So the plan was to wake up and crack on with the adventure. Sometimes event the best plans don’t work out as we wished they would.
We had a five day window for this adventure and on this trip the first day was lost due to weather issues so the first day happened on the second day. The day after reaching the source of the wye, Joshua got D&V so spent 48hrs ill. As such he wasn’t well enough to continue with the adventure at that stage. Therefore the second day of the trip didn’t happen until the fifth day that we had available. As such adventure as planned turned into a two day spread over five days. We are planning to revisit the three additional days over the forthcoming months, with the aim to complete the adventure by the summer period.
So on to day two blog;
The day started as per any other adventure day, we woke early and had some breakfast as I was feeling better than I had for the previous couple of days. Dad and my cousin Joel headed off to pick up the kit from our storage whilst I prepared some food for us with my Mamgu (grandmother).
By the time Dad got back, I had been ill again so we had to shorten the day. By 11am I felt a bit better so we set off. We drove an hour to get into the river Wye near Ross on Wye, Dad felt it better to do an easier section since I was feeling rough.
When we got to the launch site, we met my cousins Joel, Lydia and Eve. My uncle Mike was also there so between us all we unpacked our van and got the raft into the river. We put the engine on the back of it, not to be used for the whole journey, but in case we got into problems or ran out of time and we could speed up the journey.
We got in near the Riverside Inn and the journey began. Joel, Eve, Lydia, Dad and I were in the raft and Uncle Mike was in his Kayak providing support to us and to check the safe routes ahead of us. There were a lot of people on the river today as it is Easter Monday and a lovely day.
We started off and everyone got their paddles and after a bit of confusion, we got into ta steady rhythm. The river meandered alongside the road for a while and then we passed the ruined Goodrich castle. The journey was okay but long. Passing under several bridges was fun as the river seemed to speed up through the arches of the old stone bridges.
We passed a few small Islands along the river which were pretty cool, making sure that we took the correct channel around the Island was Dads decision, he made me paddle hard though.
After a hard while of paddling and floating with the current, we went under the huge Symonds Yat rock where we could see the nesting holes of the peregrines, but we didn’t see any peregrines today.
Beyond that we paddled onto Symonds Yat where we stopped at Yat rock to jump in the river, that was cool. Joel and Uncle Mike did the big jumps but I just did the smaller jump. It was a bit cold in the water, although I did jump in and out a bit and enjoyed it a lot.
Dad told us that some rapids were coming up so we stopped just before them at the Ye Old Ferry Inn and had an ice cream and some lunch. We met our support team here of my Aunt Avril and Uncle Niall (Joel, Eve and Lydia’s parents). That was a nice break. Joel fell in the river here as he tried to swing on a vine, which was funny.
After the break we carried on and approached the rapids. In the raft it was easy and we zipped through and continued along the river passing a small island on our right. We paddled hard and Dad steered at the back.
After the rapids the river was going to be a slow and steady paddle into Monmouth. We used the engine a little bit as Dad was worried about the time and so the last leg after the rapids was lovely as we got to rest our arms and enjoy the journey.
We got out at Monmouth rowing club and met our support vehicles. We packed all the kit back into the vans and cars and headed for a well deserved McDonalds. I was pleased that I wasn’t sick or ill today whilst on the river. It was a long and tiring day, but I loved it.
The journey for day 2 was Ross on Wye to Monmouth.
- Distance covered: 18 miles
- Time spent on Adventure: 5.5 hours
Joshua Lewis 