Teifi tour, Saturday 29 October 2011

A year on, and here we were again, this time it was Matt and Luke (aged 6), Fran (1st river trip), Steve (2nd river trip), Becs (who paddled with us last year) and her student, Phil (1st river trip). The water was much higher than last year.


As Luke was paddling with us, on his first river trip, we went up to Llanfihangel Bridge to run the Grade 2 section down to Llandysul. I'd never done this before and it was very pleasant though the weather had deteriorated to rain and wind in our face by the time we broke for lunch at Llandysul. While getting ready to put on, another paddler worked out that Luke must have been the youngest paddler on the tour and asked to take a picture of him in his boat. The photo is probably on the web by now: have a search for it.

Phil broke the ice by capsizing more or less immediately once we put on, a trick he pulled off about 10 times during the trip. Luke decided he wouldn't capsize until he got to a rapid, a good decision which made the incident much more interesting for the rescuers. Matt and I surrounded him and when he started saying it was cold, I decided to take pity on him and yanked him on to my front deck and started to paddle to the bank. He slipped off a few times (I think he thought that's what Les has taught him to do in the pool) but we reached the river bank pretty quickly. Matt tempted him back on the water with promises that all he had to do was to reach Becs to get a Mars bar. Once he'd had the one Mars bar I think he thought feigning capsize would be a good way to get another one so later on he had another go. While he was stopped on the bank I met up with Brian from Aberystwyth who I'd paddled with in Switzerland last May and he called an open boat over to give Luke a ride. So, Luke arrived Viking-like at Llandysul.

Unfortunately, the cold had got to Fran and Steve by this time, so it was just me, Becs and Phil who made the run down to Henllan. Phil took about 4 swims getting from the Llandysul put-in to get past the Cauldron so when we got to Pentrecwrt weir we decided he'd better portage while Becs and I ran it (there was still a tongue, just).

I ran Hendre successfully but Brian (who we'd caught up with) who came down after me took a bad move to go right, and swam, and he misled Phil who did the same, followed by Becs, who told me later (I think) just rolled.

All good fun. A shame not more members joined us. I'm sure everyone voted enthusiastically for the tour at the most recent meeting at the Plough. Next year maybe?

Teifi tour, Saturday 30 October 2010

As the 2010 winter season starts, it's high time for me to blog a trip again. I met with Matt, Aled, Bryn, Iwan, Chris W and David at Llandysul at 9.30. When we were ready to go about an hour later we were approached by two paddlers (James and Becs) who work at Call of the Wild, Neath, looking for company as it was their first trip on the Teifi. The river was at a good level, as can be seen from the gauge record. What this meant was that the weir at Pentre Cwrt was still runnable, just, and Henllan was as much of a rapid as a fall.

Anyway, a good time was had by all I think. The first near incident was when Matt got caught just below the weir and managed to roll on about his third attempt. Just as I was warning another paddler in the eddy where I was waiting downstream that one of his group looked as if he was about to swim I realised it was Matt!

Chris wanted to get in position to take some photos of the group coming down so I led off with Chris following. A few seconds later and I was boat chasing. Not many photos there then.

Henllan was the main excitement as usual. Matt went first, followed by David (who had put in some good paddling in the grade 3 stretch below Pentre Cwrt weir), me, Aled, Bryn, Iwan, Becs and James (I'm not 100% sure of the order of those behind me). As I got down the falls there was a boat and paddle in front of me. The safety guys got the boat and I got the paddle and I continued down to where Matt was rushing away to make sure David was OK. A minute or two later I paddled back out to recover a dry bag (Iwan's I found out later) and a few minutes later rescued a swimmer with a throw of my throw bag. I threw straight! (All that practice a couple of weeks ago when we had a white water safety and rescue refresher at Brecon paid off!). So we scored swims by David, Aled, Bryn, Iwan and Becs (after 3 rolls trying to avoid Aled's boat). Chris didn't paddle it but tried to get a photographic record. Actually, it wasn't the fall itself which caused the carnage but the rapids above.

Having shuttled back to Llandysul, Matt, James and I then had a warm-down paddle on the river by the centre.

Thanks to all involved. I enjoyed it and I think everyone else did too.

Hywel