris and Dom were not with us, nor were we ANYWHERE near civilisation, let alone a road made life a bit tough. Jak had set off into the gloom and had not yet returned, so the decision was made to set off in his wake in the hope he had found them.

We got perhaps 5mins down the track before light was seen, and out of the angelic haze came Chris, looking stressed out by greatly relieved. Dom soon appeared, as did Jak with a divine being (this was the farmer) with a tractor and trailer. We loaded the Freshers and some boats onto the back and trekked toward the farmhouses.

As it turned out, Jak had befriended the farmer and had run into Chris and Dom; who had been circling the local area by use of phone satnav for the previous 2hrs. They had one back road to check before the need to call mountain rescue was deemed necessary.

But thankfully that drama was avoided, and we returned to our vehicles around 8.15pm, 3 hours after getting off the river. We changed in the company of a herd of happy cows, and discussed the nights events.

All the drivers were exhausted, but a stop near Oswestry for a much needed Burger King re-fuelling powered us home and back to sheds for the much loved task of unloading boats, bits and bobs.

A whistle-stop tour of the kayaking residences and we were home to chocolate cake, tea, hot showers and beds with duvets.

Thanks and Mentions go to:

Dom and Chris for stress management

Gaby, Fiona, Graham, Dom and Chris for driving

Ben, Dom and Chris for leading

Jack, Louis, Jess, Fiona for safety-ing/scouting/seconding

Jak for his ability to befriend a farmer (not something kayakers are famous for)

Aqueel for being very understanding about the being-left-behind episode

Charlie for staying happy and helpful despite being obviously very cold

Sarah for her very lovely paddling and post-swimming smile

And to Maeve for her endearing laugh and happy demeanour on the river

TEIFI IN WONDERLAND

        What a weekend. Bus sing-a-longs, jelly wrestling, pool games, press ups, shirtless Dom and EVEN some kayaking! Teifi 2013 will go down as a truly great weekend.

FRIDAY – LATE FOR A VERY IMPORTANT DATE

        The weekend began with the troops assembling at sheds on Friday afternoon to get our gear packed into the vans, which surprisingly was achieved with minimum faff! The occasional torrential downpour promised great kayaking conditions for the weekend, as well as giving everyone the first opportunity to get used to having damp clothes; this would become a theme for the next few days! We all split into our vehicles to get comfortable, with our bus getting into the mood quickly with a heavy bass version of wrecking ball getting the windows steamed up and the bus shaking in traffic…that sounded better in my head. The next few hours passed without incident, as everyone got in the mood for the party that night with multiple sing-a-longs as well as discussing what magazine Meg was going to have to buy in front of her mother at tesco (keeping traditions alive). It was at the petrol station however where we learned that Elliot had kept quiet about being the youngest member on the bus, leading to an interesting conversation with customer services about whether they had anything more hardcore than NUTS. We didn’t do any better in improving the Welsh perception of the English when Tom decided to test whether the 70cl bottle of vodka he was carrying could bounce, leading to the biggest avoidance of “spillage is lickage” I’ve ever witnessed! Everyone stocked up on food and drink for the weekend, with enough alcohol being bought to supply the Raz for a month, and with that we embarked on the final part of the journey slightly merrier.   

       We arrived at Teifi to be greeted by a madman driving a lawnmower and wagon who happily told us all to jump in to be driven to the campsite (wouldn’t want anyone getting muddy). After narrowly avoiding falling out of the trailer 3 or 4 times we arrived at our spot to find the rest of LUCC already engaging in the fun activity of setting up tents in the dark. Surprisingly, this didn’t pose as many problems as you might think, although it became apparent quickly that Tom (pronounced Jack) had brought a canvass with a pole attached to it rather than a tent!! Social Sec extraordinaire JJ jumped to the rescue of Sarah and Siriol after their tent broke within minutes of arrival.  With this done the drinks were cracked open, as Liverpool made their presence felt at Teifi with our bright and beautiful pink tshirts. Everyone’s favourite forfeit game was alive and well as one by one people claimed possession of objects, allowing us to get a close up experience of the growing mud. Once everyone had drank enough to stop feeling the cold, special mention to fresher Tom who drank enough vodka to impress a Russian soldier, we got ourselves into the marquee to join the other universities and make Liverpool’s presence known with a moshpit forming almost straight away. The braver of us ran to the pool for some water antics, although most were more sensible in knowing that it would be GOD DAMN FREEZING. Suddenly, a ripple of excitement went through the crowd, as the promised jelly wrestling got underway, with the particular highlight being Spud rugby tackling an increasingly drunk Meg. It was around this point that I helped Meg from being crushed as they rolled the paddling pool away, despite what pictures may suggest was happening… one thing’s for sure, Meg certainly did her fair share of improving inter-club relationships that night! Highlight of the night had to be the front row seat of our amazing trip sec Dom thrashing away in the pool while wind milling his shirt above his head, something not many would have thought they’d see!

