Welsh Booze Cruise

Stikine-esk: Team photo, featuring some Cotswold Catalogue poses, before getting on the mighty Dee.

I think I mentioned on Wednesday that I would be off to Wales this weekend. Well now I'm back. The weekend was good, in fact it was very good, but to say it was a paddling weekend there seemed to be a disproportionate amount of time spent in the pubs of Llangollen over paddling the rivers of North Wales.

Messing around by the Chainbridge Hotel.

The main reason for this disproportionate amount of time sat at the bar, with pint in hand, was down to the river levels. To put it simply there was no water, which meant there were no rivers in condition. Ok, the Dee was going and it was nice to get a run down this on the Saturday, but it wasn't so good to be doing exactly the same on the Sunday.

The Serpent's Tail.

As I said we got on the Dee on Saturday. We put on at Horseshoe Falls, took in the Serpent's Tail and Mile End Mill and took out above Town Falls because of the world ranking slalom race, which was taking place.

The first drop of Mile End Mill.

It was the middle of the afternoon by the time we reached the top of Town Falls, and with nothing else to do we traipsed back through town to our accommodation, got changed and then headed back into town for the rest of the afternoon and the night.

The 'sticky' hole at Mile End Mill.

When Sunday came around the plan was very similar. This time we paid our water fees at Mile End Mill and played around here for an hour or two. This did give us the opportunity to introduce some simple moving water technique's to the freshers who had never been on moving water, or as a matter of fact, in a kayak before.

The play wave at Mile End Mill.

Once we had exhausted the opportunities at Mile End Mill we floated on downstream and were able to take in Town Falls on this occasion; the slalom had obviously finished earlier than the previous day. Town Falls was nice, there was just enough to think about, but not too much to get you worried. A lot of the freshers opted to portage the falls, but I think they enjoyed watching us run it with some degree of style and flamboyance.

Some more Cotswold Catalogue poses at the bottom of Town Falls, Llangollen.

The weekend was rounded off with a leisurely night in Llangollen, before retiring to bed amazingly early so that an early start could be had on the long road back north to Cumbria.

Stikine-esk: After running the gnarl of Town Falls.

More pictures can be found here.

Good lines, stay safe and see you on the wet stuff...
Iain