North Wales - Winter 2013

The end of November saw the annual Cardiff Uni Kayakers trip up to North Wales, and I tagged along with some of the older boys and girls. Last year's trip had epic consequences, and this year was set to follow suit. A group of 24 students were travelling up on the Friday evening, and 12 old gits were gonna be going along as well. This was going to be a massive amount in the small bunkhouse and the 12 of us were taking a load of alcohol. Our plan was to leave Friday afternoon so that we could get to a pub and have some food before getting on the drinks. One of the failings of last year, mainly from Stu, Jonny and I, was that we started drinking (and kept on drinking) having had nothing to eat. Therefore our new plan was going to allow for a less rapid transition into drunken stupor and hopefully a less of a hangover.

The drive up seemed longer than the previous year, but this was most likely due to the sobriety of the passengers and myself. However we arrived at the pub at 1830, giving us an hour before we had arranged to eat with the others. We decided a beer would go down nicely, and on ordering we were told that we had arrived for happy hour and that drinks prices would rise at 1900. So getting the first round in, I pressed the boys to get it down quickly so that they could benefit from the cheap drinks. The half hour went quickly, as did the three rounds we smashed through:

Only tens of minutes in!!!

This had lead to Stu, Duncan and myself turning into a giggling mess as we showed how unmanly we are, and how easily a few rounds would affect us. The alcohol seemingly went straight to our heads, and as the others arrived they could tell a catch up was required.

We sat down for food when all 14 of us were there, and this is where the conversation turned very blue. Not only did we learn that Lucie P still uses a bib (although not for the 'regular' reasons), but Max E has a crazy foot fetish. I can only feel for the poor girl that was serving us, as we talked through every subject that would usually take a few seasons of Sex and the City to cover.

A short walk back to the bunkhouse at around 2200 and we beat the club there. Jonny and Andy B had also just arrived, so we got onto the drinks. From here my memory starts to fail me, but there seemed to be a lot of alcohol drunk, talk of High Card Something Bad and the possibility of jovial times had by all.

Bevan and I having hearty banter

Alex taking centre stage

Unfortunately my early beer intake had got me fairly tipsy, fairly quickly. This has the effect of also making me sleepy, and much like a hibernating hedgehog (but a badass hedgehog, like Sonic), I tend to curl up and have a cheeky nap wherever I can:

 

Effects starting to set in

Sonic The Hedgehog having a rude boy nap. The similarities are endless

I put myself to bed in the early hours of Saturday morning, and then the wake up call came so quickly, but following it some tales of the night before. Now I cannot give specific details away, as some of them are embarrassing and should only be divulged by the affected parties, but one story was that there were bodily fluids ejected by some people, but not when they should have been released :-P  I should quickly add that I, this year, was not sick (or anything else). In fact I was apparently well behaved and having put myself to bed at a timely hour, was not horrendously hung over either (although it was nowhere near a good hangover).

A walk down to the pub to get to the cars did see my body giving signs of resurfacing yesterday's liquid intake, however I managed to keep everything down. Max looked as though he wanted to die, which went half way toward making me feel better. We drove to the Dee, as the distinct lack of water resembled an Oxfam advert, yet the Dee always has something paddle-able in it.

The Dee delivered in it's pleasant paddle, and the freshers seemed to have a good time on it, with Town Falls being the highlight of most people's day. We went to a pub in Betws to have food and watch the Wales vs. South Africa game. (Un)fortunately Wales lost, boo-hoh, and all the Welsh were very sad. It seems England are the only team that they play well against, and for some reason they manage to hold that above us. Whilst having food, there were rumours of fireworks on the green outside, and we managed to catch them. This was the coolest fireworks I have seen for a while. The awesomeness was not based on the fireworks themselves, but more the way that the lads lighting them had no regard for their own health. It was difficult to decide between looking skyward to see the firework explode, or watching the guys lighting the fuses hoping that something (albeit nothing serious) went wrong. Fortunately it all went fine, and back to the bunkhouse we went.

Oooooooo

The Saturday night was just as lairy as Friday, although I hardly drank at all (the effects of Saturday were still lingering over me). However everyone else got on with it, and powered on through. There needs to be a mention for one lad, we will call him Harry, who really powered through. For a little guy, he put a lot away, but unfortunately had a little too much confidence in himself and bet that he wouldn't throw up. He even staked his eyebrow against his ability to retain the foodstuffs consumed that evening, and if he were to vomit then it would be shaved off. I think we can all imagine the outcome of this scenario, however the eyebrow (as far as I am aware) is still yet to be handed over!!!

Sunday saw everyone make their way to Lake Vyrnwy, however a late arrival lead to the club not getting on. The old boys gave it a go, but the thing was full of trees and was sketchy and almost not worth it. Even half way down, there was a chicken wire fence erected in the middle of the river. We ended up about 2 meters away from it, wondering what we were looking at before realising and getting to the bank before certain entanglement.

The Buff Boys at the get on

The trip back to Cardiff was alright, albeit the four of us in my car were tired from the weekend, but we got home in good time and I managed to get a good night's sleep before work. Thanks have to go out to the Cardiff Uni Kayak committee for arranging, and everyone on the trip for the high levels of banter.

Till next time...