SATURDAY – TEIFI IN WONDERLAND

  Despite his active role in the drinking the night before, Dom was up to get the rest of us sleepyheads out of our tents and ready to get on the river. After a quick breakfast, and with heads ringing from the night before, we set off to get the shuttle to the get-on. A quick look at the river was enough to see that the heavy rain had done its job, as the water was moving quickly and had risen above most of rocks on the river; it would also make finding eddies more difficult. We split into our difficult groups and got ready to get paddling for the first time. For Aqueel this was his first time on a river at all, but he displayed the enthusiasm we look for at LUCC and was eager to start. Despite the fast flowing water, the river didn’t pose too many problems for our groups for the most of it, other than giving Graham the unenviable job of finding eddies; this led to a lot of zig-zagging across the river as we discovered that the eddy we were heading for wasn’t an eddy. Other than a small wave to drop through the high levels of the river had washed out most of the features on the river, although we did get excitement on hearing rumours that our mighty Trip Sec had swum, although it turned out he had actually just been rescuing a member of his group.

  The first bit of carnage of the weekend happened purely by accident, as we all eddied out into what I can only describe as the eddy from hell. The size of it had lured many of the groups into it, across a very boily eddy line which claimed victims from each group, and it quickly became necessary to maintain a low brace as precaution as more and more people came crashing in and nearly binning people. Gareth in particular enjoyed this part of the river as he was called to rescue not just members of our club, but other clubs as well. After escaping out of the chaos we carried on as before, only for Graham to spot a paddler casually standing in the water by a tree. After guessing correctly that it was one of ours, we discovered a stranded Jack (Tom) on the side of the river. This led to an example of how not to rescue someone as some idiot from another university attempted to help, instead dragging Tom through more trees. It was after this point that we discovered that Dom had in fact managed to swim!

    Without much carnage we reached the get off for lunch, with everyone happy to tuck in to some food as hangovers started to kick in. Unfortunately, my hangover took a turn for the worse leading me to sit out the last bit of paddling for the day, as the last thing anyone wants to see is chunder in an eddy! The rest of the group, after a bit of faff, got back on the river to run the slalom section of the river, which nearly everyone completed without difficulty. I say nearly everyone, after Ant’s friend capsized trying to avoid knocking one of our freshers out of an eddy, failed to roll twice, Ant’s attempt to dead man rescue him leading to his own roll, before finally the friend swam! The group then decided to keep it as a short second session as the high river levels had essentially washed out the Cauldron and there was no easy way back to the campsite without going right down to Henllan.

     The torrential downpour shortly after this gave an excuse to impose LUCC nap time, with Tom finally admitting that his tent was not a tent and joining the growing contingent sleeping with Tabs. Greg’s tent joined the growing list of casualties, however stayed standing with the help of beer bottles used as tent pegs. We were roused out of our warm (albeit slightly soggy for some) sleeping bags by the news that food was being served in the marquee, and so we made our way in excited at the prospect of a warm meal. Despite a few delays, for some reason Jack from Manchester didn’t want our table getting food and supposedly gravy takes a LONG TIME to cook, the food was awesome and set everyone in a good mood for the party that night.

