TWO separate rescues from the River Wye, only a day apart, have put the spotlight on the hazards of going unprepared down a river with the second highest tidal range in the world.

Emergency services were alerted to the first event when a mobile call came in from one of three men who'd spent the night stranded on a mudbank below the rapids at Tintern Abbey.

Police officers from Chepstow, fire crews, a Severn Area Rescue Association boat from Beachley and a Coastguard helicopter coming 100 miles away from Lee on Solent, were all scrambled to find the men.

HM Coastguard's log records the first call coming in at 8.45am on September 14th. "We're on a mudbank quarter of a mile from Tintern Abbey. Getting cold now, we've been here all night." The men, two from Cardiff, and one from Barry, had no lifejackets and were unable to get to shore.

Finding them took time. By 9.45am, a second call came through: "Still okay, but we're very cold. We're opposite lots of trees and there's a cliff on top of a bank. Can't see Tintern Abbey."

The Coastguard's Sea King helicopter eventually spotted the three, winched them to safety and airlifted them to Bristol's Frenchay Hospital. The SARA crew later found their drifting inflatable dinghy, which was returned to Beachley.

Mervyn Fleming of SARA said: "I have no idea of how they got stuck, but two of the men had medical conditions, the other had an injured leg. Mobile phone reception is atrocious in that part of the valley, so if they hadn't managed to get a call through, how they'd have got out is anybody's guess."

Steve Jones of Swansea Coastguard said: "The temperature in the night would have been 7 degrees centigrade. If you're going out on the water, think about the activity you're undertaking and take some simple precautions in case of the unexpected. Checking the tide, even in the upper reaches of rivers would be a good start."

"Know the hazards you face and go prepared," said Mervyn Fleming. "Let your family know where you're going, what time you expect to be back and what time they should start worrying if you're not back. Just because we're in Britain doesn't mean you're safe. We've got our own kind of jungles, mountains and dangerous rivers."

The second rescue, just a day later, was further downstream on the Wye between Wintours Leap and Horseshoe Bend.

"Two people had got themselves stranded in a small boat at full tide," said Mervyn Fleming of SARA. "The engine had packed up, but they'd managed to stabilise the boat on a mudbank with a piece of wood, which stopped them floating away."

Both were rescued by SARA and their boat towed to Tallards Marsh, Chepstow.