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| Reviews & Photos | Usk 05-07 November 2010 | |||||
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Bonfire night 2010 heralded another Friday evening journey from Brighton to Wales. Driving the van were myself and Wayne. This Friday would be different though, we decided that we wouldn’t sit in the obligatory M25 traffic jam like all the other numpties. Oh no, we had a cunning plan involving the A272 followed by the A34, completely avoiding the traffic and putting us a decent way along the M4. This plan worked brilliantly and we didn’t hit one traffic jam, so we were feeling very smug and pleased with ourselves. Unfortunately our smugness lasted approximately half an hour as karma, obviously deciding that we weren’t allowed to complete a Friday evening journey without waiting around on the motorway, shredded the van’s alternator belt. This situation led to: lighting sparklers on the hard shoulder, 12 people in a 5 seat recovery truck to get us from the hard shoulder to the nearest services (at least this allowed everyone to get to know each other intimately), drinking in the service station car park and lots of negotiating with the AA about how exactly we would get everyone to Wales. Once this was sorted we had to enjoy: loooong waits for taxi drivers who turned out to be terrible drivers and incompetent satnav users and a final journey time of 9 ½ hours, to turn up to find our friends those gits who were lucky enough to not be in the bus very very drunk and having a great time. Obviously having a trip with no bus was going to be a tricky situation. Luckily everyone managed to squeeze into the cars which had come up with us (thanks to Paula, Doug’n’Deb, Sally’n’Si, Bri, Emily & XLR) so we managed to get everyone to the get on without too much bother (although as everyone had been up drinking ‘til about 0500 there were a few bothered heads, particularly one Mr Matt B, who got bored with drinking and decided to spend the second half of his Friday night vomiting on himself in various parts of the bunkhouse. He still managed to get on the river though so good effort). Once we’d got everyone into kit and made sure all the newbies were looking nice and nervous we finally got on the river (to do the Sennybridge – Aberbran section; http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/swales/usksennybridge.htm). Team extreme was myself, Wayne, Jenny & Tristan. Despite it being their first ever river both Jenny & Tristan did great, and even managed to improve despite having the handicap of me & Wayne coaching them down the river. Everyone looked like they were doing great, we seem to have a keen bunch of newbies this year, with a couple of them rolling already on the river. Oh yeah, Rosie found her other hole, which happened to be by the seat of her boat. Rosie’s other hole had been done a couple of years ago by Ricky in the Alps and unsuccessfully filled by Matt C this summer. Naturally all this hole action caused Rosie to get all wet again (just to be completely clear, she swam). I also paddled 2/3 of the river with a boat full of water due to Doug & Wayne stealing & losing my drain plug- cheers guys! Levels wise the river was about 1.0m on the gauge at Crickhowell, which was a decent level for the club, as it was not at all scrapey but not honking along at a rate which would have caused too much fresher carnage (although personally I am still waiting to do the Usk in flood…). The evening bought some frantic sorting out of the transport situation with the hire company, followed by much needed (& cheap!) grub from the local pub. The décor in said pub probably hasn’t changed since about 1970, but they had a jukebox, darts and pool so its all good. Next morning after the obligatory epic faff, we set off to do the Mill Falls section of the Usk (http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/swales/usktalybont.htm). Rain overnight having kept the levels decent enough made for a pleasant trip. We kept the same group, which was great as it meant we could practice more of the skills we learned the day before- Tristan and Jenny successfully negotiated Mills Falls with ease, even looking like they enjoyed themselves (although Jenny said it was more terror causing her face to be frozen in a grin!). There was some wet action for me on Mill Falls unfortunately. I had to get a pinned boat out of the middle of the river but unfortunately while I was doing this my paddles, floated off downstream, closely followed by my boat. Note to self. Make sure boat is securely perched on rock mid river before going in to get the pinned boat! I still got the pinned boat out though so its all good, and I provided much entertainment for the safety crew on the bank. After a great trip all that remained was to drive home. Luckily our bus situation was resolved by the clubs newest member, Legend Steve ( Cheers guys for a memorable one! By Duncan Stokes |