I ended up being double booked on both Bobs Bungy trip and asked about going up to north wales with Joy and Jason, in the end we ended up in North wales as the Tryweryn is one of my favourite rivers and Sarah wanted some more practice.
Friday evening after work and were off up the M6 to a new campsite in North wales just outside Bala tents pitched and opened a beer all before 9pm ready to plan for the Saturday. Decision made the 4 of us are going to paddle the Tryweryn from the top site down to the Town. The Tryweryn is split into two sections the top of it is a fun stretch of Grade 3 with some really good practice rapids with the lower section being Grade 2 with the odd bit of 2+ and Bala mill falls at the bottom most likely graded at around Grade 3+ to 4.
Shuttle done and were off with a warm up on the very top below the chipper to get the feel for the water and off eddy hopping our way down the Graveyard section. This longish section full of rocks creating eddies and small stoppers and waves making it good practice for breaking in and out of fast flowing water.
On to the next section Sarah went to follow my lead and park in an eddy just round the first corner but missed as a result ended up swimming the entire length of the rapid taking a knock to the head but not her confidence. With her being annoyed at the swim were back up again for her to try again this time success we made it. The rest of the river went smoothly with neat river skills shown from both Sarah and Jason.
We arrived at the section just above chapel stopper to be joined by Joy who was just getting on to continue with us down the lower section. More upside downing was performed by Sarah as she went down the drop into chapel sideways and got slightly stuck in the hole.
The rest of the river is a great Grade 2 with rocks to dodge out the way of and many tight turns to make all of which was navigated perfectly by the other three with us reaching Bala mill falls within no time. The rest of them got out and portaged while I went down the falls.
Saturdays video can be found here: Video of the Tryweryn
Loaded boats, returned to the campsite, BBQ lit, showers had, wounds tended to. A great end to a great day.
Sundays plan was to go climbing but overnight and in the morning there was a fair amount of rain thus making the rock very slippery so we decided to go for a walk instead while Joy an
d Jason decided to pack up and make moves back to Northampton.
I got my map and planned a route most of which was planned to be slightly off the foot path which was ok as the footpath was hard to find anyway so it made no difference. 8 miles later were back at the car and heading back to the campsite to pack up and go home.
The campsite we used was for a test to find if it is suitable for the trip planned a few weeks later, it looks ideal.
Great weekend and well don’t to Jason helping to rescue the boat which involves running a rapid he would normally check out first but instead he went straight down and remained upright all the way.
Steven
