Sunshine in Italy, and rain in Wales…

Hello all,

I’ve just returned from a beautiful week in Valsesia, filled with smooth bedrock paddling, wine, pizza & pasta. My top 7 highlights were (in no particular order):

1. HRH the Queen’s epic boof on the the Sorba Slides. – See picture below!

2. The take out of the lower Cervo - We accidentally put on at the take out, and with dogged determination paddled about 10km of shallow, scrapey, sieved out choss and nasty weirs – The take out was a blessed relief.

3. Luke’s shoulder being put back into its socket. Luke ‘Background’ Farrington was unlucky enough to pop out his shoulder whilst paddling on the Egua, however his future paddling recovery prospects have been hugely improved thanks to the quick, expect actions of Mr Tom Parker who managed to reassemble Luke within minutes of the dislocation.

4. Il Gatto e la Volpe – Although the paddling is world class, it is Alberto’s sublime restaurant/pizzeria which makes Valsesia my favourite paddling destination in the world. Enjoy fresh game papardelle, pizza, olive oil, grappa, espresso, and if you’re really lucky, some local donkey sausage.

5. The Egua – Whether throwing outrageous freewheels on the waterfalls, swimming down the cylinder, or doing laps of your favourite drop, this remains one of the best rivers in the world for steep, technical paddling and general fun.

6. The Valsesia River Festival Party – Amazing Dj sets from Wokka Wokkie and Cheese, and massive fun had by all. Good work by Gene17 on organising this excellent event once again.

7. My car not exploding – Somewhat optimistically, we made the trip this year with 5 people & boats. Despite some minor overheating issues, severely cramped conditions, and very little ground clearance, my trusty 306 Harriet did sterling work getting us all there and back. Long may she continue!

Check out the images below!

 

After one week back in the UK we’ve been lucky enough to have a pile of rain, and had the chance yesterday to paddle the Mawddach in west Wales. A classic rain fed run, it features some excellent (& some filthy) class 4 & 5 rapids, and halfway down, the infamous Rhaeadr Mawddach waterfall. I’d seen pictures and a couple of videos of the falls being run in relatively low flows, and it’s pretty full on. A river wide ledge hole at the top, immediately followed by an awkward 5m drop into a narrow cauldron, which then spits directly out into a 7-8m steep slide with a ramp and a kicker to send you flying the remaining 6 or so metres into the pool. Oh, and the optimum line has you coming within a couple of feet of an abandoned mineshaft…

Despite being pretty high (90 on the gauge downstream), I was feeling confident to paddle the drop, with a new line, starting from river left. Although The entrance did not go exactly according to plan, with some downtime in the cauldron requiring a speedy recovery, the second two drops went perfectly, finishing on an enormous boof into the landing pool.

With plans for a quick, efficient, faff free trip I’d left all of my cameras in the car, and therefore have absoulutely no footage or evidence of my descent, however I plan to go back before too long, so watch this space…

For now though here’s a stitched together screen grab from the video of Jo Rea Dickins’ descent earlier this winter. this gives a good idea of the scale and complexity of the waterfall!

Huge thanks to Matt Tidy, Sara James, Dan, and Tom  for sorting safety on this one!

More soon, see you on the river!

Nick