     We all took advantage of the pause in the rain to run back to our tents and get our pre-drink in for the party that night. Eager to out-do the night before, the majority of us took the “no alcohol going home” rule seriously, and Ryan set the mood with the revelation of his own homemade speakers to get the music playing. Gradually, we each donned our costume for the night, with me finding out the joy of how comfortable fish net leggings are! Although there was awkwardness as myself, Adam, JJ, Malin and Ailsa all went for the queen of hearts costume; I wouldn’t say I pulled it off the best out of everyone, but it was a close call. After some group bonding over a pre-drinks session of “I Have Never” we set off for the marquee looking like an advertisement for “don’t let your kids talk to strangers”. Within minutes of being in the party I had been thrown head over heel into the pool, and decided that as I was already wet it would make sense to join Meg in representing our illustrious uni in the pool games. Unfortunately, for the 2^nd year running Greg managed to beat us in the name of JMU, but we took defeat graciously. I would love to describe what happened at the party that night but if anyone wasn’t aware I was so trashed that the majority of it would probably me made up. I do remember having a piggy back battle with Tom, Ruth and Spud in the pool, and there are photos that have me in the pool with Greg, who was wandering around with a pink flamingo tied round his neck, and I remember the night ending with a huge conga line to the song Love Train, but other than that specifics are quite difficult. One thing’s for sure, it was a fantastic night and the sort of night that proves why LUCC is such a good group to party with.

  

 SUNDAY – A TRIP TO THE WYE

      After deciding against repeating his drunken antics of the Friday night Dom was up bright and early to get everyone out of their tents to pack away, ready for our last day of paddling. Due to the high river levels washing out anything interesting on the Teifi the decision was made to journey north in search of something more exciting, namely the Upper Wye. Packing away tents was easier said than done as the strong winds nearly made more than one blow away while being unpegged. Without too much faff we got everything sorted and said a fond farewell to the campsite before climbing into the minibuses for the couple of hours it would take to the get-on. Surprisingly, our bus was most lively when Enrique Iglesias’ Hero came on the radio, as we all joined in for a rousing sing-a-long, but it became clear quickly that the DJ must have recently been going through a break up as the playlist resembled the sort of music you would listen to when crying yourself to sleep.

    We reached the get on without incident, and engaged in eating a quick lunch before getting stripped off in the road into our gear. Those of us who were still drunk from the night before, mainly me, enjoyed Ben’s music booming from the van and happily danced away until the heavens decided to open on us. Attempts at a sun dance were not very successful. To try and make the most of the light we got on as quickly as possible, with the water flowing slightly slower than the Teifi, but still at pace. A small set of waves around the first bend gave us a chance to shake the cobwebs from the night before out of heads before we set off confidently downstream.

    The confidence didn’t last too long though, as our group had our first bit of carnage of the weekend. A seemingly innocuous rapid took myself, Tabs and Sarah out at the same time, on the same rock, giving Graham and Greg some much needed work to do. After all the boats had been rescued and Greg had succeeded in crab walking Tabs and Sarah to the river bank we got back into our boats in time to watch the group behind us go to the far right and avoid the rock completely. Our good form of the first day paddling had taken a turn for the worse as we had several over the rest of the river, however, this is what trips are for and it’s great to give the experienced members practice in rescues! A boulder garden and a couple of small drops on the river gave everyone a great excitement rush, as well as giving the newer paddlers some good experience of upper grade 3 rapids. Ben Thwaites also selflessly taught the freshers a lesson of why a spraydeck is so important! After deciding it wasn’t worthwhile putting his spraydeck on for the sake of dropping down twenty meters to an eddy he happily set off downstream. Five minutes before I’d been talking to Graham and Greg about a rock just underneath the water by the eddy that had almost binned me, and watched with surprise as the same rock lifted Ben’s boat just enough to fill it with water, giving him his first ever swim with LUCC. Safe to say Ben was not a happy bunny!! With visibility becoming an issue, and after a large amount of swims over the last section of the river the decision was made to get off the river early. The get off produced a bit of drama of its own, as an overhanging tree root gave one of our freshers (Malin?) a scary experience, but fortunately superman JT was there to make sure things didn’t get nasty. This led to a tense get off for our group as JT and Kim stood in the water to make sure none of us went near the same spot. Unfortunately, Kim was also responsible at this point for saying the forbidden word, and did her forfeit in the river like a trooper.

