Welsh Adventures And ALMOST The Right River


(It's not concise, but I think today warrants a full write up!)


Ogwen


The day had finally come. The heavens had opened and the Lordy Lordy up above opened his flies and took a big piss on the lands below. All was looking good for the weekend, though levels didn't rise quite as much as expected. Come early Sunday morning, rainchasers was littered with far too many red and orange dots for our liking (apart from Scotland which had a flood warning on the BBC website). Still, the plans were in place and BBC promised some heavy scattered showers in North Wales so we weren't willing to turn back. 


Heading onto Rainbow Road. Mario Kart wooo!!!

An alcohol-scented Ben Thwaites arrived at sheds, with three hours sleep notched on his bedpost, whereas we're still waiting to find out the location of Rhys. Is he alive? Anyone? Meh... We racked up the boats anyway and set off to Asda on the Wirral for breakfast, which a) is at Ellesmere Port, not Queensferry, b) the replacement Asda we located is in a labyrinth of roundabouts and one way roads, and c) funnily enough isn't open at 8:40am on a Sunday.


Crossing into Wales with clear skies wasn't promising, but the further around the A55 we went, the grimmer and greyer it got...WOO! The rain fell, and heavy.

The heavens opened as we got closer.

Greg bossing the first rapid.

Pretty fun rapids from the start.

Arriving at the Ogwen get on, feelings were back to being excited. We mucked around at Ogwen Bank falls, and Greg, then Lloyd, then me ran it. Greg had a splendid line down it. I missed Lloyd's Allstar whiz by, and due to me focusing purely on the first section of the rapid, took the slide at the bottom very much sideways. But, I was very happy nevertheless.


The Ogwen below was straight into being challenging which a few people had wobbles and high braces on, but no trouble. The river bimbled down with some interest and we were caught up by a hungover (still drunk) Liam, Stu and Bumler. A technical and fun rapid marked the last point for anyone to decide to get off, then we continued downstream in pairs. Oh, wow, the Ogwen is good fun. Apparently better in higher levels but I was on cloud 9 with my first run of it.


Ruth popping out of her boat as though it was lined with butter.

Roughly half way down, Ruth somehow knocked the eject button on her boat and took a surprise swim but was able to hop out pretty quickly whilst me and Graham rescued her boat down the crux section of the river (note to self, run that section properly next time, it looked good!). We carried on, cluster-fudging most of the river in an unbroken chain of boats! 


The river was superb fun. I was loving life, as I'm sure a few others were; maybe not Liam who was having a rolly off day in his hungover state. Not much in the way of carnage.


At the end we got out, considered stringing one of the drivers boats from the bypass and then decided to take shelter from the pouring rain. Most people had decided to call that a day, but I know I wasn't ready to go home yet. Stamina, ey ladies  *vom*


One last drop before the get-out.

The Aberglaslyn (or maybe not after all!)


With much deliberation, me Grog and Graham set off in search of the Aberglaslyn Gorge much to my excitement of checking off two new rivers in a day. Problem was, without a map, satnav, smartphone signal, or a river guide, we were going off Stu's directions, which kind of ceased at 'a T junction' we would eventually get to. We stopped to ask for directions, from a couple, who turned out to be from Holland, but were able to confirm we were headed in the right direction. When we got to the village of Beddgellert, there was something reminiscent of a T-junction, and we turned up the road towards Caernarfon which sounded familiar from somewhere on UK Rivers Guidebook, and was upstream from the river flowing through the village. 


We could see the river looking pretty awesome from the road, but the drive seemed surprisingly far for a river you can apparently shoot quickly and walk back up. We found a side road and a man in his garden pointed us up to 'the get on' car park, which would turn out to be incorrect (he seemed suspiciously nice to us as kayakers....must've all been part of his elaborate plan!).

Much walking about, and a phonecall to the others (who were at the pub) suggested we were looking for a layby for the get on, but we hadn't spotted any on the drive up. We found another route which seemed about right, had a layby by a bridge and a clearing reminiscent of a get on. So we got on...

Just after getting on, moments before playing in a tree.


It couldn't have been 50m before a quick eddy out was necessary, on a river with low eddy offerings. Graham fell out of the back of his eddy, being flipped by a rock while Greg tried to hold on to him, and disappeared out of my view. The reason Greg had eddied out became clear that the river round the sharp bend was actually more of a narrow sieve through a tree, which Graham had disappeared through. I ploughed into the eddy they had been and sprung out of my boat whilst Greg had to grab another before hopping out. We ran downstream looking everywhere for Graham who wasn't in sight, and eventually found his boat pinned against a rock in the middle of the fast flowing river, with the bottom side facing us. It looked like something protruding from the cockpit was propping it up from underwater, which to our horror was potentially Graham. 


