A Fine Day Out

On Sunday (3rd) Hugh and I went boating early in the morning, like well early. Hugh knocked on my door at 06:30, and I didn't know what was happening; my body just spasmed and I took about 10 seconds to realise it just just Hugh waking me up. I felt quite ashamed, if this was an emergency, and a maniac had run in the room, he would have had his way with me and be long gone by the time I was capable of counteracting penetration - he would have shanked me good and proper. We packed up and got to the Nedd Fechan to see it was on a sweet level, with a quick message on Facebook, we had a group of Cardiff Uni boys on route to join us.

We jumped on at the top, and paddled down to the first notable drop. With a little bit of a tricky lead in, we spent a bit of time preparing for the line. I jumped on first and the drop went sweetly. With good runs by all, our spirits were high.

Me at the top of the drop

Hugh mid drop

Rapidly, the next drop approaches, and Hugh scouted and decided to hit it up. This is a fall onto a slab with nothing but millimeters of water skimming over the top. You could say only a mad-man would have seen this and thought it was a goer. We set up some ropes downstream, and he smashed it:

Hugh nailing it

Despite looking intimidating, it was sweet to see someone run such a scary as line. Following this, we kayaked down to the Pryddin confluence. We walked up Lady Falls and decided it was going. I was bricking in my trousers, one thing I am not fond of is heights, and the idea of dropping about 10m is about as appealing as licking a leprosy victim's wounds clean.

Chyavan took the hit, and agreed to run it first. However a forceful boof led to a flat landing on his side:

Not the greatest style

This didn't help with confidence in the group. Having already carried my boat up to the top, I was obligated to crack on. Now with my bumhole tighter than a Chinese Finger Trap, I got in the boat. The drop is actually one of the cleanest I have ever seen. A completely flat lead in, a perfect lip and massive landing (albeit rather shallow for the height), meant I had no excuse but to run it like a man.

I'm fu*king smashing it

With a waterfall where you actually notice being in the air before hitting the pool, this was an adrenaline rush. Landing it, I realised I was still alive, I cheered my ass off. The rest of the run was chilled out, bouncy water, and made for a great fun ending to the river.

The second river was on the Mellte, and due to a slightly rocky start, we smashed the river out with little scouting, only exiting the boat to look at the slot and drop (now tree free, inc. the lead in) and the weir. It was just under a 7 on the gauge, and was a fun level to round the day off.

A sweet start to the season, and hoping for more!

Thanks to Hugh Graham and Chyavan Rees for the photos