Liverpool University Canoe Club

May Bank holiday weekend saw typical British weather as we headed to the west coast of Wales to St Davids. We arrived late friday night after leaving ahead of schedule with minimum faff which must be a record for the club. We arrived in St Davids where we met some others in the local pub, after a few fizzy sherbet lemons we went and found the campsite and put up tents in the dark.

Saturday morning the majority of the uni members got up at 7 to bright sunshine and paddled around the bay and onto whitesands beach to try and get the best surf early on. There was some surf but nothing huge, which was good for beginners like me. After messing around on the beach for a while we decided to head back to the campsite, some paddled back and some walk around the coast. On the paddle back we saw some of the ex uni members paddling the other way and struggling with the tide and head wind. I then had a lazy Saturday afternoon at the campsite and watched the sun set before heading to the pub in the evening. Others were more active and went for walks or bike rides around the area.

Sunday morning we woke to rain and no surf and many took a while to venture out of their tents. Some of us ventured into town to see what there was to do, so we ended up in the pub less than 12 hours after leaving it, this time with many cups of tea instead of pints. Sambo and Flic then arrived having just brought monopoly, so a 3 and a half hour monopoly session followed. After this the rain had stopped so we headed to the beach nearest the campsite to play frizzbe and play on the rocks and rock pools.

Monday morning the strong winds that we had most of the weekend persisted, we took down tents and loaded the van and trailer and drove to whitesands for a last morning surfing, the surf was better than it was on Saturday and everyone seemed to be having a great time. It started to rain but this makes no difference when you’re in the big wet ocean being struck by waves. We came off the water got changed and some of us began loading the trailer. An hour later all the boats were tied to the trailer and I was absolutely soaked by the time I got in the van to leave. We left at 2:30 and arrived back about 7:30. All the way home we heard of severe weather warning and gales force winds in the south of Wales, but it didn’t seem to have effected us too badly. We only had 3 tents damaged by the wind and rain, so unfortunately Kayla and co didn’t quite have such a good weekend as the rest of us did.

I found this a really relaxing weekend, and a good break after exams, so would thoroughly recommend it to anyone next year. 

Photos: Sue, Jon, Flic, HelenJ