"I'm gone, Greg!"

Rolling up inside a tree...

Rolling up into a barbed wire fence...

Pushing himself UNDER said barbed wire fence...

Freeing the boat from its second pin location.

Greg clipped his line onto me and within seconds I was flipping Graham's boat to find it was empty, as it freed itself and started pulling me downstream full of water. Greg shouted to let it go and pulled me back in, and we continued to bomb down the banks through barbed wire, bogs, over walls and through thick bracken. Graham was just stumbling out of the water and we made sure he was okay before chasing his boat, which had become heavily pinned not too far further, down stream. It took a lot of effort to release it, lining it in to the side. 


Turns out Graham had gone through the trees upside down, rolled up, straight into a chest height barbed wire fence, which flipped him again and he lost his paddles and took the swim. No harm done though. Just a bump on the knee and a small cut to a finger.


We agreed to continue, and got back on. Not too far along, round another tight bend, a horizon line appeared, but with very few eddies to catch, we were near to the lip, apart from Graham who was at the back and found a nice eddy behind a rock. I eddied in as quick as I could, with Greg closer still. I was clambering out just as I turned round to see Greg with a look of "oh shit" plastered on his face, as his boat floated off down the rapid...he chose to rescue his paddles as the flow had claimed him, but his boat hadn't been so lucky. 


Greg in the distance watching his boat take on the first rapid.

Greg was in hot pursuit, whilst I checked Graham was okay to stay put, and clambered out and grabbed my line (which I had forgot to do on the Graham incident, take note. Don't forget to take your lines with you in emergencies like this!!). At this point, I received a hand full of brambles to stop myself falling in. Poor me...maybe not the worst off out of the three of us, but it did bloody hurt. I sprinted down looking for Greg, following footsteps through the undergrowth and checking the river. I'd ran a good distance when I spotted Grog still running at the opposite end of a field and bombed it across, struggling for breath. I caught up, with no sight of his boat yet, and Greg continued on downstream whilst I went back up to check the rapids in detail and to help Graham out safely. 


Me and Graham walked down the river and met Greg back at the point I'd originally caught up to him before. He'd been right the way down the river, reported that it looked amazing further down, and then as he walked up the road, spotted a flash of yellow from behind a great big rock which had obstructed our view previously. We live baited and got his boat back; only missing a couple of foam shims, and celebrated a successful rescue. By this time it was too late to risk any more epics, so unfortunately decided to get off.

Greg hopping over to grab his boat, NINJA STYLE!

High-Fives after a successful rescue!


Turned out, right where Greg's boat was pinned was actually the REAL get on for the Glaslyn. Oh, and while we're at it, on the drive back we explained where we'd gone to Stu, who went away and looked up that we'd actually been on the Afon Colwyn - a grade 4/5 river according to the web! That WASN’T the get on for the Glaslyn; we’d not actually been on the Glaslyn at all!! We were supposed to cross the bridge at Bedgellert and take the South fork of the river, which we hadn't realised existed!!! 


Well, all in all, a fantastic day, with a few lessons learned. No one was injured and all kit remains (although Graham's boat needs a very slight nose job), but next time I think to DEFINITELY take a map and/or a guide with us!!


On a second note, the river we did find ourselves on should be a great run to return to next time, just getting on slightly lower; and maybe, just maybe, we'll actually go to the Glaslyn next time too!!

Freshers Trip-amondo.

Being a super busy student of the englishes and the historiessss I have neglected this Freshers Report! *hangs head in shame* Second year sucks balls compared to being a fresher!!

Anyway, on to Freshers Trip. 

