Today was cold, wet and windy – not the sort of day that most people would choose to go paddling. However, with a free day and the rivers running high from all the recent rain, it was a perfect opportunity to get back out in a boat. To be honest, I haven’t been in a kayak on moving water for a while, so it took a bit to feel at home in my boat again.

We met up at Llangollen, before arranging the logistics for the vehicle shuttle, and headed up to Glyndyfrdwy ready for the paddle back downstream to the Old Mill. The Dee was running at 8 on the Old Mill gauge at the start of the day (but had increased to 9 by the time we arrived at the end of the trip), so there was a fair amount of water moving a quite a pace. Consequently, it was easy to travel at a very respectable rate and we could have probably finished the journey in about an hour and a half if we’d wanted to. However, the river provided too many opportunities for practice and fun not to stop and play at various points along the way.

The trip was certainly the perfect opportunity for me to practice some of those basic river skills, but it was incredibly cold on the hands! The combination of the generally cold temperatures, fast flowing cold water and strong gusting winds meant that my fingers often felt as though they weren’t working properly. In fact, at one point I thought I had cramp in my fingers when I felt I couldn’t hold my paddle properly. However, with sustained physical exertion, the blood got pumping nicely.