After an interesting week of rain dancing, giving up and chasing steep low volume canyons to jump off, im sitting in my mates living room packing up stuff and getting ready to drive back home to Milton Keynes with the girlfriend for a few days.
The week started off with a few days in North Wales and staying in Betws-y-coed. The idea was to go paddling and meet up with a friend who lives in Mid Wales for a few days. However, the weather had a different idea and the rivers were dirt low, we had some drizzle and patchy rain over night but it didnt seem to do anything to the levels. So we decided to go canyoning, we brought the canyoning gear just in case and if we fancied it, but we didnt think that we would be doing it this early in the week!
After driving around for 40 mintues looking for the Afon Prysor without an OS map (the guidebook was giving grid references) we gave up and went to the river Llugwy at Capel Curig. By the time we got there it was about 6 and already starting to get dark, this didnt stop us however and we had a great time jumping off the drops and floating down in the falls.
That evening was spent in the pub with a girlfriend surrounded by 30 DofE students from a posh looking school who we laughing and joking about the next few days of their lives ... they didnt know what hardship and pain they were going to have to put their bodies through.
The following day, after a bit of rain over night, we decided to hit the Lower Wnion, we knew that it was going to be low, but I thought atleast we would get a low bump and scrape run. This time Callum was not joining us so I had to do the car shuttle with my bike. Im not the worlds best biker in the world nor do I pretend to like it, so biking just over 6km up hill from dropping the car off at the bottom was not the highlight of my day.
Once on the river, we could tell that it was very low, lower than I though but we were still able to float down the sections and only bump and scrape a few rocks. We got down have to river when Becs went over on a particularly narrow and constant section of the river. After her head got a bit of a bashing she swam and I picked her up at the bottom of the rapid. From on her confidence was shattered and after a few pins and one more swim, we decided to call it a day.
We sat by the river on a small beach eating sandwiches, choco bars and a packet a crisps as we watched a balck ferret like animal run around the other bank looking for food. After lunch, we made the great effort to carry our boats up a very steep hill about a hundred metres up to the road. The hike out took about 30 minutes because we had to set up an anchor and pulley on a tree and manage to get boats, gear and ourselves over the fence without snagging ourselves on the barbed wire. Once over the fence, all that was left to do was walk about 3km to the car, go pick up Becs and all the gear and get changed.
The rest of the day was taken up with walking up and down the Mawddach looking at all the big falls and drop dreaming of the next winter season and the big rains.
The following day we were off to Mid Wales to Callum's house and the chance to going canyoning again, this time in Pontrydygroes Gorge. After getting to Callums and a quick cup of tea and bacon sandwich we were off to the gorge. He had done this gorge many times before and knew exactly where to go. Well atleast we thought this until we got there and he didnt know where to get on the river, after a few spots we looked at we finally got on the river and we were told that this was the correct get in.
The beginning of the gorge consisted of a swallow float over some boulders and down some rapids. This was a great little start because it got us used to the water temperature and was also in sun so was nice and warm. Further down there were a few more rapids, some of which had to be walked around because they either flowed into undercuts, walls or was just clogged up with trees and branches. Further down the river we came to the big jump. The jump was about 25ft high with a deep plunge pool which we couldnt hit the bottom of even if we tried, and we did. After a few jumps we floated back down the river, came to a few more drops and rapids came the next big jump. Callum told us that it has a log sticking out of it which we have to slide down which sounded pretty cool. As we turned the corner and saw the next drop we found that along with the log already in the fall, it had been joined by loads more from the winter water levels and floods including a huge tree which was about 3ft in diametre and about 30ft long. We had to back track a bit and climb out of the gorge, this was easier said than done. The side of the gorge was wet, mossy and very slippery, we made it however, made our way past the obstruction and back down into the river, just in time for the lazy river section of the trip and the get out.
After a few pints down the local pub and a kip on the lounge floor, we were up again and once again thirsty for another canyon trip. Callum told us about a section higher up the gorge we did the day before which he did a few years ago. Again we didnt really know where we were going, what the water would be like or what we would find, its felt like a really little adventure. We got to the car parked, got changed and started to make our way down to the river. Once we got there, we found that the gorge needed a lot of water to make it work, all the slides were basically dry and all the pools were really shallow. After a good 20 mintutes inspection of the river, we decided that it was not a good idea, and it would also not be that much fun. The rest of the day was spent driving around on country lanes that only 4x4s would get, in the pub getting lunch and haivng a chilled session on the beach and in the sand dunes. A great end to a good week away, although we didnt really get much paddling done.
After a few canyon trips in the lakes and now in Wales, myself and Callum have decided to start to compile a guide for these rivers and evenutally make a canyoning guide for the UK. We are already starting to think of a trip to Scotland ...
