Guinea pig A - Ashley James
Guinea pig B - Matt Doggett
On the sunny, Sunday afternoon of 14th July, Ash and Matt decided on a dip in a river. The River Wye was our destination and more specifically, Symmonds Yat was our entry point. About a 40-minute drive from Cardiff, and a few minutes from Monmouth, Symmonds Yat is a very busy Mecca for all things canoe-shaped. There were various entry points in the area so we asked at the canoe centre where they might recommend and also checked with the pleasure boat skippers.
After a hearty Sunday lunch over which we considered the conflicting advice we had been given, we opted for the simplest option to jump in right by the hotel car park just downstream of the pleasure boats' turning area and before the rapids. Sounds dodgy? Well, the rapids are shallow so the worst that might happen is you start to dry out if you beach yourself in them and there are only a few boats. The canoes are everywhere but the worst that might happen is a slight bump. There was some mild sewage pollution in the immediate area but many people were swimming and splashing around and all the fish were the right shape, so things seemed to be okay. Anyway I digress, on with the story...
...We timed our entry just as the pleasure boats had turned around and we jumped into 4.2m (wahey!) of eerie brown water. It hadn't rained for almost a week and the current was not too strong and easy to swim against. Vis was 2-3m. A few minutes later we realised we had probably gone diving in the wrong place, as all we saw were a few pieces of sewage fungus, some freshwater mussels and rocks. We decided to stick it out and very soon treasure was popping up left, right and centre! We found old pipes, bricks, some lead, a ceramic hob, a dead fish (eaten by something), a baby crayfish (live!), 2 pence and a fishing lure - our efforts had truly been rewarded :) Digging into the riverbed to a depth of 6m for a deco stop was considered briefly and, almost as briefly, decided against. As we entered the shallows we saw a few fish (roach, dace and minnows) ranging from 1 to 5 inches in length and plant life increased a little. 32-minutes after the descent, we jumped out at our entry point just as the pleasure boats returned.
We probably could have chosen a better stretch to dive but this was a new experience for us so the site was nice and convenient. As you approach Symmonds Yat you have to drive over a very narrow green bridge. The water below this appears much cleaner with more plant life and may prove to be a better site. The current seems similar and it is likely that you could enter and exit near the bridge. A drift from here to the car park would be possible if someone would stay on the bank and drive to pick divers up at the end. Motorboat traffic is heavier at the weekends - about 7-8 boats on this stretch, so a weekday would be a better time to try and an SMB may be useful. Canoes are available for hire and could be used for surface cover if a bigger group were to dive. On the way home we also checked out another recommended site, Monmouth Bridge, with entry at the local canoe club. The river here is faster flowing but looks cleaner and weedier. Flow under the bridge is fairly swift with no downstream exit points close by. However, the right-hand bank (facing downstream) has a still-water area that stretches upstream of the bridge making a return to the canoe club appear easy. This will probably be where we try next although another point of the river has been mentioned with a depth of 10-12m and is one to consider...
Kit is an issue to consider too. We used full SCUBA kit but could easily have dived with a pony or 6-7l deco tank with contents gauge, slung on a weightbelt and supplemented by a snorkel. The river was so shallow with no entanglement points in our area that today we might have been overdoing it somewhat. Still, better to err on the side of caution. The water was warm too and my 5mm wetsuit and hood proved more than adequate. Ash used his crushed neoprene drysuit with no thinsulate and also easily avoided hypothermia. It was a very pleasant afternoon out and we will return to the Wye - who knows what treasures lay beneath Monmouth bridge?!
