Monday 21 September 2009

Spectacular Success

Two years ago a small team of us ventured towards LLan Festiniog near the Trawsfynydd Reservoir to explore a new gorge on the Afon Cynfal. It was a typical wet, foggy miserable Welsh September day but none less we kitted up and headed to the river. After some hour an half it was still raining and we found ourselves at the top of a very large waterfall 'Rhaeadr Y Cwm', still keen we rigged the rope and sent Tom down for a closer inspection. On Tom's decent he soon realised the rope we had didn't reach the bottom of the fall, so prusiked back up the rope. At this point it was still raining and it was apparent that the water had gone from a murky brown/orange from all the peat to a darker brown because of rising levels, after we quickly packed away the rope and all the gear we made a very quick exit with the river rising at some pace.
Two years on and Dave, Will and Myself went for another go, this time with spectacular success.
I will the let the photos do the talking. One thing I would mention that this gorge is very committing and requires an experienced team with whitewater and climbing knowledge.



'Rhaeadr Y Cwm' Previously defeated us.

Will and I preparing to drop the bag been shadowed by 'Rhaeadr Y Cwm'

Will exiting the 'Rhaeadr Y Cwm' pool

Re-packing the rope after an abseil down a awkward narrow fall

Will and I heading towards the light, but far from the end

Will on a sweet slide in a lower gorge on the same river

Wednesday 16 September 2009

Venue Development

After using one of the venues on Holyhead for Coasteering for some time and doing the same jumps over and over again, I thought it was about to time to re visit for some experimenting with new jumps and other coasteering paraphernalia. Joining me was my little brother and his camera. The trip was reasonably successful and after a couple of hours we had found around 6 jumps I hadn't used before, and for those that know me they weren't all big! There was jumps of all different heights to suit everyone.

Mid flight, Back Somersault

Jump in to a very deep pool

Quick clip of a successful back somersault and My Brothers... well not so successful!!!
Enjoy and laugh out load, I did.

Monday 14 September 2009

Down Time

After a long summer I thought it was time for a holiday so my partner Helen and I decided to head down to Newgale in Pembrokeshire for a weeks surfing and general relaxing. We had looked at the weather and surf reports prior to the trip and decided that if we could survive wet and windy day on Sunday the rest of the week would deliver a treat. After a wet day the weather broke into glorious sunshine followed by the beautiful sunsets, and clean surf.

After the surf dropped off towards the end of the week we were left looking for our next adventure and found a jet boat company that did Trips round Ramsey Island. As well as lots of high speed turns and getting wet there was much seal pup spotting and to end the trip we were lucky enough to see some dolphins that followed the boat for about 10 minutes. What a awesome way to end an amazing trip.



Thursday 3 September 2009

There's something in the Water

The week has bought some quite exciting weather, no more so than at the seaside. All the beach goers set for a bank holiday sunning it up on one of Anglesey beaches were met by torrential rain, high winds, big swells and something squiggly that could really pack a punch. With big swells generated by a hurricane in the Atlantic, it seemed rude not to go for a bit kayak surfing. Joined by Ivan we loaded the boats and headed on to Anglesey. After much discussion over a suitable venue, taking into consideration all the important factors like shelter for getting changed, we decided to start at Cable Bay. We then worked our way north looking for the biggest waves. Ever the optimists we decided that there would be sufficient excitement at Porth Dafarch on Holyhead. We weren't wrong but it wasn't quite the excitement we had expected. As we caught a first glimpse of what can only be described as a 'sporty' sea state the sense of urgency increased only to be met by the local beach warden explaining perhaps we would be best not to venture into the sea after some unwanted visitors in the form of 30 to 40 'Portuguese Man-of-War' whose habitat is normally deep in tropical waters, had been washed up on the beach by the high winds and big swells. After careful inspection of these slimy characters whose body only maybe 8 inches across but its tentacles sometimes as long as 4 metres, with the ability to deliver a severe sting, we headed back on to Anglesey and had a couple of hours of really good surf which eventually ended in young Ivan exiting his boat!