Sutton Bingham & District Canoe Club

Wye Valley Trip,  Saturday, September 3rd 2011.

Photographs courtesy of Nick Partridge and Simon Champion

7:45 on a Saturday morning and we're all standing outside the club waiting for Simon, half-asleep and waiting to collect boats and gear. 30 minutes later, after a frantic rush to Cartgate to see if anyone was still waiting (only Nick, looking lonely), we set off for Lower Lydbrook. Mark, the only one taking an open canoe, looked daft driving along with a boat longer than his Renault Megane on top.

After unloading all the boats and taking the cars to Symonds Yat, there was a brief, introductions and Chrissy was nominated trip leader. Everyone had a good giggle at Chris (Sandhurst) in his new yellow helmet with sun visor and his resemblance to Maverick off Top Gun, and then it was into the boats.

The water level was quite low, so there was a lot of grounding out on the rocks, but eventually everyone was on the water and practicing their ferry gliding across the faster flow at Lower Lydbrook. Setting off downstream everybody was shown how to break-in and break-out of eddies and there were plenty of places to practice.

As we continued downstream the weather steadily improved from overcast to slightly sunny - fortunately it didn't get uncomfortably hot. The scenery was stunning, all towering cliffs and wooded banks at the Yat Rock. There was plenty of wildlife around for those on the lookout including kingfishers, dragonflies, what may have been a kite and a couple of fishermen.

Upon reaching the beach where we were going to stop for lunch, we discovered it was inundated with open canoes and kayaks. We carried on another 50 yards and stopped further down. After stuffing ourselves we had a short break for chatter, skimming stones and some paddling in the river. Sadly we waited slightly too long and the big groups of open canoes and kayaks set off the same time we did.

Splat Rock! First up were Dan and Lee, and having watched Dan go down I was determined to have a go. Climb up, get in the kayak, look down and no time for second thoughts as Lee pushes me down. Big splash, totally submerged and re-surface snorting water out my nose to cheers and claps from the rest of the group. I start a trend as Chris, Rose and Daniel queue up for a go. Then we have our first swimmers of the day as Daniel tips up when surfacing and Lee, not to be left out, copies him a few seconds later. Both Lee and I have two goes and finally Jeffery and Dan jump in off the rock, Dan landing a couple of feet behind an unsuspecting Simon {gotcha!!}.

Leaving Splat Rock we carried on to the rapids to try ferry gliding, break-ins, break-outs and generally play around whilst shouts of 'keep paddling!' come from all sides. Everyone manages to ferry glide across, and several manage to get across the rougher sections of the rapids. Maybe half the group, myself included, capsized in the rapids whilst Simon, Chrissy and Jeffery managed to get their kayaks to nose down in the water.

Finally it was time to leave, so got out, dried off, loaded up the cars and retired to the pub for drinks all round. Conclusions drawn were all Splat Rockers were “Nutters!” (Simon said "Join the Club"), Chris' helmet made him look like a Lego policeman and that it had been a fantastic day all round. To cap off the day Simon arrived later and handed round 2* award pass slips to Dan, Georg, Chris, Mark, Will and me. Weary cheers and claps all round before we all departed homewards. A brilliant trip, an excellent opportunity to test out my new kit and I'm eagerly awaiting the next one.

Victoria Day September 2011