Saturday the 19th July saw a group of 7, including Dave Mcg Clarke, Taz, Becky, Ross, Dave Garland and myself, converge at the carpark of the whitewater centre just outside Bala in Wales, yearning for a paddle down the the River Tryweryn, a grade 2/3 dam released river.
It wasn’t the best weather we could have hoped for due to rain, but the temperature still remained high and the combination of these conditions made for a picturesque view as we peered through the blanket of mist that hung over the river towards the rocks we had to circumnavigate.
I arrived early for some breakfast with the family, and after a quick walk up the river to the section named as the ‘Ski Slope’, we headed back to kit up, and discuss how the car shuttle was to work. Luckily the problem was solved already as my wife was driving back to Bala so she left me with the spare key, parked at the finish line, then walked back to the campsite with the kids, not before taking a trip on the Bala Railway.
By around 10.30 everyone was set to go, Dave C had given us the signals and the safety brief, and nothing more was needed to be said before we drifted away along the meandering river. Im more inclined to say “drifted” because it has been mentioned on a few occassions that we should conserve our energy; paddle to correct our course, or to punch through a big stopper. Sound advice i thought as it meant i could keep the paddle in a position where i could quickly low brace if i met any rocks along the way.
The Lower Tryweryn is a long continous grade 2 section with a a couple of grade 3 parts and Bala Mill Falls, a grade 4 section to finish. We have already paddled with Dave before whilst we had our 3* training on the river, so the trip was tailored to our ability, focusing a lot on our weakness before we tackled our 3* assessment in August, such as developing the downstream stroke to set up for ferry gliding, discovering how to use the river to our advantage, by looking for a trough to help ferry, and leaning back slightly as we break-out etc.
Around Halfway is my favorite section of the river, im not sure whether its the grade 3 section i refered to earlier but because of the line of sight issue we always work the river at this point descending in single file, jumping into each others eddies as the person in front sets of to find the next one.
After 3 odd hours of honing our skills we finally arrive at Bala Mill Falls, all in all this feature is not that bad however the eddy just above it is rather intimidating because of the noise. Everyone manages to get down this without taking a swim, I heard that it hurts a lot, but i took the wrong line because I was in two minds about the ferry glide over to the river right eddy and as a consequence I broke in too late and ended up going down the slot. Ross on the other hand nearly cakes it on the break in, but quickly recovers to descend it like a profesional.
Before we left we took a moment to play in a little whitewater below the falls, taking it as a good oppertunity to take some weird photos. Unfortunatly Taz got too carried away with her facial expression and goes for a chilly roll. After some banter we emerge from the river unscathed, and then head to the campsite for a BBQ, im still confused if Dave C does more cooking than Taz but what i can say is that Dave cooks better than Angela. (Hail to the chef). We didnt stay outside for too long, by about 8ish the midges got bitey so we packed away what we could and hid in Dave and Taz’s awning before we went to bed.
Sunday saw us back on the river, although this time Rob and Richard had joined us, starting from the upper Tryweryn this time and completing the river in the traditional way. We quickly got ourselves sorted and the majority of us seal launched in, i think its a 16 foot slope to the water below, and it gave us our first experience of the temperature of the Dam released water (Much colder than wat we experienced on the Lower Tryweryn, so much so that it gives you brain freeze). Once we had all got in we warmed up ferry gliding and then practiced leaning and stacking onto features like a big rock mid flow. Before long we had moved further down stream where the river narrows, the flow quickens and the technicality of the river starts to increase dramatically. We all successfully conquered this section just above the graveyard, and then all but Taz and Richard tried it again, however this time i tried to copy Dave, I missed the eddy bouncing of the rock and taking a swim. I quickly escaped into an eddy and my boat rested on a rock 20 meters down stream. Dave and some nice fellow kayakers helped in the retrieval before it escaped down the graveyard. It is always nice to see complete strangers coming to your aid. When the time comes to it, kayakers who ever they are or where they are from will help a person in need.
At this point we all came together to discuss the next part. Dave was a little concerned because he was the only person that can rescue if someone took a swim down the graveyard, and that he was not infalable. After this safety talk, Dave G, Taz, Richard and myself opted to walk around, whilst Ross which seemed to have a natural ability and the other experienced paddlers – Becky, Rob worked their way down successfully this knarly section, to meet the rest of us, where we chose to play a game on route to the next part called the ‘Ski Slope’. The game was rather simple, to get into as many eddies as possible between the graveyard and the Ski Slope. I think Becky and Dave C drew with 29 with the rest of us achieving 21 or 23.
I was rather nervous about the Ski Slope, I failed there before and got held by the stopper, but after a little know how by Dave, i finally conquered my nemesis as did the others, but then because of the bad press about ‘Miss Davies’ and ‘Fingers’ I got out and watched Ross, Dave G and the others shoot these sections with a good line.
Around 2pm we got out for a quick snack before Becky took leadership, and we drifted of again down river, although I capsized 2 mins into this journey where i was faced with two rocks. I seriously should have took on board what I had learnt on the upper section, leaning onto the rock, you never know i might have kept up right. The Lower Tryweryn went badly for me, we were all feeling it and the rock gardens kept on making things difficult. Richard swam twice as did I on this section. After a while because of our tiredness me and Richard opted to miss Bala Mill Falls and headed towards the narrow leat.
This weekend was an awesome weekend, with good company and good coaching by Taz, and Dave. We must do this again sometime soon. Cheers guys.
Michael Ward
