River Dee Improvers Trip 5th February 2017

What a fantastic paddle it turned out to be on Sunday! We all met at Ponsonby arms, in Llangollen, the car park after town falls where paddlers usually get off when they have paddled from Horse shoe falls down to town. Everyone started to arrive at 9:30 am. It was a beginners and improvers trip, we
were there to paddle the lower Dee. We had a great flow of water which was nice and manageable for all levels of paddlers.

There was a good turn out for this nice relaxing paddle on the chilly Sunday morning. Once everyone had got changed into their nice and toasty thermals and paddling kit, the people in cars made their way down to where we were due to get off the river. As everyone arrived back to where the rest of us were stood freezing whilst starting to get to know each other, it was then time to get on the water. Before we did that, the top dog Keith put us all into our groups, it was my first trip with Liverpool Canoe Club and I was there to help out doing some river leading to help me towards my 4*. I’m very grateful that Keith and my group leader Mark (who I accidentally kept calling Steve) Garrod let me tag along.

When we were all ready to start our journey, not to name any names here (simply because I don’t know any), but someone had left their helmet in their car, which just had to be at the get off point…..

Luckily my Mum and Dad took this lovely gentleman back down to his car to collect his helmet.

Whilst the bloke’s group waited patiently behind, the other groups made their way onto the water.

With having so many paddlers on the water close to where we got on, it was packed with no eddies to get into, so we all started to make our way down the river at a nice steady pace.

Sunday was all about building confidence and getting people used to being back on the water and it seemed to work pretty well

It was a good 4 hour paddle with some good laughs and conversation and we also managed to see the sun for a short while, which was a bit of a shock to us all if I do say so myself. Along the way we all tried some different things to bring our confidence and

paddling skills to a higher level, its always good to encourage each other each time you get out there.

Once we had made our way to the end of our long stretch, we got off at Ty Mawr country park with lovely scenery and TOILETS!!! Which I think was a great sight for us all.

The day turned out well with no swimmers or rollers which was a result, it couldn’t have gone any better. Well apart from one small thing, I did accidentally fall of the bank into the water, but that doesn’t count as a swim may I add.

It was a great trip with lovely people and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.

Maya-ray (mayo)

More Photos…….                                    Next Improvers River Trip 12th March 2017 – Click here to book……