Friday morning then was an early get up as the whole group
was heading over to L’Ubaye for a run which was a little broken, and required
some odd shuttle organisation. Once
there a few guys got on at the big boy start, approx. half a kilometre upstream
from the main get on. The remainder of
the group went down to the main get on, and waited there for the big boys to
join us. I was understandably a bit
nervous while we were waiting, I picked the eddy I felt happy with to get on at,
and waited for the big boys to discuss how the groups would work. Admittedly I was a tad nervous to find Keith
would be in a different group, and I was paddling with Crazy Chris. His reputation preceded him, and already
shaken after the events at L’Argentiere, I almost had a momentary break
down. However, I trusted the judgement
of the group (and I knew Keith wouldn’t have me there if it was anything but as
safe as could be) so I stopped myself falling apart within a second, and tried
to get my mind focussed.
Even the main get on looked technical. A ferry glide would be needed to get out in
to the flow far enough to miss a rock I could see behind me, and the water
looked fast and bouncy. Our group set
off second, and I was third in the group.
Crazy was leading with Gregg between him and me, then I had Ed and Brian
behind me. It was swift start and
straight in to some water that was right at the top of my ability and stretch
levels. I couldn’t even sing to try and
calm myself, all I could do was focus on breathing, and I felt like I sounded
like a freight train, chuffing away through the bigger pieces of water! We hit an eddy fairly soon after setting off,
this was to let Brian catch up as he had stayed back a little way to get some
photos. This also meant the third group
went past us. Sam was obviously
unsettled being on a new river (she didn’t do this river when she came out to
the Alps last year) as she went past squealing with Keith next to her coaching
her through. I understand she did calm
down soon after this, and on catching up with her at the end of the run, she said
she had enjoyed the run but it was type 2 fun.
After we had broken in and gone through a couple more of the
rapids we pulled in to another eddy.
Crazy had seen the other group just up ahead so he broke out to give
them a few minutes more lead, and to check the group was happy. It was here that Ed said his back wasn’t
coping well. He had been having some
trouble with it over the last few days and it was causing him some trouble
now. This river wasn’t a difficult one
for his level of paddling but he needed us not to hang around too long so he
could get out of his boat ASAP. Although
I needn’t have been worrying about him, as his paddling level is far beyond
mine, the thought that he was following me with a bad back, made me want to get
the best line I could. I’m sure he
picked his own line but mentally this gave me something to think about other
than how scary it was for me. I made it
though and I’d say the run was about a Type 1+½! The big boys went on from there to do some
bigger sections again while the ‘main group’ (now smaller than big boy group)
went over to Le Lac, it wasn’t really warm enough to swim but Sam and I had a
quick dip because we were there, and got out very quickly. After the groups had got back together, the
evening plan was to go to a Pizzeria local to this river for ‘metre
pizza’. 3 metres of pizza was enough to
feed us all and we all had ice cream after.
It’s another tradition of the trip to do this evening out after paddling
the Ubaye!
On Saturday we had a late morning get up, and planned
paddling for the afternoon when the last two paddlers would join us. Tom (Jnr) and Tom (Snr) were set to arrive
around 1pm at the get in for the upper Gusaine, so we all went back to paddle
this again, and it would be a good warm up for the two of them. I was feeling reasonably confident having had
a good run on this river earlier in the holiday, although the water levels were
much lower, so knew there would be more rocks exposed and needing to be
avoided. The run started well, but with us
all getting slowed down by scraping over rocks we did get a bit bunched
up. I was feeling ok about the paddling
but the technicality of it all had certainly increased. I needed to be even more on the ball with
watching Keith’s line at the front, and reading the river where I could, if he
and Sam took what looked to be a bumpy line.
We were around a quarter of the way down the run (at a guess) when I was
heading straight at a rock I didn’t want to be heading at. I had little option at my level of paddling
but to try to bouf over it as I didn’t have enough time to get around it. It
wasn’t covered well enough so the boat went up but came down at an angle. The front of the boat was in the tow back of
water behind the rock and the back of the boat in the flow. As I had come down oddly, the water had also
caught the side of the boat and I was basically capsizing. However, with the water levels being so low I
didn’t go upside down, and the river carried me on my side for a few feet while
I tried to push up off the river bed.
This didn’t work though and it wasn’t likely that it would so I had to
pull my deck. It wasn’t as easy to leave
my boat while on its side, but I was soon out and floating (bouncing)
downstream behind it. Rob called ahead
to Keith to stop with Sam, and quickly set on to getting my boat toward an eddy,
as Brian was taking care of helping me to the side. The rescue was swift and my swim was short,
but it was not too pleasant. I had
bumped over the rocks on the river bed on the way and even in the cold water,
with the adrenaline flowing, I knew I might have a bruise or two to show for
it. I wasn’t shaken much as, again, I
knew where I had gone wrong and I knew the technicality on the river at this
level was step up for me. I was quickly
reunited with my boat and was back on the water.
Not much further on from this, Sam got beached on a very
shallow section but I made my way around her (the more experienced paddlers
behind me would be able to do something to help her, and I was worried about
going over again!). It was only a few
minutes later that Sam had the same problem as me and also took a swim. It took a little longer to reunite Sam with
her boat, as it had got taken in slightly deeper water and washed a little
further down. It was also in an area
where there wasn’t a decent eddy like mine, but the rescue was still quick and
efficient. (It is reassuring to see how
quickly the experienced paddlers respond in a rescue situation). Waiting to find out what had happened and
what was going on, in a tiny eddy, clinging to a tree on the side, my leg going
to sleep a little and the ache from the swim starting to make itself known, I
did consider whether to walk out from here.
I remembered though that the worst and shallowest part of the river was
virtually over by this point, so unless I was told I should get out, I was
going to complete the run. Sam Decided
to get off the River here and Rob got off the river too so he could get the car,
and Sam wouldn’t be getting cold on the riverside waiting for us all to finish. Keith, Brian and I caught up with the other
group (Tom, Tom, Dean and Matt) and we all went on together from here. I portaged ‘S Bend’ alone today as Dean
decided to run it. He aced it and the
smile on his face when I met up with them again told me he felt great about it
too. We did the remainder of the run as
one big group and only spilt up again close to the get out, where space in the
eddy is a little restricted. By the time
we got back to the house I knew I was going to ache in the morning but at least
the following day was set to be an ‘easy’ one.
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