Barmouth September 09
The weather has at last taken a turn for the better and the forecast looked good so we took advantage of this and headed off for the weekend. Our destination was Barmouth on the west coast of Wales. We obviously took the sea kayaks and the plan was to paddle the Mawddach Estuary. The Afon Mawddach rises near to Llyn Tegid and flows west to Dolgellau where it is joined by the Afon Wnion. It is navigable up to Penmaenpool which is roughly how far the tide reaches. It would be possible to paddle above this point but this would be more of a traditional river trip. Neil had work commitments on the Friday morning so we were not able to undertake the trip as detailed in the guide book which recommends paddling up the estuary with the incoming tide. Instead we started at Penmaenpool and paddled down to Barmouth with the ebb tide. Penmaenpool is a SSSI due to the special wetland habitat just above the bridge which is home to many nesting birds. The settlement is dominated by both the George 111