Saturday 27th July 2013 “THE UPPER TRYWERYN”

[Nigel]

Well Well Well,

How to start  ! A small group of us, Rob, Dave Y, Chucky, Ricki ( in love with Bianca) and Myself, decided we would venture to the “Upper Tryweryn”, today and as this was the chosen venue, I fancied a couple of New challenges, “The Graveyard” and “Ski slope”, two items on my personal goal list.

We arrived around 10-50AM, got kitted up and on the water, it all appeared very quiet for a Saturday, lots of rafts but lacking in Kayakers, we couldn’t work out why, was it due to the fact the River was running on a 10 ? or just one of those days.

We warmed up for half hour above the chipper, then moved round it to seal launch into the main flow of water, eddy hoping etc as we made our way to the upper Graveyard, to play and practice a little more. After a couple of runs above the Graveyard it was that time !! “The Graveyard” itself Rob, Chucky, Ricki and Dave, chatted with me on the bank giving simple but good advice, I watched them run the rapid then my time had come ! My first attempt started well, BUT ! I fell at the 3rd hurdle , the Big drop about 40 metres in caught me out as I stopped paddling, (basic error Mr L), over I went head nocking the river bed and bailed, (Barry, your right,not really the best piece of water to fine tune your swimming skills, lol) , I swam the next 120/140 metres and was thrown a great line by Rob, which he managed to slow me down and bring me near the edge to get out. Not one to be easily beaten, in more ways than one, and nursing a couple of bruises I wanted to tackle the run again, Chucky kindly offered to lead me down, AWESOME a clean run .

We then paddled down to the “Ski slope”, and decided not to view just to run it, as lots of water as it was running on a 10, we all had a clean run AWESOME, once again, Thanks to the Chuckmeister, who once again who showed me a line.

On we paddled a couple more decent drops, then a into view came an old stone bridge which I had seen in photo’s , yep Miss Davies’s bridge, with it’s notorious tricky line, I missed the eddy river left above this and went backwards down the next drop, tried to turn the boat around to tackle this radid and you’ve guessed it over I went heading for the drop, as I dropped into the fall I visited the GREEN room for several long seconds, strange sensation. To my surprise as I excited the river on the left bank, I was joined by Mr Yates, who had kindley decided to join me in a swim after hitting a rock exciting the eddy river left above the bridge , thanks Dave.

Big  thanks to Chucky, Rob and Ricki, who chased 2 boats 2 paddles and a throw line through the rest of the section and eventually managed to secure the boats around 100 metres below Chapel falls, Ricki took a sexy roll in the big left hand wave, just around the corner from cafe wave. Yep the boats were eventually bought to rest below Chapel ! These guy’s did a sterling job, they managed some very tricky drops and falls chasing and retrieving kit, which was all retrieved and given back to the right full owners. 🙂

All in all a great trip, some rescue practice ,some great paddling , excellent synchronised swimming from yours truly.

Big thanks to all present for the great company and superb motivational support.  🙂

[Tim]

Hello Nige, you’ve set yourself achievable goals and progressed at your own pace. You’ve built on success and didn’t dwell on minor hiccups. Forestry falls on the Llugwy will now feel like a walk in the park. You’ve done it the right way. Well done mate! A big thanks to everyone involved in Nigels progress………Rob, Rich, Mark, Barry, Chucky, Dave, Ricki. Great effort!

[Richard D]

Congratulations Nigel sounds like you had a very interesting day ! Wish I could have been there. I know you are away on holiday for the proposed Washburn trip, but can you paddle the weekend of Sat 10th or Sun 11th, I have something in mind.

[Gary]

Rich what date are we doing the Washburn
And what do you have in mind for the10th. 11th

[Nigel]

Thanks Rich,
It was a challenging and demanding day, but really good to tackle new water .
We are away for 2 weeks from 03rd August and back on 17th. So can’t do 10th 11th sorry. Will really miss the paddling,

Cheers

[admin]

As Nige said a grt day out.A silly mistake on my part for a split second and have to thank Ricki and chucky for boat chasing.Pub Thursday I owe ya one.Apart from that excellent .The water is epic on 10 cumecs and the ferry gliding a blast.well done to Nige plus Ricki had a cracking day never stopped smiling:)

[Author]

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