Hiyah there! Just got back from a wonderful day of adventure! Because it has been raining for the last four consecutive days, we weren’t able to climb again this Thursday, so we decided to do some river-activities instead. And since it had been raining, the river was at a perfect height and the current was pretty decent as well. Honestly though, I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t too hyped up for the day. I figured if the day was going to be anything like the past few days, I was going to be cold and wet - two things I absolutely hate being at the same time. However, when I woke up this morning, the sun was shining and it was actually quite warm. And then, by the time I squeezed into two, yes two, wetsuits, I was more than ready to dive into the unknown conditions of the river before me.
The shop, where we got ready.** Jacque, there on the left, yah, he was a pro kayaker. And then the girl in the blue top and white helmet, yah, she fell out of her kayak too. Good thing she had that helmet on. And don't be fooled by the white-water raft in the background.. or the fact that none of the internationals are in this pic. Or that "Llandysul Paddlers" looks like it's been photo-shopped on. . .
Our venue was amazing! It was located in a little town, about 30 minutes north of Carmarthen called, Llandysul . It was situated right upon a “river,” (or so they say.. I’d call it an extremely swift and deep creek) and was clearly used for kayak runs and other fun activities, as they had good access points and “gates,” or markers that you try to get through when you’re kayaking (see below**).
The best thing I can compare them to are slalom buoys for competitive water-skiing. Anyhow, after we suited up, which took awhile we started off the days activities with a brief session on how to save someone from the edge of the water. We then progressed onto actually getting in the water. We started underneath the bridge, as seen below**,
(The view from the bridge, looking downstream.**)
and we had a quick lesson on how to swim in strong currents – also known as aggressive swimming. We then had a little lesson on defensive swimming, which consisted of pretty much floating down the water, feet first, on our back, casually steering with our arms. Once we finished, we put our newly acquired skills to the test. We proceeded to “swim” downstream, eddy by eddy, until we reached the end. Keep in mind now, that this stream/river does not just consist of smooth water. Quite on the contrary, there were some decent rapids to go through (as you can see below and yep, that's me.. I'm so hardcore**).
They were so much fun! It kind of reminded me of a wave pool, but SO much better.
Once we made it down to the end, we climbed out and hiked back up to the bridge where we started. We were then given the option of jumping from the bridge if we wanted, since the water was plenty high enough, and of course, we all did. Crazy fun, that was! It wasn’t much higher than the docks at the lake, but still kind of exhilarating because once you surfaced, you had to start swimming for the nearby eddy, or else you were going to go for a swim all the way down.
We then took a break for lunch. We went inside, had a cup of tea, some food, and warmed up then went right back out again. Only this time, we did a bit of kayaking. However, unlike the kayak I’m used to, where I’m settled “in” a kayak on smooth water, we opted instead for kayaks in which had no covering, so you were practically sitting on top, and then we took them down the river, over the white water. Again, awesome. We put our kayaks in on the little man-made lake that was right behind the place where we geared up, practiced for a bit, then made our way down to the river via a little stream between the two bodies of water. Again, like the swimming, we practiced how to turn quickly in a current and how to direct our canoe upstream in order to paddle directly across the river, both very important techniques to learn if you hope to make it down any fast water safely.
After all that practice, we set off, just as we did swimming and went from eddy to eddy. We got to attempt paddling straight up stream (which definitely did NOT work out, I totally tipped my kayak on that one), and we got to go through some pretty hefty rapids near the end. It was pretty darn neat. I enjoyed it thoroughly, that’s for sure. I’d definitely say that next to rock climbing, this was my favorite activity thus far in the semester. Although, we’ve got some pretty tough competition coming up. . . kayak and board surfing and coasteering. We shall see who wins…. Until next time!
**Okay, not gonna lie, I didn't take any of these pictures. Since we were in the water all day, it really wasn't sensible to take my camera with me. But the kayaking picture, yah, that's really me, someone else just took it. Okay, not really. It's just some other hard core person..that I wish I could be. Ha ha ha!
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