An early start saw 6 of us, Richard, Rob H, Martin C, Dave H, Dale and myself heading to LLangollen to the well-known (by paddlers) River Dee to meet up with Kevin and Michelle who were there for the weekend.
After the car shuttle Kevin showed us a far better route down to horseshoe falls. This involves a great slide/seal launch down a field, with Dale and Kevin taking the ‘grade 5’ option and the rest of us going for the safer route. We had a good mixed ability group on the water so we buddied up and headed down to the Serpents tail, this is a grade 3 (4 in high water) rapid where there is always plenty of activity and swimming going on, we spent a long time here. Some paddling it, some swimming it and others learning a lot from watching and helping with safety cover.
After the Tail there is a nice paddle with quite a few grade 2 features, before you reach Mile end Mill. (This can be a park and play spot with parking and a café) This is a great place to practice skills and play which we did for a while before heading down stream to the town. Before the town section we split into 2 groups to either do the main town falls which is grade 4, but is actually easier than it looks, or go for the left hand route, known as the chicken shoot. After doing it, a few in the group could not understand why it was actually called the chicken shoot!!
A great paddle with some great company finished off with a debrief (beer) in the pub garden overlooking the river. Well done to the less experienced and thanks to the more experienced for all your help.