Italy training on the Cynfal

With exams almost upon us and a distinct lack of rain we decided to head to Wales with hopes to finally complete the Cynfal, which we had been to previously and ended up climbing out due to the river being too high and the first series of drops not looking too inviting. After some interesting racking of the majestic Jessica (our Nobel steed purchased for our Italy adventure) my self, liam, James and 10 strokes (Freddie) finally arrived at the take out and began the not so long, but certainly steep walk in. Upon reaching the top, and realising that James was like the Duracell bunny we rapidly got on and proceeded with the protégé around the log jam. Compared to the previous time we had been here the water was considerably lower which indicated the sweet sweet delights located downstream should be good to go and no where near as gnarly as the previous time we had been here and pussied out!

We paddled through the tight gorge to the pool we had got out at previously and had a little scout of the 4 drops in succession, all of which seemed to be pushing you into the walls, unfazed by this myself then liam set off down. With both of us getting clean (not styled but clean) lines while fred tried all of my camera batteries before realising they were all flat and put the camera away. After deciding they were both good to go fred and James got back in their boats and paddled towards the lip until fred decided at the last minute he must have left the stove on or something and proceeded to show off his impressive climbing skills by climbing out of the gorge with his boat (and my flat camera much to his annoyance) and began the not so fun walk out.
After James's clean run and working our way around the tree wedged across the gorge we came to the lip of of the next drop consisting of a 1m ledge drop leading into what we could only describe as a rather large horizon line! Deciding we were not quite up to challenge of scouting the landing as we fell I had a quick climb out to have a look, a task much easier said than done. After much faff we were all back on the water and a quick game of rock paper scissors I was to go first, not quite getting the line I wanted but still managing to land it right a quick blast on my whistle brought liam and James down one after another.
With this going without any problems and us all feeling pumped we proceeded to the next drop, a shallow slide into a 4m sloped fall with a tree stuck in the left hand side, and after James had a look and instructed 'if you go left you will get stuck in the tree' we all again without problem ran the drop with clean landings. After this the river turned into more of a journey under, over and around the many trees blocking the river. Then two highlights of the section would have to be James getting broached across the river before walking round a log jam and slipping onto a stump which entered him slightly and liam complaining about all the trees then hitting his head on one quite hard and not saying a word for the rest of the river.

After reaching the get off and finding Freddie we decided to leave all the mocking till later and go for a second run which went without faff or problems. We then headed to the pub and convinced James to get the massive mix grill and then all ordered much smaller meals, and after we had a few pints and me and Freddie showed our pool skills were similar to our kayaking skills (almost non existent) we headed off home.

A great day out on a beautiful place to be, defiinatly one to bring your friends to when the rain gods are against you.

Here a video Liam put together, so all credit to him.

Adventure Boating on the Etherow

After days and days of heavy rain we decided to try something new and headed over to the river Etherow only an hour away from liverpool. We arrived at the get out and went up to look at the gauge by the broken weir and it was on around a 4.5 (ish the gauge is broken below 6 so its a matter of guessing) returning to the car i had left the lights on resulting in us having to bump start it, luckily we were parked on a hill so this was possible (even tho i was pretty much in someones garden by the time the engine started), and then we were off up the road to the get on.

Guessing that we were in the right location we got onto a stream not much wider than the boats and started to rapidly whizz off downhill, until the river started to steepen and we decided to have a quick scout downstream as we had been warned the river contained many fences at head height. We had come across the first gorge and the crux of the run consisting of a series of drops in a narrow walled in section containing a mid stream rock to avoid, leaving only a boats width to pass in an undercut, and a larger drop and slot on a corner with a sticky slide on the lead out. The first part went ok, just catching the rock and breaking my thumb and the larger drop went without any problems until looking for a eddy to wait for liam and it all went wrong a few hundred metres downstream ending in a broach and unfortunate dip in the river. Due to faffing with dropped paddles (dick!) the boat which had been still broached floated off downstream and led to the start of a rather diffucult walk down the bank to see if we could find it. Luckily while stopping at an eddy for liam i noticed that the small drop i was stood next to was formed by my boat wrapped round a rock on the bed of the river.  Some nifty rope work and a long walk out later (footrest had disappeared making finishing the run difficult) the shuttle was run and it was off home through rush hour for many a mocking and reviewing the footage from the day. A great river that i cant wait to go back to and complete. 

A (not so) successful adventure ditch boating day on the Etherow