A GoPro camera, lost by a kayaker in the Afon Ogwen River four years ago, has been reunited with its owner and amazingly it still works.
Emma Marshall, who works with the Alumni Development team at Bangor University, spotted the GoPro in the river between Bethesda and Halfway Bridge last week.
After retrieving the camera from the river Emma powered up the GoPro to find the device, although a little rusty, was still working. Emma then shared the video from the GoPro’s memory card on Facebook to see if she could find the owner and reunite them with the camera.
As Emma suspected, the GoPro belonged to a kayaker on the river who lost the camera when he capsized, amazingly the camera continued to film in the river until the battery ran out.
Emma explains how she found the camera and managed to reunite it with its rightful owner, she explained: “Last week my husband and I were walking along the Afon Ogwen, just below our house at Halfway Bridge; the stretch of the river between Halfway Bridge and Shaky Bridge (as its known) at Tal y Bont.
“There had been a lot of rain and the river was very full. We spotted the GoPro amongst logs at the river’s edge. I immediately guessed it must have belonged to a kayaker who had lost it on the river, so we took it home and connected it to our son’s GoPro app.
“To our amazement there was footage on the memory card that was perfect! There were videos of its initial set-up (which gave us the still of the images of the faces of the owner) and kayaking trips to sunny rivers in France. But it was the final video which interested us most. It was its final journey. The day it was lost in the river!
“My son, Wil edited snippets of footage to make a little montage to put on social media to find the owner. That’s the video you’ve seen on Instagram and Facebook. It’s had over 12,000 views now!
“We later found out their names. The GoPro was being worn by Harry Street (now away at Uni in Newcastle) but it belonged to his father, Dan Street, who was also there on the river that day. Dan can be seen looking at the computer at the start of the video and Harry is the kayaking boy in the pic and also the one in his bedroom in a Friars uniform.
“A large group of kayakers set off from near Bethesda. We watched their amazing journey down the Ogwen, Harry chatting to his friend about a day’s paintballing the day before etc. They go under the bridges at Bryn Bela. Re-group and set-off again. The rapids get quite big and its really exciting to watch, But a little way further down between the bridges at Bryn Bela and Halfway Bridge (Pontypandy) he capsizes, but the camera keeps filming. We see rocks and water rushing by.
“The camera keeps recording as it is pulled along the riverbed. It then comes to rest between two rocks looking up at the surface of the river. Then at the end before the recording stops, a trout swims up to it intrigued, before swimming off again.
“The final lovely twist is that Dan is an alumnus of Bangor University who studied Marine Biology in 1990 and then Teacher Training 1991 and I work in the Alumni Office at the University! So, obviously I’m going above and beyond to provide a service for our students after they leave Bangor Uni!”.
