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Welsh Weekend

Six of us - Pete & Wendy Bridgstock, Shaun Clarke, Clare Adams, Nick Bulmer and myself - discovered the secret of a perfect walking weekend in North Wales - take a kayak.

After many years of walking in Snowdonia in perfect canoeing weather, we woke on a chilly Saturday morning to a blue sky with not a single cloud, and views of a snow-capped Snowdon reflected in the lake beside the Plas-y-Brenin outdoor education centre.

We were staying at the centre's bunkhouse, a bijou residence which has a major saving grace in its proximity to several of the local rivers and Menai Straits. Oh. and the bar over the road, though that hardly crossed our minds.

Given the perfect weather, and the reported lack of water due to a dry fortnight in Wales (yeah, as if we'd believe that one), we were faced with a quandary, whether to have a fantastic day's walking up Snowdon and actually see it, or to strip off in freezing conditions, climb into a frosty boat and shuffle over some damp rocks. Not everyone had walking gear with them, so the damp rock shuffle was the chosen option.

We had a quick look at Cobden's Falls on the Llugwy river to confirm the river was wet enough to be navigable, and it was, so off we set from P-y-B, Shaun using his canoe as an ice-breaker before I'd even got afloat. It soon became hard work, with more time spent scraping across rocks than floating, but at least it warmed us up. This was to gradually wear us down during the day, and at some point we passed a fork in the river where Shaun's sense of humour parted company, and he started taking down the names of individual rocks.

Around midway was Cobden's falls, which had to be portaged - shortly before that we came down a chute where Wendy decided to stay vertical at all costs, and the boat had better look after itself. As it turned out, this is a better approach when you're not actually in the boat, and Wendy ended up surfacing with a report on the river depth.

The second half of the journey was equally hard work, with a longer portage. Just before the portage Pete decided to shoot the last few falls (the pattern emerging here seems to be portage-Bridgstock-something unpleasant). I stood by the last decent breakout with a throw line, but Pete passed it and bagatelled his way down a small canyon, ending up stuck and precariously balanced. Looking at the series of falls from far below, was a sobering experience.

We got out of the river at the Ugly House, where Wendy proudly noted that the sweat was freezing on her dry-suit. An elderly lady passed by and asked "Are you mad?" as we again stripped off in sub-zero conditions. She then lost the upper hand by saying to Pete "I think I'll call you Hiawatha !". End of day 1.

Day 2 saw us on the Menai Straits. Glorious weather again, but unfortunately the sneak preview of the tide tables in an outdoor shop hadn't been for long enough to memorise or double-check the information, and we ended up paddling against the tide to get back to the car after it turned 2 hours before expected. Still, we saved a couple of quid by not buying them

Howard Davies

Last Modified: 7 May, 2003