Heavy rain overnight and in the morning meant the rivers were rising when we arrived at Dobbies. Checking the Banwy gauge at Llanerfyl at 9.30am showed a reading of 1.5 but with the rivers rising we thought we’d check out the Twrch. As expected this was up and racing. There was only 4 of us in the group :- John, Paul, Geoff and myself and it was decided the Gam, being just down the road would be a safer bet. When we put on the river at around 12 O’clock the Banwy gauge had risen to 1.8m. The Gam was a first time paddle for Geoff and he soon learnt how to duck under branches as his Go-pro was knocked off his helmet. Soon re attached we moved on and filming of this quiet unspoilt valley resumed. When we got off just over two hours later and with no further rain during the length of the paddle the Banwy had dropped down to 1.7m. A point to be aware of is that the left hand arch of the river bridge on the Banwy (where we get out ) has 2 strands of barbed wire across, presumably to prevent sheep straying under the bridge as the water had been very low up to then. The locals all seem kayak friendly and wave and smile as you pass by so unlikely to be any malice here.
.
