On Sunday morning, we got a bit of a lie in. This was definitely needed as I ached from
head to toe. Keith and I were joining
Brian and Rob to make the quick run from Briancon to Prelles again. The levels in the river had dropped (as
expected at this time of year) but the flow was still strong and it hadn’t made
it so rocky here. Waiting for Keith and
Rob to shuttle the cars, talking with Brian, I realised I wasn’t really worried
at all about running this river now. I
had looked at the get in, and considered how I would break in to the flow and
head for an eddy on the other side of the river, and I didn’t even have the
slightest bit of nerves. I still knew I would need to concentrate, I didn’t
want to be complaisant and trip over on something simple because I was too
cocky about it! We hopped in our boats
when the cars were ready, and the get in worked as planned. After this it was a bit of follow the leader,
as in previous days, but I was now able to talk as we went along, look up at
the scenery and generally enjoy the little wave trains that, only a week ago,
had terrified me. The smaller group was
also a little more comfortable for me.
Having paddled with these guys on several occasions now, I knew not only
would they look after themselves, but they would look after me too. We didn’t get too bunched up as a group, and even
when we did get closer to each other, this didn’t worry me anymore.
We had plenty of time to make the run in the morning, and as
we weren’t in any rush we used the run to practice dropping in to lots of
little eddies. The guys all took turns
leading and we generally just kept moving around in the group as each one of us
chose different eddies, then one would go past the other and so on. It began to feel almost like a dance between
us. Not really choreographed or by
design, but just a few folk moving easily around each other. There was a lovely section where there was a
load of well-placed eddies, not just at either side of the river, but behind
rocks in the middle too. This made the
eddy hopping even more dance like, and catching one big eddy at the same time
as Brian will stick in my mind for a long time.
He came in from the left, I from the right, and we both glided together
simultaneously. It was just a nice
moment that worked so well and couldn’t have been planned better, we shared a
smile and a few words before we both broke out, and moved on to our next chosen
eddies. This run was the first time
since I started kayaking that I really started to relax and enjoy.
Having found the enjoyment factor, I decided I needed to
find a way to push my boundaries a little on water that now felt a comfortable
level, so I asked if I could lead a short section. When I first asked I was a little shy of it,
I was a bit quiet and Keith had to get me to repeat what I’d asked several
times. Asking this, and Keith telling
the others, put a little knot of nerves in my stomach. Where we had eddied out at this point we
couldn’t see far around the corner past the next rapid. I’d said perhaps if we found a short rapid
that looked good I would take the lead there, rather than jumping in here. We went through the first rapid, Rob and
Brian eddied out and called me past, and off I went in front. I was now picking my own line and the line
for the group to follow. I had no idea
what was ahead so it was a case of picking it out, a little at a time as I went
along. The first bit of rapid we came to
had many easy lines to pick. It was just
a wide wave train with very little to avoid.
I came through this and just as I was thinking I was done, I saw another
piece of rapid coming up. I made the
snap decision to stay in front. It
turned out this next piece of rapid was the most technical part of the
run! I only had a couple of parts where
I felt I could have picked a better line, but the line I took wasn’t a bad one,
and the only criticism Keith had for me when I stopped at the bottom, was that
I had chosen a smelly eddy to finish at!
There was only another couple of short rapids after this before we
finished. It was only lunch time and I
was on a high for the day!
The four of us then went over to Mont Genevre to meet up
with the rest of the group at the uplift centre. The ski lifts are opened during the summer
for downhill mountain biking. Given how much I was aching when I got up I had
decided I wouldn’t take a bike and instead joined Brian for a walk down. We got our passes after lunch
and headed up on the first ski lift with the others. We then left the bikers and went on to the
next ski lift, and the views at the top were breathtaking.
Brian and I then
made a steady descent. We crossed paths
with Keith, Gregg and Chucky on their third run down, but we had little time to
chat as they were in a rush to get back to the lifts, for one last run before
it closed. After an hour and a half,
walking down hill starts to take its toll on your legs. At the end we had a short (100m or so) where
the ground levelled off and went slightly uphill. Both Brian and I felt like were we floating,
as it was quite a relief! We met with
the rest of the group at the bar for a drink before heading back ‘home’.
It was then back to the adrenaline fuelled activity on
Monday. Today we had organised to head
over to the Guil again, but this time with a view to including some white water
rafting! The group was split with half
wanting to paddle the big sections, and the other half wanting to raft. So once we had all made our way over the
mountain and had a few photo stops on the way, the groups split up. The rafting group were running the upper
section from the wood yard down to where the rafting starts, and then rafting
through the Chateau Q Gorge, Guardian Angel, and Triple Step in the middle Guil
gorge. The big boys got on at
Chateau Q and paddled straight through it all from there.
