Camping and Canoeing in Glasbury, Wales
We have been looking forward to our camping and canoe trip for weeks since we booked back in July. As last week approached we saw that there were high winds predicted for most of the UK because of Storm Lillian. 50mph gusts were predicted for Glasbury where we would be camping.
On Thursday morning we had a bit of think and thought if the worst came to it we would drive down in the morning but that felt like defeat and I didn't want to stay at home anyway.
I jumped online and found a hotel we've driven past loads of times and always laughed at... a few moments later we'd booked a double room in Three Cocks Hotel, Three Cocks and we were back on track.
The hotel was clean, tidy, and the staff were friendly. The Wi-Fi was good enough for YouTube on their fancy Samsung Frame TVs (which I'd not actually seen in person before) The artwork looks so cool when the tv is switched off.
Sticking with the theme of 'not staying indoors', we walked a mile into Glasbury and had a mooch around. We decided to sit down by the river on the grass beside the famous bridge whilst waiting for the only pub to open at 6pm. The food and service at The Harp Inn Glasbury was exceptional. I had fish and chips whilst Amelia had a vegetarian pasta dish. Both were tasty and quickly consumed!
In the morning, we skipped breakfast at the hotel (because who is paying £27 for two breakfasts?!) and headed over to our campsite @ River Wye Campsite, Glasbury. After a quick explanation that we were checking in from the night before due to the wind, they took our balance payment and we tucked into a bacon roll from their café. They had vegan and vegetarian sausage options too.
We found a suitable pitch location and left the car there then made the quick walk ten minute over Glasbury Bridge to Wye Valley Canoes and got kitted out with our life jackets, paddles and a dry barrel for my bag.
We managed about half an hour before our first capsize. My steering was mostly at fault as we got caught in a current where two channels merged into one and over we went. Thankfully the river was not very deep at this point and we managed to relaunch with minimal fuss after calming down a bit.
We both found the boat quite unstable and I wasn't very comfortable on the bench seat which made me quite fidgety! Not a recipe for success in a canoe. We proceeded down river towards Hay on Wye and eventually came across the rapids. We stuck right as instructed, and got pulled sideways backways into the channel beneath the rapids. We think the water level was too low and would have been between off jumping out at the top of the rapids and walking the boat through but hey ho!
This threw the boat over again and this time we lost a paddle whilst my wife was searching for her glasses (she found them!). I was desperately trying to stop both our dry barrel (containing our lunch, car keys, and wallets) and the canoe from pootling off downstream without us. After being dragged through the shallow water along the stones, I managed to get the boat against the rocks and secured the dry barrel. The paddles both drifted off though slowly into the distance. Thankfully, Amelia managed to rescue one of them but the other had drifted onwards when she grabbed the first one. A massive 'THANKS' to the groups of people sat watching who didn't grab the paddle as it pootled past them in the shallows. 😅
I called the team at Wye Valley Canoes and they suggested we should continue onward with just the one paddle as long as neither of us was hurt since we were so close to the finish point already so that is what we did. It was tough going without the paddle at the front, but we did indeed make it without any further incidents. The team at the landing point were great, and ensured we weren't hurt before taking us back via minibus to Glasbury.
Back at the campsite we decided to pitch up before having a shower in case anyone decided they liked the look of our spot in the corner between the Activity Centre house and a hedgerow. We'd mostly forgotten how to put the tent up as we hadn't used it since 2017 but after a bit of thought it all came together. This was also the time we got to test out all of the new kit we'd recently splurged on at GoOutdoors including a self inflating mattress roll, new chairs and tables but most important of all, the new stove to heat water on for my coffee!
After settling in and washing the river out of body parts I didn't even know existed we had a quiet afternoon sat watching the world go by. The facilities were clean and tidy, the showers were hot but absolutely the overall standard is what you would expect from a site known for school trips.
Whilst my wife and I spend a lot of time together but it is rare that it is a time or place that we literally have nothing else to be doing so that felt extra special to be spending time together in such a beautiful place and we are looking forward to planning our next camping trip. Maybe without boats, though.
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