Charity Adventure 2009

E-mail 18th May - “Who fancies a trip down the River Wye in 01’s on Monday?”

There you go a simple question from Gary Corr and guess what four of us took the bait!  This seemed like a pretty good idea I was at home alone so was Scott, Candy was working and Gemma away on a hen weekend in Edinburgh.  Not sure what Del and Rob’s reasons were probably that they were looking forward to doing something with the rest of us?

Anyway at training on the Sunday we took the boats and it was at this point we heard the plans.  Right lads we are going to Hereford and paddling to Monmouth Ok?  He could see the look of interest on our faces.  “Well” Gary said, “I had to go to a call out in Herefordshire and drove up the Wye valley and thought that’s an interesting stretch of water, I should do that one day!”  (You see no mention of we/us etc).  He continued, “I think we need three cars one to stay at Monmouth, two to take the O1’s up to Hereford and when we get to Monmouth in the O1’s we can go back for the two cars – good plan eh!”  Well it certainly seemed it and as we had agreed to do it, we were in.

Del drove to my house and arrived promptly at 5:30 am, we then picked up Scott (who I was surprised to see after several pints of cider were consumed by him on Saturday afternoon/evening (that’s another story!).

The three cars rendezvoused at Aust services at 6am and we were on our way to Hereford after a short stop in Monmouth.

Arriving at the rowing club in Hereford Gary asked which way to Monmouth and he was told in no uncertain terms 50 miles – 8hrs that way pointing downstream.  That was a good start we all thought, normally Gary arranges more of a challenge.  It was at this point I noticed I had not brought all my gear and a change of clothes.  But what I had was OK to paddle in – it was a nice morning.

We put the O1’s together and set off aiming to do around 10K per hour.  We started off easily doing that and laughed and joked about all manner of things and Rob (Rocket – Man) shouted “Good morning” to several campers.  Nothing wrong in that except it was 8am on Bank Holiday Monday and it was obvious by the silence that they were still asleep – up until that point anyway.”

We soon came to the first of many rapids and the boats slowed to look at the best way through, too late Ian the “rapid hare” had gone – this was to be the pattern throughout the day.  Del (Will it damage the boat) being cautious and Gary (Bring It on Yeeha) taking the worst line possible, Rob (the Rocket man) and  Scott (do my legs look long in this) taking it all in his stride with an evil grin!

Time passed gracefully, which is more than can be said for the banter, still it was early and no one was around save for a few early anglers after the elusive Wye Salmon. They all said good morning, surprising really, seeing that the peace was shattered by the 5 of us splashing and joking through their stretch of river.

We stopped on the hour for a break and quick snack.  It was soon apparent that the Wye runs through some beautiful scenery.  As the morning wore on we soon started seeing the day trippers in their Canadian Canoes gently paddling, well being taken by the gentle flow towards their next over-night stop some 10 or so miles on. We were doing 50 miles!

It was quite a common thread we would shout “hey the guy at the back isn’t paddling” – it always seemed to be a man at the back!  The response would be polite laughter and a “where are you headed”.  “Monmouth” would be our response, again the response would be polite laughter and “No really where are you going?”,  ”we would reply “Monmouth!” “Oh so you are stopping tonight somewhere then?”  “No we are going there today!” was our final word.  They would wave us farewell and you could see them say to each other “Those five are mad” or words to that effect!

So it went on.  Just after Ross we came across some canoeists who asked us where we were headed and they said you must be mad etc.  Their attention then turned to the O1’s and said “are they suitable for the disabled?”  Not quite sure what they meant by this statement, was it our paddle technique or our persona that made them think this? We cautiously said “why do you ask”.  Then we found out that one of their sons had been disabled in an accident and the father thought that he could fit two out riggers and that would make it safe for his son to paddle again.  We thought for one minute that we were more than mad!!  Ian by this time had drifted down stream waiting for us to finish our conversation.  When we caught up with him, he said that two of the canoeists paddled past him saying “those guys are seriously insane – do they really know how far Monmouth is!”  Ian thought that they were just jealous and waved to them.  Gary and Scott continued a conversation with the lead canoeist who said to them “by the way there are Grade 2 rapids just past Symonds Yat if you get that far today”.  Gary looked at Scott and said “what difference does that make?”  Scott said “the scale only goes to 5! We better not tell Del”.  Gary just said “bring it on - Yeeha!”

We didn’t tell Del and after a few minutes we paddling we passed the canoeists with ease, with our slick easy action paddling!

We the saw a castle – Ian said it was Windsor Castle (in-house joke); there was then a short debate about how Windsor Castle got to Wales!

As time went on the banter quietened it was beginning to hurt everyone apart from Ian who was taking it in his stride!  Scott had lost all feeling in his lower body – but still insisted on mounting Gary Gary’s boat.

We passed a canoe a few miles back and every time we stopped they drifted by – we were sure they had and engine!  A stop at a gently shelving beach was a good stop to take on food and drink and to make ones self comfortable.  Gary and Ian found that dot leaves have several uses!!

Again that canoe passed us!  That was it, this time we were passing them and that we would be that – so it was we never saw them again.  As Scott was at the back we were never quite sure that he hadn’t actually eaten them – he eats so much!!

We arranged to meet Candy and Ginette with supplies at Symonds Yat – except we didn’t know where at Symonds Yat (or even where it was on the river).  Ian said we were there but he was wrong (as usual, he kept saying it’s just around the next bend or possibly the next but not far) he obviously was still hallucinating from earlier on when he saw Windsor Castle!  We all knew it was Goodrich Castle but you have to humour the old boy!!

We met up with the girls and they bought Del his flask of tea – that made him very happy.  A bag of food disappeared very quickly and Scott looked happy but also looked as if we were next on the menu!

The girls then told us that they had spoken to the owners of the canoe hire - when they arrived and asked him if them if they had seen five O1’s.  He said he had not and asked where we coming from that day.  When they said Hereford he laughed and said “you are a day early!”  The girls said that we had phoned them from Ross on Wye and he then said well they should be here soon – with that we arrived.

During the break a canoe instructor asked us about our “cool kayaks” – he was being polite I think?  He asked if we were going over the weir – we said yes.  Del was very quiet.  He pointed out the route to take and said he would be at the bottom in a Canadian canoe just in case it went wrong for us.  Del asked if there was another way down! There wasn’t!

We set off Rob was to be first as he got nearer the rapids his rocket propulsion kicked in and he returned at great speed Scott who was behind him took the place of Ian the “rapid hare” and took the line suggested he disappeared twice and then could be seen calmly going through the flow at the end of the rapids – Ian went next and headed straight for two canoeists, stood on a rock, who were watching us with disbelief (was it because we were going to Monmouth?).  The O1 bounced over the rocks and narrowly missed their legs with the out rigger.  All came through unscathed and laughing.  The canoe instructor said we were brilliant for novices – how could he tell?  We pulled up a few hundred yards further down to empty bladders and about 5 gallons of water from Scott’s boat. He may have taken the right line but he took on more water than the rest of us who hugged the rocks!!

Refreshed we pressed on to Monmouth – where we were met again by Candy and Ginette - Gary and Ian racing the last 200 metres!!  Will those two every grow up!

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