Crickhowell Pre-Christmas Weekend 22/24-11-13
It was that time of year again for HCC to head off to Perth- y- Pia bunkhouse near Crickhowell which is in the heart of the Black Mountains. This year as there were only nine of us that could make it, we only booked the Farmhouse and not the Barn as well, as we normally do. Everyone arrived on the Friday afternoon or evening. Some quite late and a few luckier ones managed to get a walk in before arriving, Richard scaled Sugar loaf mountain and Rob Harrison and Dave Garland did a long circular walk via 3 pubs. Myself and Paula going for the more chilled option of a bit of lunch and sightseeing on the way down instead. Martin Walker arrived with so much food for us all, you would of thought the whole of the club were going to turn up. By the time Hayley then Stuart and Jane turned up we were all having a few drinks in front of the roaring open fire.
On Saturday after a breakfast fit for a king five of us (with the help of Hayley to do the car shuttle) headed off to do From Talybont to Llangynidr bridge on the Usk, the river was at a great medium level which was ideal for what we needed. This trip is about 4 miles long with lots of grade 2 rapids and one grade 3 at Mill Falls. Every one paddled really well, this was a great achievement as two of the paddlers had only been on grade 2 once or twice.
On Saturday evening we all got our Christmas jumpers on and had a lovely meal cooked by Martin, our main chef for the weekend, with some help from a few others, followed by party games with plenty of beer and wine. Later on we even had a visit from Santa with all our “secret santa” presents.
Sunday morning after another big breakfast we headed off for a walk to Table top mountain, this is quite a steep walk directly behind the bunkhouse, after arriving we split in to 2 groups, one going back down and another group carrying on to the next peak (which I can’t spell) before heading back for lunch.
I’d like to thank everyone for pulling together to make it another successful Christmas weekend away, to a great venue and hopefully with something for everyone, paddlers or not, and a special thank you to Martin Walker for sorting all the food out for us all.
Dave Clarke