The club has its first trip of the year this month at Bala. A few members braved the cold nights camping and woke to find ice on their tents!
Campers and Day trippers all met to start the trip at 10 on Saturday morning, and the full group of 11 paddlers set off from the campsite beach in a leisurely style. Kayaks still outnumbered canoes 6 to 2.
There was a mix of weather during the trip as can be seen in the photos. It went from hailstorms as we set off, changing to a bright sunny day and finishing with some strong winds and risk of a storm at the end.
The group paddled along the eastern shore to the southern end of the lake where we found the River Dee flowing into the lake. After paddling upstream a small way, we found some very gentle moving water to get newer members into the idea of river paddling!
We then headed along the western shore and went back across the lake when level with the campsite. All members enjoyed the morning paddle, but after dealing with a number of different weather conditions the majority decided have an afternoon of other activities. Some had a different type of trip on the Bala railway.
Once the day trippers had left, those camping continued to brave the cold night and apparently some bonfire wars broke out! “The dads had a bonfire on the beach again, and the kids decided to put their scouting skills to good use and make their own bonfire from old branches and dry grass and we kept catching them pilfering our wood, they ended up with a better fire than ours!”
A good start to this season of trips and hopefully lots more adventures to come!