Snowy trip to Wales!

The last week of the christmas break was spent in Wales with ULKC. We knew when we were planning the trip that it was going to be cold but I dont think anyone predicted what was actually in store for us! We rolled off the ferry with about 6 inches of fresh snow on the ground and blizzards and chaos on the roads all the way from there to North Wales. Of course we were Irish people in a snowstorm and thought it was brilliant craic, jumping out of the van every so often to help push stuck cars and throw snowballs at each other.

Long story short we made up for the lack of liquid water during the week with lots of snowball fights and sliding down snowy hills on everything we could get our hands on. And we got a few days paddling in on the river Dee; which was perfect for the beginners on the trip to push themselves on a bit. Unfortunatly even that was getting awful low by the end of the trip, and there was no water in any other rivers around, but sure what can you do. We had a great trip nonetheless, the hostel we stayed in was great ( Jesse James' bunkhouse for anyone who's looking! ), the owners were dead on and didnt mind lots of occasionally bored paddlers hanging around and causing trouble! We got back to Ireland a few days ago to warm water and good water levels so everything's looking good for the next while.

 Instructing on the river Dee. Brrrrrrrr!! It was still a sweet river for coaching and practising basic moves on, the less experienced paddlers on the trip made great progress over there, and I dont think they'll ever feel cold in Ireland again! Photo by Tessa Kingston.

The scenery around north Wales was something else with all the snow around!

This Friday is d-day for the kayaking intervarsities, starting with polo in the UL Arena pool on Friday evening, then moving into whitewater and long distance on Saturday and freestyle on Curragower on Sunday. The finishing touches are being made to the preparations and all going we'll have a pretty epic event! That's all for now, the next post on here will probably be a run down on the varsities, fingers crossed that it's all good news! Clean lines and happy paddling!

Eoin