A Fechan Awesome Day

After waking up at 6am on Sunday morning, I spent the next hour persuading Alex it wouldn't be too low and persuading Louis that this time of day actually did exist... Eventually we headed off and met up with Hugh Graham and Rob Haley for a day of stomping stouts in South Wales.

With the Mellte hitting 1 on the gauge we decided this was perfect Nedd Fechan territory, and decided to put on a very brown looking Nedd Fechan at 8.30am!

The first 20 footer known as a notorious "ankle breaker" was at a perfect level for us to fire up. Like many other waterfalls in South Wales it's not overly deep, therefore it was a good time to test our boofs out at 9am on a Sunday Morning!

Louis Frost sending the 20 footer on the Nedd Fechan. 

Hugh Graham hidden in the mist on the same drop.

Shortly after the first drop you come across a less appealing second drop, this time the river drops about 25ft on to a concrete slab followed by another 10ft drop. This has only been run a handful of times and Hugh decided to fire it up.

Hugh Graham styling drop 2 on the Nedd Fechan.

Following this drop is some fantastic steep class 4 whitewater down to the Pryddin confluence. We then jumped out our boats and hiked up the side of the Pryddin hoping for enough water to run Sgwd Gwladys (Lady Falls). This is a sweet 11m drop with a flat lead in! Unfortunately there is a slight catch, its not overly deep... 

I opted to run the falls first and mistakenly attempted to pull the biggest boof I have ever done, the resultant was an extremely flat and slightly sideways landing, and I'm now writing this blog entry with a very sore back. 

How not to run Lady Falls...

Rob showing how to run Lady Falls...

We reached the take out for the Nedd Fechan before 11am, and with the Mellte still at a decent level we headed for a camera-less sprint down the Mellte! Due to time constraints we opted to run double drop blind which dished out the standard variety of lines... we then blasted down the rest of the run which is now tree free! Thanks to the paddlers who have removed the trees. 

By 2pm we were on our way back to Cardiff and I was back in time to fund my paddling adventures in my new job as a pizza delivery driver... Running Waterfalls and delivering Pizza in the same day. Done.

Cheers all for a great day on the river, and thanks to Hugh for some of the photos. 

Shout out to Overboard for keeping my gear dry, check out their gear at www.over-board.co.uk

Chyavan