There doesn’t appear to be an Environment Agency gauge on the Llugwy or Nantygwyryd but rainchasers.com always show an up to the minute level for the Llugwy. On the first day of March on a bright sunny morning, 12 of us set off towards Betws-Y-Coed intent on paddling the Llugwy with the rainchasers reading at 0.99 or empty !! We had it on good authority that this river can be run at any level so we turned up the lane just before the bridge by the Ugly House to get changed and sort out the shuttle. We couldn’t help but notice that this was going to be a bump and a scrape. We drove up to the canoe access stile that crosses the wall just below Pont Cyfyng which had obviously been designed for people the height of Peter Crouch rather than Keelan Lewis. A note on the gate said a pound per boat was payable at the cafe opposite and Wombourne being a good upstanding club we delved into our wetsuits and rustled up £8. Anyone who didn’t pay, you owe Paul a Quid ! Eventually we got on the water and it was evident the biggest challenge was to find the deepest lines. Forestry Falls was both interesting and entertaining, with 12 in the group we must have run 12 different lines with boulders shooting us off in all directions. Several 360 spins were performed, many people ran much of it backwards and some ended up perched on a boulder before all converging on a line for the last drop. Everyone through. no swims, great fun.
Filled with enthusiasm we jumped into the vehicles and set off for Plas-Y-Brenin to get on at the lake. We stopped on the way to take a look at Cobden’s falls and were disappointed to see so little water there ( It looked nothing like any you tube footage we’d seen) . We looked at it from all angles, but with so little water we couldn’t decide on a line that wouldn’t end up in tears, shame, but it will still be there next time we go. We walked down to the lake and put on. Because the river here was narrower there was more depth to it, so it meant this section had a few more features. We made the best out of Cobden’s on a river left rock slide which turned out to be great fun and we were enjoying ourselves so much we decided to continue on down, portage Pont Cyfyng and run the lower section down to Forestry falls again. Thanks to everyone here for making it a great day. Andy, Barry, Dave Y, Geoff, John, Lawrence, Paul, Rich D, Rich P, Rob, Shane and Will.
Great to have Lawrence, Rich P and Will back on the river with us.
P.S Sunday afternoon Llugwy is on a low at 1.35. (36cm up on yesterday, 14″ for us older folks ). That would have been more like it !
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