And I thought fellwanderers wasted time mucking about with their gear before a trip! The IC Canoe club certainly knows how to take its time. Time wastage hit a record high on the Friday of our departure. With people waiting for store keys, some dubious boat-strapping and one of our fellow kayakers missing the minibus altogether it was a wonder we even left London!
After what seemed like an age we reached the St Mary's hut in Snowdonia around 1:30am. A pleasant surprise was discovered in the form of three-new double-glazed windows in the hut. Unfortunately, the stove was more of a smoke-machine than a heat generator and created a less than pleasant environment for socialising. Most people only managed a couple of pints before bed beckoned.
A late-ish start of 9am saw the resident breakfast chefs Claire and Robin cooking a traditional fry-up of eggs, bacon, sausage, and toast. We left around ten and were intending to paddle the upper section of the Conway, but inspection at the put-in revealed very low water levels. Knowing that the river Dee had more water we headed that way encountering a significant snow shower en-route. A decision was made to paddle a very long flat-bit on the upper Dee to get new paddlers accustomed to moving water. So we hopped off the bus, threw on our wetsuits (or dry suits in the case of a few lucky individuals), and got into our boats. We split into four groups and headed off... snow flakes floating into our faces.
Everyone caught up with each other at Horseshoe Falls, with a few individuals running the rapid. Alice got off due to a severe case of the shivers and took Rob with her. Jon got back on with Daniel (a new paddler), who lasted approximately 10 seconds before getting struck by a wave and sent swimming. The leaders of our merry band swiftly fished him out and he got back on again, and promptly swam again. It was definitely not Daniel's day.
Ralph (our mighty leader) got him to the side, while Jim got the paddles and emptied the kayak. Unfortunately, as Mark pulled it out he discovered a a tennis ball-sized hole in the nose. Daniel's paddling was deemed to be over at this point.
We carried on down to Serpents Tail, with just about everyone taking some time to scout the rapid. It was only a class III rapid, and not even a very technical one at that, I should not have had a problem with it and in all honesty I didn't. What I had a problem with was the eddy above the rapid where I attempted to pull out at catch up with Ralph before entering. Unfortunately I caught an edge in the eddy and was swiftly sucked into Serpent's Tail upside down - not good. I abandoned ship as my helmet hit the first rock and barely made it to the shoreline as my boat was swept into the circulating whitewater of the Tail. It was freezing outside and I was not too pleased to be soaked to the bone, but there was nothing I could do but trudge down stream and collect my boat. All the kit was rescued safely and we continued down stream.
The rest of the little rapids were fun. Nothing serious. Towards the end I flipped over again and lost my grip on my paddle (making a roll much more difficult). I had lots of air though and knew there were no rocks nearby, so I just merrily tapped on the bottom of my boat, head submerged, and waited for someone to come over and help me out. I'd be damned if I was going to have to swim again! And sure enough, Mark came over and flipped me back again.
We got off the river at a cafe and I made a terrible reaslisation... I had left a significant portion of my dry clothes in the hut. I had to borrow socks, fleeces, and other bits to stay warm. I looked a bit comedic but at least I wasn't freezing. Chilli was eaten in the hut with three different varieties available: standard meat-fest, vegetarian, and the "let's try not to poison Matt" version. Drinking games soon followed and then came body-parts twister with someone making the mistake of letting Theo choose which body parts to use. With only two ladies present this turned out to be some sort of homo-erotic bonding session. Eventually, most people became too tired for anymore hijinks and headed to bed.
On Sunday morning I headed off with Alice and Rob in the car to Llangollen to participant in the river access protest march and paddle the lower Dee again. The rest of the group headed off for the Glasnyn to do a bolder-scrape run from the lake down. Apparently the run was nearly too low to run and abruptly halted by dire news Daniel had dislocated his shoulder. Too bad I wasn't there I could have relocated it for him, would have been good practice.
As for me, it was a glorious day. Rob is an excellent kayaker and a very good teacher. He went with me and Alice down towards Serpent's Tail and worked me on my eddy entries and exits the entire way. It was great practice that I badly needed. Sure, there weren't loads of new rapids to hit, but it didn't matter I was learning lots and wanted to revenge on the rapid that I had messed up the day before. When we got to the Tail Rob entered and was followed by Alice. It's funny, because kayaks are so different from rafts, but even so, suddenly my years of rafting guide experience kicked in. As I hit the big waves I set my mind to the task and paddled right into the crests. I shot straight down the "V" of the rapid and as I came to the flow above the final drop into the hole I saw Alice get eaten up by a huge standing wave. For a brief moment I let it distract me but the only thing I could do to help her was not get knocked out too, Rob would be below and if I was still in my boat it would make Alice's rescue all the easier. So I paddled into the last stretch with all my might and in a blink of an eye it was all over. I was floating along on calm water and Alice was being ferried to the side by Rob.
We rowed to the take out point. Loaded our boats onto the car and headed back for London.