Sunday 14 Dec: River Usk, Tal-y-bont to Crickhowell

As it rained on Saturday Matt thought the rivers would be up. They weren't. A good number turned up at Matt's at 9 (apart from Phil who'd insisted on a prompt start: he turned up around 9.15). The others were Hywel, Euros, Emlyn, Nick T, Chris W, Mark, Alan S and mate Jules, John C., 11 in all.

To cut a very long story - of scouting the Tarell, then going to Tal-y-bont and losing contact with Emlyn - short, we got on the river at 11.55, a mere 3 hours after meeting. No matter, it was a nice trip and it gave Nick T a chance to pull-off his first whitewater roll which he did, on two occasions. Only one swim, by Chris right at the end when he tried to practise his roll. Unfortunately, he didn't make sure others knew what he was up to, so when the roll wasn't, he swam and the boat was duly chased and rescued. (I think he scrambled to the bank in case you wondered).

Same again next Saturday?

Sunday 7 Dec. Sea trip: Jackson Bay, Barry to Lavernock Point and back

Dragon Paddlers finally have a sea kayaking fraternity. Hywel, Rob and Emlyn did a 10 mile round trip on a beautiful day, though at one point they got shrouded in mist. But see the tranquility!

Lower Taff Saturday 6 December 2008

Report by Chris W, who was on the trip with his 3 sons, Grant, Phil, Matt, Mark, Paul Mac, Emlyn plus some others - John N and Neil I think:

It's never "just another paddle", but it is always "another great day".  The normal Saturday pool spot could not run on Saturday 6th December so we all headed off to the river instead.  Approximately 12 of us did the lower Taff in nice conditions - enough water for a good paddle and blue skies - what more could we ask for.

 

It was a nice trip for novices who were pleased to get down the river, and a good trip for the more experienced thanks to Grant's coaching. Grant was teaching the techniques needed on bigger trips that can't be learnt at the pool or when you're on that big river but in survival mode.

 

On the river we did have some confusion on terminology: Phil gestured to an eddy for grant, and got a tirade of eddie grant songs from unnameable canoeists !!!

 

The trip made a good intro to some of the clubs youngest and newest members who made a good passage, although mutterings about not being allowed to shoot Radyr weir were heard !!!

 

Phil demo'ed some of his rope resuce skills learnt at a recent white water safety course.  The pictures (below) courtesy of Emlyn are attached.

 

All in all this was a fantastic Saturday morning and made a great alternative to the usual pool session.  Thanks go to Grant, Phil, Matt and Mark for helping to lead the trip.

 

1 November Swan rescue

Just to record the excitement of helping the Swan Rescue folk to catch a swan who'd broken his wing, down on one of the reens down Marshfield way. 2 Dragon Paddlers and one from Cardiff CC turned up and after a short chase we managed to separate the injured swan from the others (about 5 if I remember correctly, 2 adults, 3 other young ones). He then scrambled up the side into the road but his path was bloked by a lorry and the Swan Rescuer managed to grap hold of him. His fate was to be driven to some sanctuary in Surrey.

Afon Mellte

Young braves on the Mellte:

Tags: Afon Mellte

Nedd Fechan and Rhondda Fawr

Lest anyone thinks that no blog entries=no activity, I thought I should record a couple of trips.

On Wednesday 6 August, I went with Phil, Matt and John O' to paddle the Rhondda Fawr. As it had been raining, it was a reasonable level, meaning no scrapeing at the put in behind the Lord Ton-y-pandy (although still off the bottom of the gauge beyond the usual Hopkinsown take-out - but paddling when the water reaches the gauge would mean extremely high and dangerous levels). Again, as it had been raining, the river stank (as usual). I hadn't paddled the river for at least 3 years so spent my time looking for half-remember weirs and a new weir I thought I'd heard had been built. In the end I never did find a new weir and if anything think one of the old ones (a bit of a boxed-in one) has gone (maybe lost when they build the new bridge in Porth?. The run immediately after the excitement of the stopper below the right hand side bridge arch was fun. I told John the route - fairly centre, don't go far river right and then shot down. John came last - far river right - but with a good brace he still managed to get through the big stopper. Later, Phil and Matt had a short go on the play wave while I watched, thinking there's no way I going to risk a capsize in this stinking river. Then John had a go - capsized and swam - but we quickly got him to the bank. The rest of the run was incident free. Despite the water quality, I did see a heron - and a kingfisher: the first time I remember seeing one on the Rhondda. Maybe it was crisp packet blowing across?