Having managed to arrange possibly the biggest freshers trip we’ve ever had, LUCC set off from sheds with, 2 shiny new mini buses, a very large van, and Grog’s car. Needless to say, some classic boats got dragged out of sheds to provide everyone with an actual kayak! So, drove to the scout hut, an odd experience not being stressed and surrounded by snow as we arrived at Ulverston in the Lakes (post-exam trip stresses were a distant memory thank god!!) and having had to sacrifice the Malt Kiln this year, we settled in to our scouting home for the weekend WHERE THERE WAS LOTS OF POLYSTYRENE- Tolly was in some sort of phsycological hell and threatened to hurt anyone who did anything to him with it (he looked more serious than I’ve ever seen him, so we took him for his word). Also, we love scouts, they’d kindly left us a dual bike, minus brakes, which was the perfect mix of dangerous and fun, even if it did say “The Savil-inator” on it : naughty scouts. Liam, having a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out) had raced us up to the Lakes spontaneously, with him, Earnie, Grog and Wallerbingbang planning a dawn raid on a river (this naturally never happened as we went to bed at 5am, horrifically drunk, with Liam racing back, still drunk, to Kayaks North West in Runcorn for his 9am shift- LOL)

Rhys & his gangster 'S'

So, freshers games, spoons came with the added danger of carpet burns and the introduction of danger spoon N.B it wasn’t very dangerous unfortunately. I proceeded to write everyone’s names on their heads, largely because I kept forgetting them and a little bit because I wanted to use my new sharpie! So, we got really drunk, had fun and as the early hours crept up on us, decided it was definitely time for a torch ‘rave’ with pumping music- the grannies next door loved us the next morning. Louis was loving life creating strobe lighting with the torch can I just say. Oh Louis. We love you.

Jaunty Grog, very jaunty. 

SATURDAY
Standard breakfast sausages from Cap’n Tolly, still containing more unknown substance than meat, but we can live with that! Then it was off to paddle on Consiton for the morning. It was a great morning doing some skills, trying to act like rocks and eddies so freshers could try and pretend they were on a river (never quite works….) and then after rafting up in a giant circle which took far longer than it should for a group of university educated students, the International drinking rules were still being enforced and the usual running over kayaks occurred. Lesson of the weekend: do not say the M word whilst on a lake, press-ups on top of floating kayaks is seal-like, ungraceful and hard. After lunch, we separated into our groups again, had river signals talks and tips on how to swim, and then paddled off to start The Crake. Lesson 2 of the weekend: Paddling to get somewhere on a lake is hard/boring, we need to invest in club jetskis for this purpose. 

The tree filled Crake claimed many victims BUT NOT IN TOLLY’S GROUP OF AMAZINGNESS. Just putting it out there. Meandering down the mostly flat river was good eddying practice and I couldn't help thinking ‘THIS IS SO UNFAIR, no wonder I was so swimmy last year, The Greta is positively Zambezi like compared to this!!’ Tolly’s group, of Tols, Gayham, Adi, myself, Fresher Meg, Harry, Big Tom and Molly eased our way down, laughing at my cheeky roll which I still say was a result of my looking out for the freshers (!) and just generally loving life apart from when trees decided they would take up the whole river. Cheeky portage after taking the wrong fork, but cruising down and arriving first at the bottom above the weir/rapid/get off, we were a very happy group! Other groups were not so, a few had epics, Maeuve ‘smiley Mcswimmer’ broke the social secs records of 5 swims apiece from last year, no hard feelings! But apart from a minor back injury from Tom, all was hunky dory. 

The last rapid took AGES, and when I say ages, I mean, ages. A nice slide down a weir, bimbly, then a rapid curving the the right was enough time for… Tolly to technically swim whilst rescuing a swimmer, Maeve to miss THREE throwlines, our group to fall victim with our first few swims, and for my arm to bruise from hanging onto a tree in an eddy directing people to the get off. But- it was super fun! Getting off, having a little laugh at the freshers who, after watching people brazenly strip off at the side of a road, tentatively began their first ‘get naked on a road’ LUCC experience, and eating Malt Loaf omnomnom all finished the days paddling off nicely. A trip to the worlds poshest supermarket was in need and after that it was just a waiting game for the lush chicken stew cooked up my Gaby and Molly! Liam and Rufus joined us for the night as the drink flowed again. Escaping to the pub in search of awol fresher Big Tom, Grog, Thwaites and I slipped away for a quiet pint, well we had hoped. Grog had different ideas… Ooooof course he did! Getting us involved in a sensitive domestic argument, NO GROG THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO ASK THE ARGUING COUPLE TO CLARIFY THE RULES OF POOL! It was nice not to have to fight for toilets, but we soon returned to the scout hut after failing at giving aforementioned couple some counselling- not sure we’re really the best club to be resolving relationship issues?! Rest of the night= drink, categories game, sleep.

