3 Wise Men - North Wales 2011

We three kings from Battersea far, paddled North Wales, no need for a car...

2 days, 3 rivers, 3 cream teas, 1 swim, 1 van, £42 on Chinese takeaway. Here's the story.

The phone calls started on Thursday afternoon; Bunny had a van he was itching to use, Dave had sacked off his ship and Phil was as keen as ever to "work" (I.e. go paddling). Bristol was decided as the meeting place before getting off to Bala van-style.

By the time the tardy twosome made it to Bristol, we decided to bunk down for the night and make an early start the next day (thanks Lucy!).

At 6am on Friday morning we loaded Pete's van with Dave's bike as a shuttle and set off. Armed with nothing more than the Welsh Rivers guidebook, an iPhone and a sense of adventure the team were in high spirits!

Rivers were decided on the M5, starting with the Wnion near Bala. In need of nourishment we obtained some redbull enroute. Refreshed and replenished by our liquid meal we dropped the bike off and headed to the get in.

The Wnion was a long scrapy paddle into a gorge, filled with a couple of beautiful grade 4 drops (inspection necessary), linked by some delightful read and run technical grade four. We absolutely loved it. The inevitable game of rock-paper-scissors ended in Pete cycling the 6km to get the van.

Finishing quite late in the day, a lunch on the move was called for; so another can of redbull was happy to step into the breach.