Mawddach Estuary - 22nd January 2011

Launched from the slipway at the southern end of Barmouth beach at 8am! With a high tide around 10am this meant we would be paddling with the incoming flood up the estuary.

We passed through the railway bridge and proceeded down the broad mouth of the estuary at a reasonable pace - GPS was reading between 9-11kph and that was with a bit of headwind.



We were soon down to the point where the estuary narrows and round to Penmaenpool. This time of year the pub and buildings here do not look as though they get any sun, and by this time we all seemed to be feeling the cold, so we proceeded through the main arch of the wooden bridge and on to the far bank for a snack in a sunnier location. There was a lot of frost on the ground still and frozen pools of water - not the best conditions to warm up cold feet!



After about 20 minutes of rest we paddled a bit further upstream before turning to make our way back with the now ebbing tide. The return was without incident (running out of water and grounding was the main hazard) and by time we reached the Barmouth rail bridge the flow was fast through the first three arches given some playful conditions to practice breaking in and out of the current.



We were off the water by about midday. Paddled as a group of 14 kayaks and one canoe. About 23km paddled.