I was of course with the rafting group (Certainly not yet
capable of running with the big boys groups through the Grade 4+ features) and
headed off to get on at the wood yard. Keith was going with the big boys, as Chateau
Q was something he had not yet done on previous trips, and he had finally felt
ready for it this year. He was a bit
nervous at the start of the day though so I lent him my ‘super hero bat pants’
to carry for luck!
Up at the wood yard the levels on the river were so low we
had to drag our boats out to a beached section in the middle of the river to
make a start. Having decided to wear my
short cag and neoprene shorts, my feet actually hurt with the cold just crossing
the short section of water to the beach.
I did NOT want to be swimming today!
Not just because of the temperature of the water but also because of how
shallow and rocky it was. The swim I had
had on the Upper Guisane came back to mind and I was a nervous wreck
again.
The run through was rocky.
It was a real ‘bump and a scrape’ sort of paddle and with my nerves
jangling I didn’t enjoy it that much at the time. Then we got down to the broken weir. We had looked at this before we headed up to
the get on, and I had already thought I would get out before this point and
just walk the last few hundred metres down the road. It was a messy weir with some awkward boulders to dodge and I didn’t feel my skill set or my nerves were up to it. However, we were at the weir very quickly, and I
didn’t realise that’s where we were until I started to see the people up front
dropping over the edge.... We hadn’t eddied out before it and it looked as
though the group were running through it anyway! The swearing from the beginning of the trip
returned (this time at the river, rather than at any person in particular), I
couldn’t be any more pumped full of adrenaline, nerves jangling and feeling
sick. I watched Dean get bumped on the
way through so tried to adjust my line to avoid having the same... I managed to
adjust my line but went a little too far and ended up sideways, pinned on the
two boulders we were going between.... I just saw the gap I should have been in
to my left, thought oh s*** I don’t want to be upside down here, I think I put in
a back paddle, got myself un-pinned, and then had the big boulder to avoid at
the bottom. I very quickly sought out
and eddy after this. I let the panic subside
a little, and yes, I had a little cry as the adrenaline level plummeted, my
shaky hands holding on to the bank. A
couple of people had asked if I was OK when they went past, but it was only a
minute later when Tom came past and asked that I could make myself speak
(through a few tears) to say that I just needed a minute.... I then carried on the
last few hundred metres to the get out, and I was back on dry land. I felt just
like I had that day at the Tryweryn (see the blog – FEAR) and I was just glad
to be out of the kayak.
We had lunch then and I calmed myself a little. The nerves didn’t completely subside though. Now that my paddling was done, I started to wonder how the ‘big boys’ were doing (or more importantly Keith who was pushing his comfort zones, and stepping up his grade). I tried to put this to one side, as there was literally nothing I could do, whether it was going well or not, so I might as well just enjoy my day. It was difficult not to think about them while I was rafting, as we took the rafts through the same sections that they had been paddling. In a raft it was great fun, it was just a laugh and at no point did I feel worried about rafting it. I certainly would not go anywhere near it in a kayak though. At one point while rafting we got wedged up on some boulders, the raft was at about 45 degrees to the water, Matt at the front was almost out of the raft, Tom had fallen pretty much on top of him and was struggling to get back up to his seat so I had to pull him up by his buoyancy aid, we were all bouncing, pushing and shoving to get off the rock but we were all (except Sam) laughing about out predicament. We made it through though and at a couple of points had an opportunity to jump in to big plunge pools in the river (I had swapped in to my dry suit so the cold water was more welcome!). This was at places where we couldn’t go through in the raft (either the guide went down on their own, or we had to carry it round an obstruction).
By the time we were done it was nearly 5pm. I sent a message to Keith to see how he had
got on, and then had to drive his car back home. I couldn’t open his reply as I was driving
but, I saw the message come up on my phone; it started ‘Awesome. Just sat.....’
so I knew he was OK. They had finished a
few hours before us (there was a lot of ‘faff’ at the rafting place) so they were already back at the house making the most of the paddling pool in the sun! We
all had a good night sharing the stories from the day over dinner and drinks,
and the weather was in our favour to stay out in the garden until the late
evening. I was very happy to see Keith smiling and having had such a great time
through the tough water, that has been something he has looked up to doing for
so long; he was buzzing. He
had paddled through more than he had initially
thought he would do, and aced it. The ‘super
hero bat pants’ had worked! Lol!
No comments:
Post a Comment