CSCC Reports 2008: Tryweryn - September 2008

Turtle and Richard were the first away from Chiswick on Friday evening, followed by Peter, Hilary and Amelia.

The next morning, after a comfortable night in B&B accommodation in Bala we met up with David Mannering and crowd from the other CSCC (Chippenham Sailing and Canoe Club). Some of us started from the top (chipper) picking up the others after the tricky bits. Pete and Hilary took turns looking after Amelia. Dave M’s daughter Laura, was on her second Tryweryn trip and did very well despite having what looked like an uncomfortable swim down the graveyard. We picked up another guy called Bob who proved to be a useful asset for the trip.

The lower section proved fairly uneventful with a couple of swims on Bala mill.

There was time for another run down the top section with Turtle happy to babysit, Amelia enjoyed watching from the bank. There were a few more swims, both Laura and Pete came out on the graveyard and Simon from the other CSCC swam at Federgog with his boat eventually captured at the campsite by Dave who had his own little epic chasing the boat. Luckily a rescue course was being held and they got plenty of practice. Pete also had another dip while doing a tricky manoeuvre on the lip of chapel falls.

That evening the choice was Pizza restaurant and the White Royal Lion bar or the Pyranha fest party.

Next morning there was a start from the chipper with Turtle opting to look after Amelia and swap over with Pete below chapel falls. The tricky graveyard section caused problems again and for a while Laura thought her expensive new paddles would never be seen again. However after Hilary had carried her boat back up part of the rapid and had chance to make a few more eddies the paddles were spotted floating down the rapid and duly retrieved.  There was another swim for Simon I think on the S bend with Dave M again getting some boat chasing practice in. The lower section caused relatively few problems for the newcomers but Bala Mill exerted its authority as usual. It was noticeable that Turtles paddling technique was coming back and Richard just how consistently good a paddler he is.

Great weather, great company, great paddling. If only it could always be like this.

More photos can be found here...
Richard's http://s123.photobucket.com/albums/o282/rszczepanski/Tryweryn200908/
and http://www.civilservicecanoeclub.org.uk/csccgallery/thumbnails.php?album=9