SUNDAY
Waking up to not the greatest water levels ever, we decided after some faff to paddle the Leven- a first for many existing members too which was fun! Such a good river choice!! The flat sections allowed for skills practise, whilst the rapids/drops/BACKBARROW kept it interesting and good fun!  We kept it a slow pace as we were paddling quite a short section, and despite swims and a few wobbly moments, everyone kept smiling and thanking the weather gods that is wasn’t cold. All I can say is- great choice Dom!!! 

Backbarrow was possibly the best part of the entire weekend! With those not paddling it (freshers, and some not quite wanting to tempt the swim gods) standing above us on the bridge, we proceeded to paddle down in loose twos and threes (also, possibly the most casual manner I’ve ever approached a G4 drop in) with most styling it/having cheeky rolls. Ben Waller performing the highest high brace I’ve ever seen in my life, and even Liam ‘I’m a big deal now’ Chambers getting qa wet head experimenting with the meat line. SO MUCH FUN. It was helped by bridge supporters playing what was effectively pooh sticks, just with kayakers, running from one side to the other, cheering as each paddler came out the other side. I live for the applause, applause applause! Swimmy Schn took 2 runs to keep a dry head, but props to her for actually telling us she swam or we would’ve had no idea she was so far ahead. After a few runs, and despite the kayaking craving still humming in the veins of all those in dry kit, we got off the river, got changed, had yummy lunch and then invaded a rather posh looking riverside bar. 

The journey home was interesting…. In the van Rhys, Adi and I were discussing the usual topics whilst trying to stay awake, it was just out of the corner of our eye, that we caught sight of one of the minibuses behaving suspiciously. I shall say no more, but the phrase “Quick, Gaby’s asleep” has never preceded such a rampantly risqué, daring feat- and that’s saying something!!!

Anyway, you know the ending, unloading boats, faffing with minibuses to get people home etc etc.

Well done to all involved for such a huge, epic and different freshers trip!!!

Wally and the Robots, Spud and the New Potatoes, and Gather and Tolly’s groups who definitely had nicknames but I genuinely can’t remember! Anyway, thank you group leaders, seconders, drivers, organisers, Jak &myself for being gameshow hosts &  basically everyone! Well paddled newbies, we look forward to seeing you get awesome and ‘huck some gnar’ because this is definitely a phrase we use in relation to our paddling… 

xoxo

Gossip Gi… oh wait no, just me, JJ AKA Hannah AKA ½ the SocSec team.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

P.S We'd have more photos if Earnie pulled his finger/SD card out and uploaded them, but we all know they're in the vault now, :P and the vault is where they shall stay till the end of time!

Post-Leven Group Photo

Fresher Friendly Day Trip to The Dee

Here goes my report on my first freshers paddling trip! Wooo!! :D

After a demanding and very early-feeling 9am start at sheds, everyone on the trip gathered bright and cheerful(with hopefully no hangovers!)  As everyone else was sorting out their kayaks and kit for the day, Tom and I being unorganised forgot to get AU membership before the day, so we rushed to the sports centre to avoid a no-go despite bothering to get up for it.  We arrived back at the sheds complete with AU membership and got kitted out.

We loaded up and headed on out to wales! :D Anyone who was on the mini-bus with me would agree it was an interesting journey to say the least, and pretty hilarious! After making a few minor adjustments to the mini-bus with duct tape, it was as good as new! Well, almost.  Despite the minor time delay it caused, we made it to Wales by about 12, to JJ’s on the Dee in a place called Llangollen.

Starting off with an easy stretch of the river, we practised some new basic techniques such as eddying in, eddying out and ferry-gliding the channel.  After getting the hang of this, we jumped out of the boats and walked the path upstream to give it a go on a slightly more powerful current. This is where I epically failed to get the hang of carrying the kayak on one shoulder!  Anyway, this is where the fun started as there were a few almost-capsizes until finally Malin was the first casualty in our group! Charlie was free styling it and spinning round and everyone was having a fab time! We had a food break (Jellybabies! :D) and then set off in the river again at about 4, time was flying past! We moved to more challenging but fun waters downstream, where some of our mentors decide to show off haha! The drops down the river and rapids were amazing :D, even if I did eventually capsize!!

All in all, an excellent, really fun trip!!! If you haven’t already been on a trip, then go! :D We even go for food afterwards to warm up so fish and chips for me!  Thank you from all the newbie’s for organising the fresher friendly trip and see you on the next one!

Jess