French Alps update

Day 5

Today we went to the Ubaye to have a look at what the levels were like over there. The weather was cracking, first day off pure sun.

Looking at the race course the levels were looking high, and just out of interest we went to look at Fresquière, which was off its tits! So we went to hit up the race course and it was properly going. It was brilliant fun! Fast and bouncy, we had some good little sections with Phil and I taking the lead on different parts, nothing hard with the knowledge of read and run that makes river seam dreamy. Morgs wasn’t feeling overly comfortable, but we all got down and had a good laugh. However this was a reasonably pushy level, where the stoppers and pour overs had to be treated with respect, as I found out having dropped into one, and needing to battle in order to avoid being pulled back into it.

Ubaye racecourse head-cam shot

The plan was then to try and find the Bachalard to have a little go on it after lunch. Arriving at the get off, we had our sandwiches, and then drove to the top. The 'get in' is down this little path against the bridge which is kind of savage, but worth it to do the run. Sliding down the bank on my ass, like a dog with worms sliding on the carpet, I reach the river side and what a sight, clear water and beautifully clean rock. The first half of the river reminded me of Corsica, little boof strokes needed and lots of edge changes. I recommend anyone to give this a go, as it is a tremendous run, however the guidebook suggests that it only runs one month a year, so we could have just been lucky because we came out in the early season. The scenery is also one to be taken in as you're heading down, and easy to do so, because the river has nothing too demanding on it.

Bacharlard head-cam shot

The day ended with us having a beer in Ubaye village and heading over yo Guillestre for more drinks and some food. With a couple beers in our system, conversation ranged from the UK's education system to the government and its structuret. Apparently after a few drinks, a group of five men can solve all of the world’s problems. Unluckily though, the thoughts were forgotten by the following morning. Just to clear things up, as we are all manly men, the conversation did also included birds, boobs and killing bears, three subjects I can safely say we are all expert in.

Day 6

Today started cold as anything, and this was a slight downer. But our plan was to head to the Durance Gorge hoping levels had fallen. The gauge was showing 9, yet this still looked higher than a gangster rapper on his day off, and the nerves were running wild. Morgan, Phil and I kitted up and headed on down. The holes were meaty and the lines were hard to see from the boat, but luckily Phil and I took an even amount of leading, as being switched on for the amount of time needed to run the whole thing would have been too much. Both Phil and I were feeling the nerves, and as the portage was getting closer it was getting more and more nerve racking. So you can picture it, imagine racking your nerves in the most rickety rack ever, causing more nerves to show themselves and filling the rickety rack fuller, making it stress and strain under the weight, causing an exponential growth of nerves during the nerve racking experience, that is how nerve racking it was! Now the portage get out has seemed to have changed from what I remember, as there used to be a tree over the river. I took a few snaps to give you guys a look at the get out to aid you finding it. My advice is that when you see a rock slide on river right, get out and look, because it is most likely the start of the portage.

 View upstream from eddy

 Downstream from eddy

 view of eddy (you can see the rock slide on the bank)

View of opposite wall

Hopefully these photos will be helpful for those wishing to do the Durance gorge, and need a small reminder of what the start of the portage may look like.

The portage was hellish as ever, making each footstep challenging. Getting back on after a little bit of a rest, the river didn’t let up, the holes were still strong and to hit the lines still required strong strokes. Nearing the slot Phil and I had our eyes peeled. Luckily the big river right eddy was still there and relatively obvious, so a quick walk around saw us at the right hand bend into the hole and shoot. Morgan wasn’t feeling it and walked around. I ran it first, feeling nervous but psyched, finding the line relatively easily, with Morgan on a throwline round the corner. Then Phil ran it, and again got through without much effort. Going down to the chicane the river let up a little, and on arrival, Phil was leading and chose to go over the drop/rock slide river left, which made me immensely happy as I followed with glee. Then we were out, smiles all around, feeling good about the run, and glad to be out safe and in tact. A committing gorge to be in, but worth the nerves and the effort all the same.

A good break and lunch followed, getting our breath back. Rif and I went to do a blast of Briançon Gorge. It was a little lower than before, but a fun read and run all the same. The evening then consisted of a BBQ and a few drinks, cards and lier dice.

