River Tywi - Burial Chamber Bridge to Dolauhirion Bridge 21 March 2010
On a springlike and sunny Sunday morning 5 members of SVCC and
an associate, Jo, met at the West End Cafe at Llandovery prior to
paddling the section from Burial Chamber Bridge to Dolauhirion
Bridge, about 10 miles in all.
After sorting out the shuttles we started out at Burial Chamber
Bridge and proceeded down river, Jo and Dave in open canoes with
the remaining four of us in kayaks.
River levels were low so navigation through the many grade 2
rapids was tricky, but with less scraping than expected given the
level. About a third of the way downstream we came to our first
grade 3 drop, a double ledge drop of around 4 feet with an
awkwardly placed rock.
All ran this successfully, with Jeff almost coming a cropper
with his "unplanned" route through.
Dave decided to demonstrate side surfing the stopper at the
bottom of the drop, which unfortunately resulted in him having both
gunwhales under water at the same time: not a good scenario in an
open canoe. This resulted in our only swim of the day!
Proceeding on down the gorge we came to another drop and stopped
just below this to have lunch.
After lunch we continued on down river, again through frequent
and very pleasant grade 2 rapids, finally coming to the last major
grade 3 right at the take out at Dolauhirion ridge.
All ran this except Hedley (nursing a previous shoulder injury)
and Jo, as the slot was deemed too narrow for her open canoe.
All in all a fabulous day on a beautiful river, so again thanks
to Dave for organising, and to Hedley for leading.