We’re now back from France. We had a great time, did loads of paddling, with much good weather, plus some not so good. It was certainly British winter style paddling for some of the time on the Ubaye.
Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to paddle the Verdon Canyon. There was no water being released at the dam. That’s a real shame, and perhaps we’ll manage to do this another day.
For those who are curious, here is a very brief summary of the rivers we did:-
Sat 9th: Lower Guil.
Sun 10th: Upper Guisane
Mon 11th: Middle Claree, Lower Claree, Briançon Gorge
Tue 12th: Upper Ubaye, Middle Ubaye (from Les Thuiles)
Wed 13th: Upper Guil from Abries, Luge at Aiguilles, Upper Guil gorge from Aiguilles
Thu 14th: Onde, Gyronde, Briançon Gorge
Fri 15th: Chateau Q, Middle Guil
Sat 16th: Onde, Briançon Gorge
Sun 17th: Upper Guisane, Lower Guisane
Mon 18th: Luge at Aiguilles, Upper Guil gorge from Aiguilles, Chateau Q, Middle Guil
Tue 19th: Gyr, Onde, Briançon Gorge
Wed 20th: Nothing – rivers all too high after thunderstorms
Thu 21st: Ubaye Racecourse
Fri 22nd: Severaisse
Sat 23rd: Middle Dranse de Thonon
Harvey gets the prize for doing most – he only missed one of those trips. I did 18 out of 29, with only 3 rest days out of 15 paddling days.
There were only 3 swims in total the whole fortnight.
And we did 65 hours of driving, and clocked up 2675 miles…
Many thanks to everyone who came along for fun times and great company.
And to everyone who didn’t come – you missed a great trip, and should come along another time.
Conor