French Alps first couple days boating

Day 3

So today was the first day of boating and excitement was running through the crew. A lethargic morning after a nice evenings sleep, led to us reaching the get on for the Onde. Noticing that it was at the highest level any of us have seen, there was minimal questioning to just jumping on, but hey ho you can’t allow logic to get in the way of a good time boating. So Phil, Morgan and I got into our kit as fast as a prostitute having been paid, and virtually as soon as we were on, we seemed to be at the bottom, smashing the section out in less than 8 minutes. Not much of a warm up, but we all seemed to be a little bit flaky. So down to the pub it was for a cheeky drink to steady the nerves before heading to the Lower Guisane to get the remaining few cobwebs out of our systems. This was again at a very interesting level, yet this seemed to cause a lot of the rapids to wash out, just making the run very continuous and some of the usual easy sections a bit more tasty. Luckily at the get off we were met by a wonderful sight, another group of English cars. Now this wasn’t a wonderful sight because there were English people about, I have no time for them, but on inspecting the cars we saw this…

This is the sort of sight I would like at the end of every river, but unfortunately having been in Cardiff Uni Kayakers it never seemed to materialise… Welsh magazines are not quite the same!

As Rif was after a warm up, we headed to the sunshine run to get him back on the river after a 2 year gap, and headed on down. The river was high, so flowing fast to mine and Morgan’s relief and we were down to the Rabioux in not terribly long. The second wave in the Rab wave train was surfable, but surging at the same time, allowing somewhat of a good surf. Finishing the run lead to another short trip to the pub for one more drink and a discussion of the future, i.e. to have lasagne or bolognaise for supper.

Day 4

Today started like no other, Morgan waking me up saying that he’s seen a shadow of a person in the room. Now I’m usually one to enjoy a horror movie, but when you’re in a new place, and on bottom bunk, so obviously first of the two to have a shiv plunged in his side a few times before the crazed maniac moves to the top bunk, it didn’t allow me to fall back into my deep slumber too easily. Then when waking up, it was cold, and we feared the worst, rain! We headed to the local Ed, and to my fortune there was France’s number one beverage;

The beautiful Lait Chocolaté

With a smile on my face and some chocolaty goodness in my heart, we had a plan to go look and Durance Gorge, and on arrival the gauge was showing around 11/12 and the get on looked as such…

Durance Gorge gauge

Durance Gorge get in

And a decision was to go look at Briançon gorge and come back later. Arriving at the Gorge get it, as we’ve seen this holiday before, it was high and consensus was to have a look at the final weir before getting on.

Briancon Gorge slide

The run was cracking, good clean fun and running time less that 16 minutes, bouncy waves and stoppers gave us smiling faces. This was a brilliant level for it. With Rif getting on at the bottom for a quick blast of the Upper Durance, we paddled it fast and got to the get off and the Durance gorge gauge was still up there, so contingency was to do the tunnel down of the middle Guil. Again this was looking big and we got on, this is where it went a little hairy.

Now I haven’t swam for a while, and a stopper bigger than I like to remember tipped me over. A few attempts to roll got me thinking this isn’t going to happen, but I thought I’ll give it one more go and with all my might…  Nothing happened, time to pull the deck. As I said before it has been a while since I have been swimming, and it was in no way pleasant. I felt as though a Russian prostitute was standing over me, giving me the water-boarding treatment, having had 10 days non-stop custom and not showered (or douched as the French would say) since!

In the water

Now out of my boat, I grabbed my paddle and boat and thought I don’t want to let them go, they’re too precious. But after about 50m of being sunk by stoppers the boat had to go, and I got myself to the bank with my paddle. A quick scramble up the bank and onto the road, John luckily picked me up and down to the bottom it was. No boat in the reservoir and no boat seen come past, it was a waiting game. But then Morgan, closely followed by Phil, rocked up without seeing it during their run. So I trekked up the road to have a look, with no luck. Once the boys were changed they came to find me, and with a quick update, they drove to the top to have a look, and about 15mins later Phil was back down to say they had seen it. ‘Thank God’ was my initial thought, but then he told me it was well and truly pinned, and I didn’t like that. On seeing it the boat from the road, it didn’t look good, a shear drop down and the river surrounding it. Kitting back up, we walked downstream, onto the bank at river level and it looked better, a cheeky walk up the side of the river could get us to the boat. Rif got to the rock that the boat was pinned to and a line on the boat. Then he said that the tree pinning the boat could be dislodged without too much trouble, and we got prepared, with not too much work it was free, and was in an eddy. She didn’t look battered at all, only missing the drain bung, and I gave a sigh of relief. (not to worry the is some footage that I will try and put up at some point.)

Phil and Morgan took the cycle home, whilst Rif, John and I got in the van to get back to the gite. Then it was another fun evening of food, beers and cards.

Hope that tickled the minds of a few of you, and will update on the next few days as soon as I can.