A group of nine of us met at Dobbies hoping to paddle the Alwen . Barry, John and me had run it once before, but for Dave Y, Keelan, Nigel, Rob, Gary and Elliot it would be the first time. We needed the river to be between 0.85 and about 1.00 metre.
We checked the gauge at Druid 0.77. Disappointed, Barry suggested the Gam may have held up better even though the Banwy gauge at Llanerfyll was on 1.47 so off we went towards Welshpool. We got changed at the “get out” but noted the river was a good 4 or 5 inches lower than last time we ran it. Rain had been forecast but didn’t arrive ’till much later in the day and so the Gam looked far to scrapey for the launching of Gary’s new Jackson Karma and Dave’s new Dagger Nomad ( they weren’t going to get these scratched ! ). So we decided as we were there, we’d run the upper Banwy. None of us had done it before and we’d driven past it loads of times showing a interest, so at last we had the chance to run it. It was a pleasant paddle through some lovely countryside and the river keeps you moving but there are very few feature other than a few small surf waves ( one was a little sticky ) and a natural weir drop that can be easily run river right although it could have been boofed anywhere along and there are a few decent eddies to practice improving breaking out. Probably a suitable river for a group of novices out for a river run or someone wanting to try a bit of leadership. Oh and it was cold on the hands with the wind chill, time for the pogies to come out.
.
