ThePADDLER 20
3 . Twrch – be honest when you are scared
Roll on another year , and I have been boating for three years now and am regularly running a variety of rivers . Cue a very wet autumn day in Wales with two paddlers I have only known for a few weeks . We were deciding what to paddle , and I am painfully aware of how much better at kayaking both of these guys are . However , I was the only one with a car , which is how we ended up together . My friend suggests the Twrch as a ‘ warm-up river ’. We park at the get-out and walk up
Main photo : Sometimes scouting a rapid is the scariest part . Photo : Tom Clare
the river to see how it looks . It was high , and some of the rapids looked a bit scary – possibly not a ‘ warm up ’ river for me . But my friends seem keen , and I don ’ t want to let fear get in the way of a good day . So we get on .
NEW EXPERIENCE Having never paddled ‘ ditch ’ rivers before – this was a very new experience for me . Eddys didn ’ t really exist – instead , you had to cling onto the sides of the bank whenever you wanted to stop . We start paddling , and I am a bag of nerves . The water is way too fast for my liking , but it is okay in terms of difficulty , so I get on with it . Then at some point , I seem to get in front of the other two and go around a bend . There is a river-wide tree blocking the way . I shout to my friends to get out but have no time to get to the side myself . I end up going ‘ through ’ the tree . There is a place where the main trunk dips under the water , and I squeeze between the trunk and a large branch coming off it . I make it through , roll up , paddle to the side and get out .