More Tryweryn Goodness. AKA Kayaking a la Alps (apparently you stop for lunch there too?!?! Madness. ALPS HYPE)

So with every river being as dry as a nuns nether regions, Tryweryn is fast becoming the only source of moisture any of us are seeing. (make of that what you will, it is exam season, who has time for moisture?) HOWEVER, I love it.

It was a fine sunny Sunday when the travellers- Dom, Bens Waller& Mason, Adi, Ruth, Jak and Mollie, oh and meee- set off relatively faff-less for the T. A personalised wake up call meant Ruth arrived a little later than the rest of us, but we all got on first for some warm up (though it was hothothot already) above the Chipper and then just below it to start our first run down. Jak and Mollie were photo bunny extraordinaires for most of the day as they waited for us to stop having so much fun on the upper. I was the only casualty of the day I believe, 3 rolls and a swim on the upper with another roll on the lower (and a swim that is not to ever be discussed). The usual lapping of graveyard, avoiding of rafts and eddy hopping ensued and there was, in the words of one of us, more plastic than water on the river that day! Sorry for the lack of hilarity in this report by the way, it all went too smoothly for much comedy!

OH Daaahling you must try this

 Ski jump however, provided some entertainment. After getting my line wrong the first time and having a ‘play’ in the VERY shallow hole, I rolled up, got out and did it again. Having no video proof, I cannot be entered for next year’s down river freestyle category, however spinning round as I went down it, and shooting off and over the rock backwards would have been a win for sure ( possibly. Maybe. Probably not actually) but it felt quite epic in an accidental ‘what just happened’ kind of way. Gnar.

Some interesting characters on the river, personally I thought they were a hoot for most of it (opinions are varying. See fb. For the debate) ba’s without anything else gets you lad points. NAAT. But it is funny when the clouds come over! ‘I love how your tan looks so red and white in the sun!’

Also, Ruth decided things were indeed too boring for her liking and started binning her own group, namely me! I, innocent and unaware she could be so malicious, was simply eddying out and paddling down just after some drop or something, when a bloke went over right in front of me, not noticing it was Ruth in the mini eddy right next to him, I simply tried to steer around him resulting in a cheeky little high brace. This failed when I felt a knock on the bottom/side of my boat that tipped me over for good. This was Ruth. I rolled up, she laughed, I was confused, and Ruth amused. 

So, after a short stop for lunch and a bit of playtime for Ben and Adi, Mollie and Jak joined us below Chapel Falls for our run of the lower. Having not run a river or any white water since the infamous post-exams January trip on the Esk (and a snowy* hill), Jak and Mollie were understandably nervous despite my expert** commentary of what the lower was like. Despite the relatively calm and friendly section, Mollie decided the river and her were just not getting along that day and decided to make a dash for it through a farmers field with her knight in shining armour Jak following in her wake. Sad to see them go, a ‘no eddies’ rule was swiftly put into place to make sure we didn’t leave them lonely for too long. The thing about the lower T is this, it seems to be the dumping ground for all the rocks that God had left over ‘Just chuck them in the lower T, no one will notice with all the flat water in between’. We noticed. The mini boulder gardens were actually really good fun, especially when binning oneself off them into shallow water. It was good rock avoidance training for myself, and good boofing/rock spinning practise for everyone else- although this did make a little dubious about following peoples lines when I knew they were trying to find the good rocks! Some CUTE dogs joined us along the way from the bank, being so happy on seeing them, minus owners, we promptly aww’ed and called to them, however swiftly began the no’s! when they looked to be jumping into the water to swim down with us. Bala Mill was also good fun! Running it blind like old hats, as you do and we all got sweet lines and made it down perfectly fine!

Just practicing....

After a good long day paddling, chips and sun in Bala was laaarvely. It was sunny, warm and beautiful. Hanging kit out to dry in the sun was a new experience for a few of us, and after much discussion, it was decided that it should always be warm and sunny.

Many thankyous to drivers, Dom and Ben Mason. And to Dom for organising!!

Good Day. Well Paddled. Enough Said.

JJ xxxxxxxxxxxx

*snow to mud to children to dog ratio wasn't very good.
** expertise in being vague about what river contained

Tryweryn funtimes 11/05/2013

Happy paddlers: Dom, tolly, gaby, jack, gareth, tim, greg

So 7 happy chappys set off to the trewelyn for a trip that turned out to be full of firsts. In dom’s first trip as trip sec (I think) we set off at some ungodly hour, 8am, to do the lower to start with. We got on just before chapel falls and led for the first time by Gareth cruised down at a comfortable pace with everyone dealing well with the rapids. Tim in particular showing how far he has come this year dealing with the rapids with ease… It’s just a shame he couldn’t show the same level of mastery with those pesky eddie lines! Gaby, after swiping hannah’s beloved boat, had a swim-free run and finished it off with a textbook practice river roll, much to her delight.

After the world’s soggiest lunch we all set-off to run the upper, bar gaby who didn’t want to tarnish her clean sheet for the day. After a quick change of river leader the excellent gareth stepped back to allow our newly appointed captain to take charge, we got on at the upper graveyard, eddie hopping down followed by 2 more circuits, where the focus was more on avoiding the many, many, many rafts than catching any eddies.

Led by tolly the rest of the first circuit was relatively uneventful with everyone managing well at ski jump whilst tim decided to go down miss davies bridge without his boat before everyone tightened spincters when tolly told us exactly how “fingers” had earned its name. Spincters intact we ploughed through the rest of the rapids until we reached our original get-on for the lower.

We decided to run the upper again bar-tim who was feeling the effects of sharing a hole with his boat. Graveyard was blitzed before I was pushed out of my eddie into ski-jump by a raft, said raft then followed clearly not happy with just a push tried to run me over when I was upside down in the rapid, as you do.

After my death-defying stunt we carried on without incident down the river with everyone avoiding a good fingering to the eddie before the final drop. After 2 swim free runs and only one more rapid to complete the hat-trick I was feeling suitably smug, after getting a strong grip on a sturdy sturdy patch of moss I turned to tell tolly about said smugness and lo and behold my sturdy moss detatched itself from the bank dumping me into the water and back into the flow. With paddles long gone and my last glimpse above water being that of tolly in hysterics I pulled my deck happy in the knowledge that I was in my trusty dry suit and couldn’t possibly get wet or cold. So 2 minutes later with me wet and cold standing on the bank and my boat and paddle heroically saved by greg and the still giggling tolly I got a few well deserved “right dickhead” signs off gaby and gareth and we packed up to set home after a fantastic day paddling.

Thank to dom for organising the trip and driving us down and more thanks for gareth and tolly on their excellent river leading.

P.S I love the trewelyn!