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.