I'd had a bit of a restless nights sleep with my left knee aching, right thigh aching and a rat rummaging through the trash for titbits. Getting up around 7:30am i had breakfast and set about getting ready to take action and rethink my plan. I'd already missed the low tide but felt sure i would be able to paddle from the village back to the mouth of the estuary and navigate across to the other side.
By the time I'd had breakfast and packed up the tide was coming in which is not good when you have to paddle against it but i figured by the time i reached thr estuary the tide would have turned and I'd be able to use it to assist with the remainder of the journey.
Paddling against the tide was hard going and my progress slow but i was heading in the right direction which was the important thing. It was surprising how quickly the tide was coming in and how quickly the sand banks submerged and disappeared from view. The river had gone from being a narrow channel to a mass expanse of water in a very short time and i was now no longer paddling along the banks but found myself in the middle. My left foot had also lost all feeling and gone to sleep but worse than that i was wishing i hadn't had that last mug of coffee before setting off.
I'd paddled about half way along when Ferryside independent lifeboat pulled up alongside. Alison and chief coxswain anthony had brewed up a surprise for me the day before, a mid paddle rescue excercise. In short i would have to transfer my pack and myself from hoolley into the rib without falling in and going for a morning dip. This was an unexpected challenge and something I'd never actually practiced before setting off from Southampton. Leaning over the side of the lifeboat anthony cut the paracord holding my pack to the front of the pack raft and hauled it on board. Then it was my turn, i pulled the spraydeck release and handed over my paddles. With one hand on the side of the rib i stood up from the cockpit and carefully climbed aboard. It all went very well, hoolley was pulled on board and i didn't get wet. It was a great experience and very educational.
The lifeboat then went on to complete a waypoint excercise before landing on the shores outside the Ferryside lifeboat station. While we were out flying around, i must say the boat was extremely quick, we chatted about the history of the station. A few months prior to my arrival the crew had been called out to search for an 11 year old who'd gone missing after falling in to the river Towie. The search continued for several days but unfortunately the body was never found. Back in the station hoolley got treated to a wash down while i posed for a photo and chatted with the crew who were entirely voluntary. They consisted of astro physicists, lecturers, marketing gurus, builders to name just a few trades.
The day was going to be quite an extraordinary one although at this stage i wasn't aware of this. Leaving Ferryside i followed the coastal path once more towards Kidwelly. Crossing a field which by all accounts is not a difficult or treacherous task was where the day was about to become painful. Whilst fiddling with my mp3 player i stumbled on a tree root that was arched out of the ground. My foot had caught underneath and i fell forward loosing my balance and crashed to the ground my pack landing full force down on top of me. Rolling on to my back i realised I'd hurt my knee and cut my arm. Blood was trickling down, quite alot of blood, and my knee was stabbing with pain. I picked myself up and carried on using a wet wipe to clean my arm. Thankfully it had looked worse than it actually was. Wiping the blood away revealed three small scratches but the bleeding didn't seem to stop so i let the sun do its business and waited for the blood to clot and dry. My knee though was a different matter. Every step sent a numbing pain up my thigh. Every few meters i had to stop to take the weight off.
In Kidwelly i stopped at coop to get a bite to eat, whilst sat on my pack munching on some mini cheddars and resting my knee two very young lads ran over and told me about an adventure they'd been on. They then ran over to their older sister and while pointing back to where i was sat called out "we've just seen bear grylls". I had to chuckle.
Progress was slow after my pitstop and the further I hiked the more painful my injury became. I had now rejoined the coastal path but decided to call alison to let her know what had happened and to let roger from the Burry port lifeboat station know i was running late. I didn't want anyone to worry. No sooner had i put the phone down i received an incoming call. It was roger, he was a little concerned about my knee and offered to come out to collect me and get somebody to take a look. It was a tough decision but in all the time I'd been hiking round Britain I'd never hurt myself quite so badly. Reluctantly I accepted but while i waited i delved into my first aid kit and pulled out some cocodamol painkillers.