    Once we were all of the river we happily got changed into our warm clothes, relieved at the thought that we wouldn’t be getting wet again that weekend. With it getting darker we got the stuff packed away as quickly as possible, and afterwards Dom gave us our Teifi in Wonderland tshirts that he had sensibly kept away from us while we were all getting muddy and horrible. A trip to mcdonalds on the way back was the perfect end to the trip, with everyone tucking into their hard-earned greasy meal after a good days kayaking. Unfortunately, there was still time to piss of staff members again as I could only watch as my large coke went sliding off my tray to explode on the floor, leading to the second refusal of the spillage is lickage rule. After filling up we made our way back to the minibuses to rest and contemplate on an amazing weekend. Thank you so much to everyone who came, it was probably my favourite trip that I’ve been on with the Canoe Club and I can’t wait to do it all again next year!!!!!

 Written by Social Sec Jak.

Conwy and Wnion fun

Paddlers:  Dom, Greg, Graham, Tim, Louis, Earnie, Chris

Saturday morning saw kayakers waking bright and early (or dark and early as it actually was) ready for a fun day of boating.  Luckily for Chris, Greg was more alert than most and realised Chris might actually want his boat bringing (note for future telling people they are supposed to be picking up kit from sheds for you is a good idea).

We soon picked up more paddlers from the Wirral and seven of us headed to the Conwy the first target of the day.  With little faff we managed to sort out the shuttle in time to get on a low Conwy before 9am.  Nominating Graham as leader for the day the run started off uneventful.  The river was slightly on the low side but not too scrappy.



Graham picked all the best lines



A few waves were found to play on the way down and we soon reached the usual get out for the section.  I had run shuttle to here being unconvinced the section down to Conwy falls is worth the portage faff.  On the river Earnie managed to convince me otherwise so we all headed on to the lower section with keen eyes out for the first grade 5 to portage.  A rather narrow shoot was the first false alarm but soon we found the first grade 5.  This looked horrible so everyone was out their boats and walking round.  After climbing down some rather slippery rocks we were back on the river. 







We soon found the second grade 5 which had a more difficult portage.  Earnie and Greg avoided worst bit by getting out right above it.  The rest less confident of getting out at the last second had a steep climb up a muddy bank to welcome us.  After a while of staring at the hole as the bottom of gobbler Earnie decided it was not the day to run it so we all started the seal launch back in at the bottom.  On the next rapid Louis discovered some rocks to get pinned on and experienced his first British swim.  Some rather amusing/ perilous rescues occurred and soon everyone was back in boats determined not to repeat previous mistakes of going round blind corners into inescapable gorges (I had put climbing rope in my car just in case). 

After a quick walk and drive to do the shuttle we checked the levels and decided the rain showers were enough to bring the Wnion to a good level.  A rather long drive then occurred.  Different routes were taken and despite my not actually fixed car not liking the hills too much we managed to reach the get on first.  A slightly rushed shuttle ended up leaving Tim having to run down the river after we decided river was probably too high for him after running shuttling his dry clothes to bottom of river.

First drop on the Wnion

The Wnion was at a good medium level according to the gauge.  It was my first time so not sure how much that corresponded to reality.  The first drop under the bridge was done fine by everyone.  We then pressed on over easy quite shallow water.  Unsure of exact location of the “crux” rapid we proceeded with some caution.   I managed my first swim quite early on.  Silly panicky fast rolling attempts failed me and a swim in a rather rocky rapid occurred.  I quickly got out and my kit was all rescued.

We carried on a bit more and soon found the “crux”.  Everyone other than me styled it I think hitting the line well.  I decided that back looping my mamba was much more fun.  My roll decided this was a good time to work so everything was fine.  The river then got steeper (or felt it did I may just have been getting tired) and we soon entered the gorge section.  About half way down I saw half the group had eddied out but unsure if I could make the eddy I followed Earnie on down.  Now being nearly in the front I decided it was a good time to capsize and my rubbish panicky roll reappeared.  The resulting swim in the gorge probably classes as my worst ever swim but think only went through two or three holes before I managed to grab an eddy (apparently Earnie was thinking of attempting to barge me boat style into an eddy).  As I sat on rock recovering everyone else paddle past without incident.  Seeing my kit had washed out of gorge I decided best option was to climb out to meet everyone else.  After a short walk I was reunited with all my kit for the second time and we continued the short distance to the get out.  Managing to get off the river with 30 mins to spare till darkness fell.



Nice place for a Swim

 

Driving back my car decided it wasn’t too happy but the stop in Bala seemed to do it good.  Greg’s car decided to play chicken with a trolley in a supermarket car park.  Reports indicate the trolley lost.  All in all a fun if rather tiring day for all was had.