On Sunday 10 August I was out again, this time with Phil, John O' and Del. But when we go the Tarell it was too low even though it had been raining overnight and just before we arrived (around 1pm). John kindly offered to do a shuttle even tough not paddling when we decided to go for the Nedd Fechan. Even more kindly, he lent his shorts to Phil who'd forgotten to bring anything to wear in the nether region. The Nedd Fechan was medium low. We found and portaged the two major water falls. Phil and Del ran the Horse Shoe Falls successfully, even though getting the line at the top was hard as the water was so low at that point. I watched. The runs took about 15 secs., but the planning took about 45 mins! Phil continued to lead and after he and Del had scouted one bit told me something along the lines of left, middle, middle, right. I followed them down and lined up nicely for the final right to find both of them frantically indicating to the left. Too late, I was committed and went for the narrow shute - and went down and down, and came up (smiling I hope, without capsizing). Phil was pretty impressed that I and my big Jefe had completed disappeared from sight for a second or so. The run finished without incident, after about 4 hours in total. The evening finished off with a pint in the Upper Boat with Phil dressed with a red dragon towel as a kind of Welsh kilt. No pictures: sorry.

Hywel

Tags: Afon Rhondda Fawr, Afon Nedd Fechan

River Dart weekend 2-3 February

Upper Dart, Saturday: when we got on the water we split into 2 groups: Phil, Matt, Alan, Haydn, Hywel; and Del, Nathan, Tom, and Adam. It was low water but Tom capsized twice in the first 200 yards which was one reason why we thought two groups would be better than one. (It was Tom's first river trip, other than Hurley weir!). The main feature of the trip wa sthat Phil had a bad hangover so that he looked white and various shades of green at various points on the trip. He nevertheless managed to make a video:

Lower Dart, Sunday: I don't have details of who paddled. The main highlight unfortunately was that Jordan had to be taken to hospital with a head wound and possible concussion. Luckily, they glued his head back on and he's reported as being well again.

Tags: River Dart, kayaking

Usk, Saturday 5 January 2008

River Usk, Tal-y-bont to Llangynidr

Party: Andy and Ieuan, Emlyn, Nick B, Nick T, Paul Mac, John N., me (Hywel), Owain and Euros. We were nearly joined by Mark who'd driven down from north Wales after a night shift - but who'd been expecting to paddle the lower Taff. John O' was a more distant miss, having failed to read the e-mails' joining instructions to meet at 9.30 at Asda, a phone call to him at 9.40 found he'd just got up.

We got on the water about 12. Emlyn saw something interesting on the river bed at the first eddy line at about 20 seconds past 12 but failed to roll back up and swam. The water was medium high and we had nice weather for the first couple of miles, followed by a mile of rain, which got us to Mill Falls.

We took our usual route river left. I went first and took an eddy. The plan was for Paul Mac to follow me, which he did, but not to the eddy. He found a much more adventurous route down, sailing past me in the eddy and closely inspecting several rocks middish river before successfully breaking out at the bottom. Others came down well, including Ieuan on his first run of this river. Andy was to be last down and I think he visited some of the same rocks as Paul, but paying the bottom of them closer attention (cutting his knuckles and getting a few scrapes on his head to prove it). An attempted roll or two failed and he eventually swam.

Thereafter it was plain sailing, bar a couple of technical swims by Owain falling back into the river when getting out of his boat, and Euros rolling 4 times when getting caught out in his surfing attempts.

By about 2.30 we were back at the cars. John N and Nick T left us but the rest of us went for a pleasant pint in the Star, another enjoyable trip completed.

Tags: River Usk