All sorts of reasons meant that I wasn’t really supposed to be going paddling, but I ended up getting up early on a Sunday morning, with a bit of a hangover, with the intention of paddling the Usk, with just a small group – Lisa, myself, and Mark Aplin.
We got an early phone call from Jim to say that he’d join us – he’d decided that the alternative trip with Nick et al was ‘Death on a stick’. (Ask Ernst about the subsequent consequences for his shoulder that day). So it was going to be four of us paddling. My hangover wasn’t too bad after all…
We expected the river to be high, but it was the highest I’ve ever seen it. The river left just about space to paddle under the bridge at Crickhowell – the pub by the bridge was only a foot or two from being flooded. But we decided to get on anyway. Up we went to the get-in. The field at the start wasn’t quite flooded, but the field just below was.
The ‘flat’ section at the start was running chocolate brown at a jogging pace. The river was well over its banks in most places. It took us less than 10 minutes down to Mill Falls; we managed to find a micro-eddy and stopped to think.
The only strategy was simply to go for it, and stop where we could. We headed down the usual line at Mill Falls – down the left. It was very big, very bouncy. The stopper on our line had disappeared, but the one on the right was huge and horrible. One brief stop, then onwards. Fast, furious, nowhere to stop. Big and bouncy. Nowhere to stop. Massive wave trains. The trees at the edges were a nasty hazard. Around 10 non-stop minutes down to Llangynydir Bridge. Loads of people on the bridge watching!
Just below the bridge we had to head left to miss the wide and nasty stopper 100 yards further on. So I crossed left, but suddenly I was over. This is certainly no place to swim – it was a monster stopper just below! Luckily I managed to roll, and frantically headed further left to miss the edge of the stopper. I was at the back of the group, so the others hadn’t even seen me go over! Very disconcerting.
At one of the big wave trains, I saw Lisa just about prevent a capsize after a particularly nasty wave hit her. But other than that, I think we all stayed upright. Just four of us paddling along, approximately in line – Mark, Lisa, Jim, and then me. I’m not sure that this large volume water is exactly what my small boat is designed for!
Only 10 more big, bouncy, and furious minutes down to the last big wave – a nasty stopper just above the Glan Usk estate. This was the only other place we stopped! There simply wasn’t anywhere else safe or suitable.
And the ‘long boring flat bit’ at the end became a brief 10-minute float. We had a look at the bridge at Crickhowell. The river had risen a bit, but it was still possible to get under the bridge. But we all claimed cowardice and paddled across the field above the bridge on river left instead, for a well earned exit. The river had flooded the field about two feet deep.
The pub landlord was getting a bit worried about the water level, but it seemed to have peaked. We watched a few other paddlers come through the bridge arches, and paddle over to (into) the pub garden.
So there we had done it. Stupidly high water on the Usk. Fun but terrifying. Now I’ve done it so I don’t have to do it again.
PS – We know that some other club members have paddled the river even higher in the past. No doubt in Dancers or something similar…
Conor O’Neill