Seven of us made it on this trip: me (Hywel), John C, Gareth, Matt, Phil, Aled and Emlyn. Emlyn took the photos. As they show, the main difficulties on this river are not the water per se, but the trees and the man made kayak traps, put there no doubt by the anti-kayaking Wye and Usk Foundation. They'll say that this river isn't kayaked. Well, they're wrong. As well as this trip, John and I did it, on 29 December 2002 to be exact, when the water level was, according to John's memory about a metre higher than we found it.
As well as the trees causing 3 capsizes and 1 swim (under!!!! a tree by Aled after he broached on a tree branch) we also had the excitement of hearing gun shots in several places as we found ourselves paddling alongside a couple of shoots.
When we scouted the end of the river the water was red and pretty high. By the time we reached the end (after 2 hours 5 minutes) it was much lower. Luckily it was high enough all the time we were on it so that there were no substantial scrapes.
End of story. We all went for a pint/coffee to the Nant Ddu Lodge (passing Tai'r Bull which seemed to be open this time!). A good time was had by all. Why don't you come next time? (2019 for this river).
