With buckets of water falling all over the country and time off from the Reading Climbing Center, I couldn't resist a boating trip to South Wales. Despite driving through buckets of rain to pick up Dan Rea-Dickins, our initial target of 'Tawe Mores' was yet to rise. Plan B was to head down to Pont Nedd Fechan for my first run of the Mellte.
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| Dan at the Mellte get on. |
Levels on the Sunday were quite low, however more than enough to give me a good introduction to a stunning river.
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| Hugh paddling the first drop of the Mellte. |
On the Monday, we met up with Hugh Graham. The heavy rain overnight brought the Clydach Gorge into condition and what I thought was going to be a nice grade 4 bimble, contained some nice surprises.
A decent 25ft boof off a sloping ledge, a long tunnel under the canal and a spattering of weirs and trees kept us on our toes through a great little gorge.
After lunch, we returned to a slightly higher Mellte, to enjoy another run down.
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| Dan boofing in awesome surroundings. |
The increased water level cleaned up all the drops and softened up lots of the landings.
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| The classic South Wales waterfall, Sgwd y Pannwr. |
The main event is a 30ft double drop with an auto-boof mid ledge, that in our flows, required an anti-auto-boof to save loosing a few inches of height upon impact.
The rest of the river continues with more drops, interesting slots and a few more drops.
Cheers Dan and Hugh for a great couple of days
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