Young braves on the Mellte:
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
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
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