Welsh Witterings

With the Foot & Mouth problems easing it was good to get out onto moving
water again.

The 'usual suspects' dusted down their kit and headed for the Tryweryn for
the weekend of 8/9 September.

Dave Evans who had spent 3 weeks in the USA paddling some pretty big stuff
decided to put in below the 'Ski Slope' and having made a successful run met
us above 'Chapel Falls'.

There were some obvious rusty spots to polish up and throughout the day
there were a number of out-of-boat experiences. Thanks to a certain paddler
from Poole we spent an hour practising rescuing a well-pinned boat. If
you've never paddled the lower Tryweryn, a rule of thumb is to keep to river
left when there is a choice of route.

The Evans fellow was our only group member to run Bala Mill falls - and successfully - he's too good for us.

On Sunday Mick, Andy and I had signed on for an open boat rescue course -
bearing in mind the above experience a day too late! Our coach was Dave
Luke.

The venue was the rapids above the ‘Chipper’ where there are some natural
drops and plenty of places to practice in. Without much delay we were
swimming the rapids relearning techniques of safe swimming etc. We then
moved on to swimming in a stopper. This part was so much fun we are booking
onto the course again just for this!

Obviously Dave had selected a ‘safe’ stopper and explained that we adopt the
stance of a free fall parachutist and balance our torso on the white water.
We were able to flip onto our backs, useful to catch any ropes. Gradually
the water took us to the weak spot and spat us out. Next we looked at throw
lines, swim lines and finally boat extractions. An excellent course and one
to be recommended.

Since September us locals have been busy paddling our local grade 2 rivers
most Sundays, basically having a good time.

In October my wife decided to visit an old college friend and I took the
opportunity to invite some friends down to West Wales as, poor loves, they
have no white water. By the Thursday there was hardly any water about, but
the next day there were flood warnings! I managed to stop my brother-in-law
from travelling but was unable to contact Dave Evans and Tony.

With a warning that we may have to abort we set off on Saturday for the
upper Tywi - a beautiful run in stunning countryside. The level was high but
not brown and with three experienced paddlers (Mick had joined us) we decided to run it. In part this was a mistake as Tony had told us he had had minimum
moving water experience, mainly a very low Barle a few weeks before. He had
two capsizes, one of which could be described as an epic. We have all learned
from this and we must all be prepared to question ourselves and others
whether as leaders or followers about river levels and ability. The river
will be there for another day.

The only other swimmer that day was the man from Redditch who decided his
route down the last grade 3 drop was better than that of us locals!!

Sunday was spent on another of our favourites, the Afon Gwili. Tony and Dave
opted to take photos.

We all met up again on the Dee Tour and I was pleased to see that Tony had
not sold his boat and in the short time from the 'experience' had improved
his moving water skills no end.

On Sunday Dave and Andy ran the stretch from Horseshoe Falls to Llangollen.
Dave made the main part of Serpents, but relaxed and fell in at the end. He
made up for this by successfully running Town Falls.

The week after four of us had a good day on the Teifi, from Llandysul to above
Henllan Falls. The Cauldron just below Llandysul was run on our new river left route (have a bow draw ready on your left side) and after inspection the big weir and rapids at Pentrecwrt were safely run. We also rescued a sheep that had become trapped at the bottom of a bank. She was very grateful - no comments from you English lot!

Lets hope the winter continues to be kind to us.

Bob Andrews