The sun rose on New Years Day and was missed by everyone as they slept off the ravages of the previous evening in Neath. Breakfast was consumed by some while others just struggled to keep down the kebab from the previous evening. By the time everyone got sorted and kitted out we had now reached 2pm, and were rapidly running out of daylight. Still, how long would it take to do the River Mellte.
Setting off, we carried our boats about 1km down a slippery track to the waters edge, and put in just below a stunning 50ft waterfall and paddled down a few hundred yards though some fun grade 3 to our first major portage. It consisted of a narrow track going around a very impressive 80ft double drop waterfall, which like the first, was unrunable. Just below was about a 12ft drop which landed onto slab.
The lip also had a river wide slab across, making it very hard to pull off a suitable boof but it looked like there was a nice little slot river right, with a juicy tongue, ready to lift the front of our boats high enough to clear the fall. With this in mind we spent 20 minutes lowering our boats to the top of the drop, only to find the slot ran straight into the wall and again, was unsafe to run.
After more tactical mountaineering, we got on just below, and set up for an easy looking 4/5ft drop. Darren ran it first with a nice boof, and pulled up in the eddy. Once he had warned the others about a meaty stopper at the bottom, he set himself up in a useful position. Gary and Chas came down next and joined him in the eddy. Simon came straight down the middle and couldn’t quite lift the nose of the heavy Mamba, and so in turn proceeded to get his New Years beating. He rolled up a couple of times, but in despair, ended up being our first swimmer of the year.
Some good grade 3/4 water took us down to the major attraction of the trip, Sgwd y Pannwr, a 20ft waterfall with a 4ft ledge halfway down which you have to clear, otherwise you are going to be doing forward summersaults. Scary thought. Darren was the first to go for it and pushed out into the flow. He reached the lip with momentum and suddenly came to a near enough halt as had hit the lip at the top and become grounded.
Mere inches from the top and Darren’s boat started to get pushed sideways, paddling parallel to the lip, he turned his boat to paddle away from the fall and nearly got washed over it backwards as he had 2ft of the back of the boat hanging over the lip. After seeing his attempts, the others felt best if they left it for another day.
We put in below and paddled hard through the next few drops, with some quite interesting lines. Time was running out and we needed to find somewhere very soon, where we could get out and find the path that apparently runs next to the river. We found a little beach next to the Hepste confluence, no further than 2km from the get in and spent the last 45mins of daylight trying to haul the boats up a steep, slippery, mountain side, ruining our strength and kit at the same time.
We reached what we thought was the top and then a wise choice was made by Simon to ditch the boats and retrieve them the next day. We had no idea where we were what so ever. We only had one torch, a mobile phone with no signal, and 4 cold, blind, delusional paddler folk, dressed in tight, wet clothing, carrying spear like objects. Christ knows what a farmer would have thought if he had seen us.
The walk out was treacherous, through heavily wooded forest, poking your eyes with every step. Over endless boggy fields, falling knee deep with every move we made. Eventually we managed to get hold of Stuart on the phone after leaving various panicky voicemails.
He pulled an O.S. Map out of his magic hat, and after doing some wishful exploring we managed to find a path that would took us all the way back to the take out. The walk was an adventure in it’s self, following the path down through water logged ditches, and over never ending hills. The final stretch was down a steep, pitch black, narrow path, with a sheer edge drop down one side. Slippery rock slaps in the ground, made it more like ice skating for some of us, with the shoes we had on. Just to give you an idea of the conditions, it took us 4 hours to walk 2 miles.
Return To The River Mellte
Simon, Chas, Gary and Darren had left their boats behind. They knew where they had left them. The only problem was convincing them that they wanted to go back in to the woods and get them. It was decided that if a shorter, easier way back to the boats could be discovered then as long as everyone went back in (safety in numbers) to rescue the boats and complete the river then the quest was still on .
The map was referred to and there was another alternative to retracing the horrible route that the fellowship had completed the previous evening. This alternative would have challenges of its own. The nearest access to where the boats were was from a road that led to a farm. The fellowship changed and then set off with a spare boat for Stuart in tow. After a while they met a car coming along the road that led to the farm. A wise old lady exclaimed that although she knew of the River Mellte she was not aware of any way to it from that point and she had been living there for seventy years.
Undaunted, everyone continued though they were slightly down hearted at the thought of maybe having to retrace the steps of the evening before. The last thing the old lady said before she continued on her way was “Beware the Gorge”, well of course there’s a gorge the fellowship said, we climbed out of it yesterday evening and it is the only way to get back in.
A tree plantation was skilfully negotiated and that was when the gorge was discovered. Last night, they had scaled one side of the gorge and walked out. Due to the shortened route, everyone was now going to attempt to descend the other side of the gorge with a boat and wade across over the river to rescue the boats from where they sat on the hillside.
I should probably take this point to explain that brightly coloured boats are a good idea as they are easy to spot if you look across the gorge and see them sitting half way up the hill on the opposite side. Now the fellowship knew in which direction they should be heading they set about descending the gorge with the magic eleven ropes. These were carefully disguised as throw lines so as to not attract too much attention.
The gorge was about 200ft deep on this side and with an average gradient of 60 degrees was pretty hard going. The boat led the way with the rest of us following on behind wishing that it would take a slightly more sedate route to the bottom. Crossing the river was not too hard. Luckily the river was low and everyone waded across and set about getting the boats off the other hillside so that the quest could continue.
How should you get a boat back to the river when it has been dragged up a hill? A) Lower the boat gently using a rope. B) Push the boat over the steepest part of the hill and call out “Look out below”. C) Get in the boat half way up the hill, push yourself off and then launch yourself off a root and throw an air blunt so that you descend the rest of the hill backwards. All the above options seemed to work.
Back on the river and the Stuart took the lead as he had inspected most of the drops the previous day from an easier footpath ran along side the river that everyone else hadn’t noticed in the dark. Stuart led the fellowship through several parts of the river that would have been grade IV if there was any volume of water in the river before signalling that everyone should get out and inspect.
There were three drops that were all close together. The first one had a tree stuck in it but there was a visible line. The second dropped into a slot where there was no alternative but to run the third drop. Unfortunately, the third drop was on to bedrock that was barely covered by the water. Everyone did the first drop with various level of success ranging between making it look like a pro and arsing it right up and then having to double pump the creek boat to get unstuck from the stopper at the bottom.
Portaging drops in gorges is never easy and it was while lowering the boats and paddles that Darren’s beloved Madyaker paddles got damaged. The fellowship took a couple of minutes to contemplate the passing of the paddle and Chas recited an ode that he had been composing before the quest continued. It should be noted that Darren insisted on using his paddle even though it had died. Does this count as necrophilia?
The river continued with a portage being made for a weir before the crack of doom was encountered. The river funnelled into a 2m wide slot that created a nice pour over. Darren and his deceased paddles proved that you can cartwheel a Dagger Outlaw before setting about attempting to cartwheel creek boats.
The trip had to go on though and as there was a slight concern that day light would soon be fading again the last half mile was swiftly negotiated before everyone quickly changed and then set about loading the vehicles properly. Somehow all the kit fitted back in then it was back to Blighty for tea and crumpets as usual.