(Of Wales)

It was 10 am on Sunday morning, an almost unseen time for most members of the canoe club, yet almost all were ready for the World Tour. We picked up other members of the club and arrived at the canoe shed to collect all of the boats and kit and pack them into the minibus. This was all done in very quick time unlike many previous trips where faffing was the main activity. We left the shed at 11:00 and had a fairly uneventful journey, until that is we were within sight of our destination, the sea near Rhossilli. The boats just couldn't wait and as we braked for a oncoming car one kayak flew off the roof of the bus, reaching out for the water. Kayaks are not designed for flying and Phil's new boat hit the road and bounced into the nearby kerb. This all happened in what seemed to be the most populated area since we had entered Wales. Soon a large audience had gathered to point and laugh as we tied the boats back on for the last 300 yards of our 300 mile journey! Upon arrival we headed straight for the sea to catch some surf. By the end we had all mastered the basics and were able to catch some good waves.

The next day started quite early for one member of our group, very early 5.30am to be exact. He decided to go for an early morning stroll and set off to the far end of the beach to an island. On arriving at the island he found a small causeway and decided to stop on the island for a read. The rest of the group were still fast asleep in the tent. At about 8.00am they received a call from the wonderer explaining that he was now completely cut off from the main land. They assumed that this was a prank and stayed in bed for another half an hour. Deciding that their friend may be in a little bit of trouble they walked down to the beach to see if they could see the marooned soul. They eventually found him 45 minutes walk away and walked out along what was left of the causeway pointing and laughing at the guy on the island, now surrounded by fast flowing deep water. 15 minutes passed and the group discovered that they too were now stuck and were in a far worse situation that than on the island. Shoes and socks were swiftly removed and the group made it back to solid ground. The rest of the morning was spent waiting for the tide to go out and the group be reunited. Later in the afternoon the Cathy spotted two nicely tanned identical twins in a boat and before we could say any thing she had sprinted down the beach (we have never seen her run so fast.) She then proceeded to chat the boys and after a while realised what she had gone to speak to them about and persuaded them to rescue our friend. With what was left of the day we headed towards St David's (Britain's smallest City). On the way we stopped at the Crystal Maze, which is a game very similar to the Crystal Maze as shown on Channel 4 a number of years ago. You basically run around different zones, doing challenges and collecting crystals. After spending 40 minutes acting like five year olds (which comes very naturally) we had collected 7 Crystals and approximately 150 gold tickets in the dome. After finding a campsite that we were all happy with (this took quite some time) we set up camp and went to find somewhere to eat for the evening. Unfortunately however we soon discovered that everywhere in Wales closes at about 8:30 and so we had to drive to the nearest town (about 30 minutes away) for food.

The next day started off with a huge cooked breakfast cooked by Charles. After breakfast we set off to the coast, kitted up and paddled out along the shore in search of an area well known to kayakers called "The Bitches". This is and area of white water that is fun to play in. We discovered that in order to get there we had to cross an area of sea about a mile wide, with a strong current. We decided that we couldn't be bothered with all that effort and stayed inland and explored the caves along the cliff edge. Some seals came and swam along side us in the crystal clear water. Frankie and Phil also did some swimming and jumping off the rocks into the sea. The other members of the group remained in their boats claiming that the water was too cold.

Wednesday we headed up to Bala in North Wales in search of rivers. We soon discovered that there were no rivers near by that had any water worth paddling during the summer (or even had any water!) Instead we stopped in Aberystwyth for the day. We were disappointed that the mini golf was closed so went bowling. The tourist information were incredibly helpful and we had no trouble finding the bowls green! The ten pin bowling alleys proved slightly more elusive but were discovered in the end. In Bala we camped next to the River Tryweryn. By this stage we had given up cooking for ourselves so frequented the local pubs and restaurants.

Next day we decided that we really should do some paddling and paddled the top section of the Tryweryn. The Tryweryn is a high grade III rapid and was a lot bigger white water than many of the group had paddled before. We shot straight down the river only getting out to inspect some of the more tricky sections of the river, such as drops and large rapids. We spent the whole day paddling down the river and some of us even thought it would be clever to swim some of it but getting the boats back after falling out was less than easy!

On the Friday we did the Palm River Safety Initiative. This was a course designed to teach us river safety, swimming in white water and rescue techniques. Our instructor Spike told us to jump into large fast flowing sections of river or into big white masses of water and other horrible things and for some reason we did. Most of us sustained various injuries against the chipper (a giant "tea strainer" across the river to catch the swimmers from swimming the whole river) This especially happened when the rescues missed the victims swimmers and left us to speed down 6 rapids hitting rocks along the way. Saturday we completed a river running course, which taught us how we should have run the river on Thursday, and this helped our technique.

After breakfast on Sunday (1:00pm don't want to rush things) we headed back to Surrey after having a thoroughly enjoyable but shattering week. Special Thanks for our driver Cathy Marshall and all those who played a part in organising the week.

Photos can be found here