Todays paddle Thursday 19th December

Today was a New adventure for all concerned, as we paddled the “Afon Gam” which no Wombourne Club members have paddled before, I believe  !

Tim, Barry, John and Myself, met at Dobbies around 09-40AM and set off for Mid Wales, it was bright but chilly only 2 degrees or so, we passed through Welshpool and up towards the hills, along the A458. We dropped a shuttle off at the take out on the River Banwy at Llanerfyl, then headed for the put in at Dolwen Bridge, the level was a little low but it was decided it was runnable, 11-35am on we got straight into a steady flow of water and began our trip, a lovely winding quite narrow river with lots of low overhanging trees which deserved respect. Weather had changed some breezy spells with sleet and snow showers began. The first real feature was portaged to take a look and decide a line, a little tight but no problems, carrying on we passed a few gorge style sections with small but interesting features, which required some manouvering and thought, we then reached a sharp left hand turn in the river , which in my mind was the most challenging feature, several different lines were visible and we all took our own choice, four completely different ways were chosen with success. We then reached a more open, exposed and flatter part of the river which shortly met the confluence of the “River Banwy”, another first for me as I have never paddled on the River Banwy prior to today.

This eventually took us through a couple of nice bends containing some decent wave trains, then finally we saw the stone bridge at Llanerfyl, which crosses the River and marked our take out point, it was now 14-10pm

A great little adventure albeit a little scrapy, a few more inches of water and it would have been perfect, a must paddle for all who fancy it at some point, it feels quite special paddling the “Afon Gam” knowing not many have done it, or no one has really written about it. I believe we have some Go pro footage due to be posted at some stage courtesey of Barry.

We believe the level was 1.5 today but the “Afon Gam” has no gauge so you need to look at the “Afon Banwy” level. To run the Afon Gam, 1.6 ish on the Banwy should be good.

Just a note: trees are a plenty and we did have to portage one huge tree spanning the whole river, need to keep your eyes peeled at all times.

A great day out , big thanks to Tim and Barry for organising and everyone for the great company and enjoyable time.  😉