May Bank Holiday - Tryweryn May 2011

The Royal Wedding Tryweryn weekend, unfortunately Will and Kate couldn’t be with us, they had a more important engagement, not sure what could be more important than the annual May BCC Tryweryn trip. There were a few royals amongst us though; John had his Union Jack flying on his tent.

It was my first Tryweryn trip, so I was a little nervous, especially after seeing the photos of Ellie G’s bum last year! The river did still manage to take a few casualties, Kate’s knee got a fair bashing and swelled, I have my fair share of bruises and Stu got a decent dent in his boat after a swim, I wonder if he got it out?

A few of the keen paddlers drove down Thursday to get an early paddle in on Friday morning. Apparently it was the coldest night ever, which led to some tent hopping the following night. I’m told snuggling with lots of people in a tent keeps you warm.

Those that arrived Thursday paddled the International on Friday morning and then we did a group paddle of the lower Tryweryn on Friday afternoon when the rest of us arrived. It was the fastest paddle down the Lower in the history of BCC, led by Bunny - as the taps were going to be turned off. It seemed to basically be dodge the rocks and then of course we had the Grade 4 Bala Falls feature at the end. Jim thought it would be better to go down it upside down and hand his paddle over to the river 'gods' 'monster' at Bala Mill Falls. We’ve carefully inspected the footage and the paddle went down but never came up!

On Sunday the group split up with a Mountain biking, rock climbing and paddling contingent. Losing his paddle wasn’t enough for Jim, he took a tumble over the top of his mountain bike and broke his little finger and the latest update is his arm is in plaster.

Prize for most rolls over weekend goes to Manda, I think she is the 100’s, all planned of course! There were swims by a few people, but I think I must get the prize for swimming on every feature of the Tryweryn at some stage or another across the weekend. The most coveted prize was first to bed, which Myles and Will were competing for, but it goes to Will.

Mrs Davis made her mark on Olwen’s brand new helmet, sounds like she is the nemesis of many from BCC.

Evenings were great fun around the fire; everybody has an opinion to offer when the fire lighting comes. Personally I think my fire the first night was the best, some other techniques were the Jenga fire starter, and John’s hairdryer on the fire, aka air mattress electric pump, was a winner to provide large flames. Warning Ed, dont get too close to the fire when John's hair dryer is in action or you might not have any eyebrows left.

The campsite rules were no bonfires, which we stuck to quite well, however with 6 bags of wood on the fire on the last night, I think it was starting to verge on bonfire status, thanks Dan.

John was very jealous of Dave H’s Blue steel colour coordinated outfit and boat. Olwen was eyeing off a green paddle to try and match Dave, I didn’t realise paddling was so stylish.

Sympathy goes to Dave T and Allan who had to get towed back to London as his car engine seized, apparently it’s the 2nd time on a BCC trip, let’s not make it a habit. Sympathy also goes to Paddy who hurt his back the previous week playing tennis, so couldn’t paddle.

Tania decided to show off the last day and have a lovely little play in the stopper at the bottom of the ski jump and very nicely manoeuvred out, it must have been planned.

There was lots of fun to be had surfing on the cafe wave, Ben’s deck seemed to keep popping.... or that’s what he told us. John had a great swim in front of the cafe, but managed a self rescue.

Car shuttling enabled me to drive Dave H’s brand new BMW, love the car, let’s hope that speed camera didn’t get me coming into Bala.

Thanks to Stu, our BBQ extraordinaire, who without we would have all starved. Who can believe that between 15 people camping we only had 1 sharp knife, not sure Stu could believe it.

Thanks Olwen for organising another great trip with great weather, I’m already looking forward to next year’s trip.

Lyn - May 2011