Upper Tryweryn

As Liam, Simon, Gwyl, Ishy, Ruari and I gathered in the Scout Hut car park Friday Night, we were faced with a hefty pile of kit - mainly consisting of 7 boats with one being the mighty duo. All of it was to fit in or on Liam’s first love, the Landrover – so the ultimate puzzle began. Eventually everything was tied on and we all piled in and headed for Shrewsbury where we met up with Jen fresh from conference season.

We arrived at our Bunkhouse, a fantastic place in the middle of nowhere. As we awoke, we were greeted with blue skies and we set off with all boats on the roof, a feat of engineering in itself. Following a brief stop in Bala to purchase foam swords (an essential for all kayakers in case of foam pirate attack), we arrived at the course. A slalom competition was in full swing on part of the Upper, so we adapted our plan and headed off for a gentile trip down the Lower. I acted as shuttle bunny and photo master to capture the antics – Gwyl decided to test the integrity of his helmet, passing through Bala Mill Falls upside down, Ruari missed the falls themselves but managed to find a rocky lump to pass through. Everyone else appeared physically unscathed and Ruari, Simon and Gwyl staged a sword fight on the boulders in the middle of the falls. We loaded up the boats and returned to the bunk house. We decided to enjoy the late sun and headed for a walk up a hill, past a bionic sheep with tubes threaded through it, across a field with no “official” access and back for a glorious BBQ.

Sunday arrived with yet more beautiful sunshine and we headed back to the water to take on the Upper Tryweryn. Playing on the upper all morning we then regrouped for lunch, and decided to whip out the duo. As I sat perched to seal launch apparently there were various discussions as to whether seal launching a double length kayak into shallow waters was a good idea, but with great gusto and fearful cries we crashed into the water. Simon and I conquered the course, closely followed by the Liffey competition combination of Jen and Simon. The deadly duo of Ruari and Gwyl descended having nearly killed themselves and reversing down several falls. Not to be beaten, Liam and Simon took on the challenge of” how smaller an eddy can you get into in a duo in” and also ended up using a near backward descent down a fall.

As we packed up for the day, we piled up the Landrover for the journey home.

All round a fantastic weekend of sunshine and paddling!!

-Helen

Photos by Jen