I set off early on a cold wintery morning, the thaw had started, snow bound kayakers could once again get out their gear and head to the rivers.
I arrived at the Mawddach car park to meet up with Charles Blyth, Paul Steels, Dave Bradshaw, Andy Brooks and Dan. With a quick look at the river level everyone was gunning to get ready and get paddling.
We all started travelling up the winding road in convoy, the amount of snow on the road was becoming increasingly thick and slippery, a local kind
ly stopped us and told us his troubles in his 4wd car with chains so we admitted defeat and left the cars. We continued. . . on foot.
We got the boats out and discussed how far it was too the get in. We estimated around 4 km so with this in mind we set off, committed to make a good day of it despite the long walk.
We were walking for over an hour with boats on our shoulder/sliding in the snow up and down the snow covered road, as we travelled further water became evidently melting with water flowing down the road underneath the ice/snow and flowing out of the ditch at the edge of the road.
A Quick Rest
We arrived at a little bridge where the get in was, the river was evidently flowing well, so with relief after walking all that way we put our boats on the water and started out decent.
Only 300 meters Andy found his boat leaking, after inspecting the hull a massive rip was found and he walked out.
So there were 5
We continued down for a good while, when we approached the first significant drop, a 6 meter waterfall with two plumes flowing down, take the left plume and you land in soft aerated water, take the right and you land on rock. After inspecting thoroughly and watching Dan I was confident to run it. I ran back up to my boat, paddled down, with a quick pause in the eddy I entered the flow and hit the line mint. I tucked on the way down and hit the water waiting at the bottom. I felt a power flow of water flow in to my boat and realized my deck had popped. I sprinted in to the eddy jumping out of my boat to get it on the bank before I sank. Emptied my boat quickly in case any of the others had a incident too. From careful analysis I have realised that I was so focused on my line. I hadn’t checked my deck was on at the sides, ooops !
After a quick swim and climbing trip to retrieve paddles (mentioning no names) we continued on dow stream. After some technical little drops we came to the next large drop, a gnarly rocky plume, we all decided that today wasn’t the day so we portaged, we also portaged the infamous Readher Mawddach, an 86 foot mess.
It was also my first run in my new Pyranaha Burn. I was immediately impressed by the speed it had on the water, and the ability to punch holes. It feels manoeuvrable on twisty drops and resurfaces fast on bigger stuff.
The group continued down through the picturesque forests of Coed y Brennin, the river was starting to widen as we came down through a series of perfect play holes.
As we paddled around the corner the wooden bridge appeared in the distance, this was one of my favourite sections of white water in the UK, and commonly known as “the three nasties” This section consists of 3 drops surprisingly enough, the first a river wide drop, with a sticky deep hole on the usual line. This the river then narrows through a series of holes then drops down the third drop which is horribly undercut.
At this point the light was beginning to fade, and with that the cold coming in. I was lucky to be wearing my new NRS creek gloves, which were both providing me with warm hands, and protecting from knocks.
After taking a quick look we decided we would run all the way to the bottom in one go.
Dan went first lining up over the hole with a nice boof. I went second, taking a different line with a lesser hole and continued down the next section, I saw Dan in the eddy above the final drop and looked up to see Paul boofing just to the right of Charles who was stuck in the hole. Paul stopped beside to see Charles successfully power out of the hole. Next came Dave, (in a low volume river runner) he back-looped in to the hole, and it was obvious the hole would hold him. He came out of his boat and luckily got to the side and out the river before the second nasty. His boat and paddle floated down, after trying to get both out before the third nasty (the most difficult) we followed down. Being a section I paddle regularly I broke out, hugged the central rock and boofed. After this all is a blur, as I felt myself being launched towards the cliff on the right. I was under the water with rock holding me under. I knew I must be in the undercut; a brief moment of worry came about as I was not moving, only feeling the water flowing past. I tried to push away from the rock which was pressing me onto my deck. I felt the pressure of the water start to slide me along and suddenly the pressure released. I twisted my paddle and rolled up, looking back at the rock I had just come out from underneath. The shock suddenly hit and I made it to the nearest eddy, relieved and thankful.
I started chasing after Dave’s boat, now full of water. I eventually got it to a rock, pinning it at the edge of the river. Paul followed close behind and lifted it out of the water.
After a quick transfer of his kit to the opposite bank, we continued downstream with only one drop to go, everyone got it fine and we continued down.
This time, only 4 of us left, we all came through smiling and ready to get off. We paddled the last section (warning: strainer at toilet falls!) and got off.
Hot soup was made and we were all warm again.
Thanks for a great day Guys!
http://www.whitewateractive.co.uk/
www.charles-blyth.blogspot.com (CHECK OUT CHARLES’ BLOG!)