It wasn't long before roger found me, I'd back tracked to the nearest road to wait for him. He took my pack and put it in the boot of his car and reassuringly told me he'd have someone take a look back at the station in Burry port. We were only a couple of miles away so it only took a few minutes before i was greeted by the crew who had turned up to meet me. I was taken to the crew room and whilst chatting had my knee looked at. Roger was also concerned that I would get cold camping out at night and had rummaged around looking for a new tshirt to replace the one I'd left in tenby and an rnli jumper. I assured him that my craghoppers clothing was more than adequate and i really did know how to look after myself. After a thorough examination it was determined that I'd probably pulled a muscle so i was bandaged up and given the all clear but it was recommended that i took the following day off to rest up, like that was going to happen.
Impressed by my stories of misadventure and more to the point, hoolley, the crew had kitted up in dry suits eager to get in their d-class rib to run an excercise. An excercise which unbeknownst to me would involve hoolley. They wanted to see how a pack raft would behave if they were to tow it should they ever get a shout from a pack rafter in trouble. Well i was game and the cocodamol had now begun to kick in.
While i was getting ready, climbing into one of the crews drysuits for safety, the crew were in the boathouse preparing hoolley for her trip. My kit was put on board the little rib and i was invited to take a short ride in the tooltrak, a small tracked vehicle used to launch the lifeboat. It was a neat little piece of kit. The tide was out but had turned however the water was a fair way from the boathouse. Arriving at our launch point the guys got in the lifeboat and i climbed into hoolley to begin my paddle across the estuary. It didn't take long before I was about halfway across and when i felt comfortable to start the excercise i signalled across to the crew.
They brought the lifeboat over and came along side. Attaching the tow line to the rib we began the little experiment. It was an odd feeling as i sat there and the rib took up the strain. Everything felt fine in hoolley and i sat back relaxing. The crew then called back to ask if they could open the engine up a little more, i couldn't see a problem with that and gave them the all clear. As they increased the speed something quite unexpected happened. Kayaks generally have a habit of nose diving when being pulled but hoolley did quite the opposite. Her nose went up and the back went down. I could feel the water slapping against the bottom. She still felt very stable but I still leaned forward and prepared myself to provide additional stabilisation with the paddles should she need it. She didn't.
Everything was going well and the experiment was providing me with an unusual experience while also teaching the guys how a pack raft reacts under tow. Signalling everything was ok we continued with the test. I then noticed something a little alarming. Hoolley was beginning to feel a little deflated, something wasn't quite right so i called out to the crew to let them know i had my concerns. They brought the lifeboat to a full stop and i drifted along side. Having a little chat to explain that hoolley was beginning to feel soft it was decided i should board the rib, something I'd been able to do with Ferryside lifeboat earlier that day, and bring hoolley up onto one of the tubes. The rib is really quite small especially with three crew members on board, myself and a pack raft. With very little room to inspect hoolley we agreed to come up on shore where they were able to practice their beach landing in surf. It was great to see the guys working together, as the rib drew in to the shore two crew members both leapt out of the front and turned the rib around facing the breaking waves.
When i was given a signal i jumped out and headed for the beach. The guys joined me along with hoolley and my pack. On the beach i began to inspect hoolley to see if i could spot a puncture but everything looked fine. I then checked the main valve and found it to be tight. Checking the mouth piece of the secondary valve i discovered it hadn't been properly tightened and decided it was probably leaking slowly. I should have double checked hoolley before setting off but i guess as we'd had many crossings I'd gotten a little complacent. Satisfied we'd found the leak and happy that it wasn't too serious the crew took hoolley for a wash in the sea and rolled her up ready to be put in my backpack while i climbed out of the drysuit to hand back to them. It was a great experiment and i would imagine an unusual excercise for the crew. I would also imagine that based on our findings should they be called out to a pack rafter in difficulty the procesd would be to get the paddler on board, deflate the raft and take both back to shore in the lifeboat.
Waving goodbye to the guys and a little high on the cocodamol i slung my pack on and headed up the beach towards worms head, a headland which would mark the turning point of my welsh leg of the trek. The sun was setting by the time i reached the far end and i set about looking for a place to camp up on the cliffs near to the site of an iron age fort looking back over the beach towards burry port.
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