Sat in a bar, the first of a Dublin pub crawl, I recieved possibly the best text message a man could get from his girl friend:

“Go have a great night, I grant u full anummity for anything silly u get up to! Enjoy.”

The evening ended after 3 more pubs and a club with lots of beer at each then retiring to the YMCA whom provided us with 4 cheap bunk beds followed by a rubbish breakfast without any tea.
Later we walked through the city with our belongings on our backs and headed to the Guinness Factoy, even though Luke & I really dont like the stuff! It was much better that I thought it was going to be, with a full story of how the black stuff is made - its actually ruby in colour. Every visitor gets a free pint on the top floor where the sides of the building are made of glass and one can take in the whole Dublin. The factory is a clever idea where you pay 12euro to get in and then they tell you how good Guinness is for you for a few hours so you go away wanting a pint or two.

Sunday evening was the last day in the folk music weekend in Temple bar (the main bar area) so we searched for the best and hottest acts it had to offer. The first band were at a jazz club and finished for the evening just as we sat down with our pints, the second band appeared at the pub we were at. We had walked to the upstairs of a pub to find no one but the bar man present, we saw down, Luke quickly instructs us to drink up and leave to find somewhere better, as we do so a band walked in through the door, got pints of Guinness and started playing - well cool!

Staying up all night to catch the plane home at 6.30am took its toll at my 10am lecture where the song “I’ve had the same jeans on…” seemed fitting!

The failed hammer on camera Photo: David Fairweather

Almost at the end.. Photo: David Fairweather

Sunday we headed up mountains again with a 2Km walk in up to the Cwm Llan, here we played with new lines and moves and watched Andy paddle onto rock – guys a bit of a legend!

I tried to write an article for the university newspaper about said trip but they weren’t having any of it so the shorten version is up for your personal viewing.

New Year Eve Day started with a drive to Dartmoor (I know that from the Midlands the Dart isn’t on the way to the Lakes!) where there was water, and a short boat down the Upper was ace.

The evening entertainment was drinking & dancing at the party barn at Tom Law’s estate in Mendip.
My lovely gf drove us up to the Lakes on the 1st whilst I nursed a serious headache and decided I was never going to drink with David Fairweather again (a popular facebook group).

Luckily the weather from Dartmoor followed us and it was time for some serious boating starting the Kent, finishing at Force Falls. Sat in an eddie above FF, I signal to Louise on the bank “is it big?”, she shakes her head and points left – trusting her and knowing there is nothing scary on this river I head off and am faced with a 2m drop!!!! (A last second hero boof failed to save my style)

We were staying at a reallynice cottage at Birk’s Bridge next to the river Duddon. This had to be done and Wallowbarrow gorge down stream was continuous drops - fun!
Another day another river and the long drive to Langstrath Beck south of Derwent lake was well worth it! The start was a 2.5Km walk in up a pretty steep hillside - the good side being that we had to paddle down it! As with the Duddon, Angie was my trusty camera woman on hand to take photos of the whole river – running down the rivers! The major drop on this river took the life of Strongman’s boat with a large dent in the front while Iain was driving it. My last day saw me head back to the start of the Duddon and the starting rapid that I had chickened out of before but decided it was my time. The Lake District is almost as close as Wales to me so I will be trying to go again soon.