Severn Bore, 12 March 2005

We had a bit of a social trip when 4 cars with Andy P. and family, Rob G and spouse, me and my family and Matt went to see what the 4* Severn Bore looked like at Newnham. Meeting at Magor services car park at 6.45 to be ready for the bore at 8.20 meant an early start for us all but it was a lovely day and by the time we arrived I for one was sorry I'd not taken my kayak. Ten minutes past 8.20 however the general verdict was that it was like a wave, but smaller, and that it wouldn't have been worth the effort.

I was the only one to chase the Bore upstream, taking the car to the Severn Bore pub at Minsterworth. The crowd there was bigger but there were fewer putting on the water. To be fair, the Bore was a bit more impressive there: as the river is much narrower the Bore grew much higher.

Interesting to see and we were lucky to have a nice day. I don't foresee us adding in a Bore trip to our future calendar of events though.

http://www.severn-bore.co.uk/

River Dart, loop section, Sat, 12 Feb.

Luckily it rained on the Friday before and that brought the water level up from very low to medium high, and so we had a lively trip. Seven of us paddled: Hywel, Andy R., Grant, Rob, Matt, Luke and John M., it being a first trip on the river from Grant and John. We had a fine time, John being especially pleased about getting air for a vertical flip on a hole. And we all liked the photos taken by http://www.dartphotos.com

Sunday 16 Jan. Afon Rhondda Fawr

Rob, Matt, John C. and I tripped down from the Lord Tonypandy to Hopkinstown. The water was low, and the river filthy as usual, but the weirs and Grade3/4 sections  kept us amused. Me, the leader, was the only one who had to pull off a roll, after messing up the line through the bridge arch above the Grade 4 section. Otherwise incident free, and at the time of writing on Tuesday evening the river's bugs still haven't had their revenge on me!

Sunday 9 Jan: upper Taff swim session, Tawe paddling trip

Another busy day, with Dragon Paddlers on two trips. According to the account I've heard of the trip on the upper Taff, it was designed for those members who rarely frequent the pool session, to give them a chance to practise their swimming. John N. at Quaker's Yd and Abercynon weir, Tim at the Graveyard, and Andy practised his rolling in Ponty town centre (river side). Well done, lads. Big water by all accounts, to be fair, with the left hand eddy at the Graveyard having disappeared while the little diagonal wave there turned into a nice broad, big, stopper. (John C's swum there in the past too).

John C. and I went off with two others planning to do the (Grade 4 bits of the) Nedd Fechan but found the water too low! We went on the Tawe, from Abercrâf to Ystalyfera instead: Grade 2/3 on the day - water being low there too - but with a nice gorge and a fair few weirs - some of which would not be nice at all in higher water.

Usk - Tal-y-bont Llangynidr, Wed. 29 Dec 2004

An end of year paddle for Hywel, Grant, Andy R., Matt, Rob, John N. and John M. Young John's baptism on Grade 3 water: see picture sequence.

Sea trip - Sully to Lavernock (and back), Sat. 11 Dec.

Three hardy paddlers - John N., Rob G. and I (Hywel) braved the elements - fine weather and a flat sea - for a walk in the park, or rather a paddle on the Severn Sea. The highlight was probably seeing what we thought was a mirage  - of men walking on the water as we paddled east to Lavernock. As we drew closer we realised they really were men - well, anglers actually - wadeing out onto Lavernock spit as it dried at low tide. We found we'd gone the landward side of the spit ourselves and we had to get out of the boats to cross. John and Rob were sceptical of my planning but when they saw the stream still ebbing at Lavernock Point they were almost convinced I'd got it right - until immediately afterwards when we turned and found paddling west hard work. They thought the tide was now on the flood. I kept saying it must be a local eddy but they weren't convinced until we saw the spit had widened from next to nothing to about 20 yards across. We landed west of Sully island for a long carry up the beach.

(I checked the actual tide times the following day. Low tide was around 12. We'd started at 10 and got back at 12).

Matt's report of Avon Descent, 7 Nov.

Both Grant and I had decided to put ourselves through the Ex descent earlier in the year when it all seemed a long way off and we felt brave.  But as the date came closer the prospect of an 19 mile paddle with little reward started to seem a less exciting prospect, when we discovered the Avon descent, only 10 miles.

I feel that we were not taking it all as serriously as we should when at 8.00am on the Sunday morning Grant called me to say that he was probably still over the legal alcohol limit to drive, feeling worse for wear myself, Esther said that she would drive us there, bless her.

Once at the start, surrounded by enthusiastic marathon
paddlers we felt slightly daunted by the photos of the weirs and warnings not to shot this one here and that one there, still as we came from the briefing I just thought I would follow Grant, but he to had not fully taken the details so we decided to just follow who ever was in front.

That is about as exciting as it got.  Met a few interesting characters, paddled 10 miles, looking at the back of Grant for most of the way, wishing that I still had a fiberglass slalom kayak instead of my redline.  The weirs were really of no consequence, because we were "racing" we could not even
stop to play.  Lots of fishermen, one about every 30m, for pretty much the whole distance, I never realised fishing was so popular.

I think that the moral of the story is, don't travel all the way to Stratford to do the Avon descent unless you really
have to.  If you cannot distinguish between the river and the canal you know that there is a long paddle ahead of you.