The Wye & the Usk November '03

The journey to the bunk house took about five hours; it was enjoyable for myself, (Lauren) my mum, (Linda) and Sally, because there was a lot of laughing and singing.

When we arrived at the bunk house we decided on our rooms and then went out to buy chips. Everyone arrived late on Friday night. We were welcomed by a card game involving lots of mangled beer cans, heated peanut fights mostly with Ellie, Lauren, the Richards and Paul, amazing teetering towers made of beer cans and Ray and Cathy's mouth watering tomato soup, which everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy. Richard M. also tried to fit Linda into the kitchen sink, but decided it was too small and tried the shower; although when that didn't work he reverted to leaping off the walls and roof beams. (after having quite a bit to drink of course). After competitions of who could bang the floor above the girls' bedroom the loudest, people went to bed at about 2am having to get up about 5 hours later.

Day 2 Paddling the Wye.

On Saturday morning everybody got up bright and early raring to go, waking up to a lovely cooked breakfast. Well we had to have sustenance for the gruelling 11 mile marathon paddle ahead, which I must say now includes the HELL HOLE, and many more tempting (or not as the case may be) chances to go for a cool refreshing swim. Mid morning we put on our DRY kit and set off for the upper Wye.

At the get in point we were all informed of our groups and we made any adjustments that needed to be made on our boats while the drivers were on the shuttle. Some tips I received were, "Keep paddling" and "if in doubt follow Andrew" which was difficult as Andrew is considerably better at paddling than I am. I must say that the two writers of this report were tragically separated and were terribly brave to bear it.

Paddling was great fun but also rather tiring. Trevor joined us on part of our journey but finished up making his own way there. (Trevor being the tractor that Lee found near the beginning.) The focus of the whole paddle, the HELL HOLE!!! NOT for the faint hearted. Everybody who tackled the HELL HOLE!!! Was very brave and wet, apart from the posh people with moustaches who went "hwoh hwoh, jolly good, hwoh hwoh" And didn't bother to have any rescue people at the end. Terrible behaviour! Humph! A tip for the future trips, DO NOT FOLLOW TIM! He led Richard M. and me into a hole where we disappeared up to our heads then promptly hurtled out again.

At the get out point we received sandwiches crisps and fruit. The worst part however, came when we had to get changed in the dark, one of the less pleasant aspects of winter paddles.

When we got back to the bunk house there were lots of beer cans emptied and stacked and many pistachio nut shells thrown. Later that evening we had a delicious and nutritious five course meal. Firstly Ray made us a lovely vegetable soup. Secondly we had salad with cottage cheese and raisins or prawns. Then we had Pasta with a bean sauce. For dessert we had a delicious bread and butter pudding which Phil tried to help with and made very slow progress. He ended up with many helpers. With grapes cheese and biscuits it was a very nice meal!

The rest of the night was filled with games. All nice and dry, or so we thought! Pete had a nice little idea for a game of blow football lined up for some very unfortunate players. We all ended up getting soaked when he slammed his hand down in a tray of water. We did get our revenge though, by throwing the whole jug of water at him. Many more games were played such as table climbing, dominated by Pete, Andrew, the Richards, and Lee, I fell off with a squeak. Also there was bottle walking, with many people falling flat on there faces. Another game played, very late in the evening, while eating the fifth course, was grape throwing. The aim of this game was to throw grapes at other players eyes or preferably mouths.

Day three. Paddling the Usk.

When we got to the get in point there were some queries on whether we should paddle, but many people decided to paddle. It was very shallow and our boats got lots of scrapes. This river was much less tiring as it was shorter. But they were both still very enjoyable. An incident occurred involving Richard M. and his favourite boat, but we feel we should not talk about it as it may make him sad. Poor boat. Poor poor boat. Sally got wet when very bravely and 'INTENTIONALLY' went down a drop backwards. One of the writers of this trip report (being Ellie) very impressively performed a self rescue even though she cannot roll, without coming out of her boat.

The End

By Lauren and Ellie

P.S. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the club members who rescued Ellie and her boat at numerous occasions. We would like to thank Andrew for organising the trip and its finances, and last but certainly not least we would like to thank Ray for his delicious cooking, and other contributions to the trip. Thank you Southend Canoe Club. Signing off now, Lauren and Ellie.