At 8am a group of 10 met at the Stewponey and included 2 new paddlers, Sonny & Asa with the Tryweryn to be a first for both of them ! Onward to Dobbies for 9am where we were meeting Sue who was also paddling with the Wombles for the first time. A coffee and breakfast for some, before the task of sorting out which vehicles to take. My van ended up with half a dozen kayaks, loads of kit and Dave’s open boat on the roof and a severe risk of being passed by caravans and camper vans on the hills. A quick change at Bala car park, more boats into the van and up to the get in. A traditional Wombourne welcome to the new paddlers by way of the warm up and we got on just below Chapel Falls (apart from Andy who got on at the raft get out ) and we were on our way. An excellent time was had by everyone. The new guys improved dramatically as we progressed down river to the extent that Asa, having seen some of us run Bala Mill Falls, decided to go up and run it with Sue and Dave and despite going down the chute river left made it down successfully. Dave & Sue followed with varied amounts of success but the video footage from Geoff and Sonny is always so useful in plotting the lines and a route down next time. Overall a great day out and hopefully we have encouraged more people to get out and paddle more often. For the record;- it was a 9 cumec release, 11 of us in the group, John, Rob, Andy, Gary, Elliot, Geoff, Sonny, Asa and Rich D, Dave B and Sue in open boats. Put on around 11.15 got off at 3.30.
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