We are around a week in to the trip now, I’m missing Keith
but my days are plenty occupied, and the time is passing reasonably easy.
We are up early(ish) today as we have booked to go on the
Ziplines. Rachel (who lives in the
apartment down stairs, and takes care of the house with her partner) works at
Bovec Sports Centre and made the bookings through there. The Zipline is run by Soca Rafting in Bovec,
and we go there for 9.30 to sign in and
get kitted up with harness, helmet and special leather gloves. The centre looks well run, and the kit is
high quality. We bundle in to the
minibus with the other participants and go to the start, where there is a
training line so the guides can show us what to do. They clip you on to every line, you have to
put your hands on the trolley (the roller device that runs on the zip lines)
sit in the harness, and lift your knees to your chest. At the end of the line is another guide who
signals to you when to brake, which you do by putting your hand on the zip wire
behind you and adding pressure (hence the special gloves!).
The first zip line gave me a small adrenaline rush, it’s the
first time you have to put faith in the guides and the equipment, as you lift
your feet and start falling away from the ground. Then the view opens up as you cross the
canyon, and it’s so spectacular any fear quickly vanishes. At each line we get quicker and better, and
the views don’t cease to amaze. There
are 10 lines in total and the last two take you straight down through the
canyon. We manage to get far enough
ahead of the other group that we are able to have a little added bonus at the
end. Under the bridge where you finish,
which just happens to be directly under our house!, there is a deep enough part
of the river that they let you jump in from the bridge stantion. It’s about 4 metres up from the water. It doesn’t look like the water is deep enough
at first, it’s so clear and you can see the bottom so it’s hard to tell, but
the guides point out a spot where the gravel is a different colour on the river
bed and you jump to there. Me, Matt and
Rob, all get our harnesses etc off, as well as a couple more of the group, and
we jump in. The water is fairly cold but
not too bad and the jump is quite exhilarating.
I take the chance to do a second jump from lower down before the group
has to get back to the minibuses which are waiting to take us back. You can watch the video of all the ziplines
and the water jump HERE.
We go back to the house for lunch, and we are all quite
tired so we allow ourselves a little snooze time. Alarms are set though, we don’t want to
snooze the afternoon away. There is
still paddling to do!!!
Clare is going shopping in Bovec this afternoon so Matt and
Rob are taking me on the section of river that they ran with Clare the other
day, Zmuklica to Cezsoca. It’s a grade
2-3 part of the river but only a few pieces really hit a grade 3 at these water
levels, so a nice small step up. We play
in a few sections doing some ferry glides and s-turns, I lead one of the good
grade 2 sections and we stop for a swim in a beautiful eddy pocket in some
rocks. It’s a high jump and I think
nearly as high as the one we did under the bridge earlier but you can see here
the water is deeper and we are wearing buoyancy aids too. When we get back in the boats Matt has a roll
and I thought this is a good place to have a go. We’ve just been swimming anyway so the cold
water shock is over. I go for it and
come up straight away. I’m really
pleased and then I realise I didn’t set the GoPro to record, I decide to tempt
fate and set the camera up to go again.
Made it! It’s the first time I’ve
done a cold water roll since my 3* in November. Video HERE - you can see how clear the water is! Video of full run (deited) HERE. |
| Dad! I found the van for me! |
We finish of the rest of the section and there have been a
few pieces on the way down I’ve had to think about, but nothing has had me
really scared or anxious. I’ve played
around catching eddies and tried to surf a couple of waves too. An absolutely lovely run. At Cezsoca we get dry kit on, pop in to the
Prion shop, and I decide to get the T-shirt here too. Matt goes to pick up Clare from Bovec while
Rob and I go shopping (we are the last ones in the shop again!). Then as Matt and Clare are going out for
dinner and some swimming in the river, Rob and I take a disposable BBQ to the
get in at Velika Korita where there are some long stretches of pebble beach,
and a beautiful gorge just upstream. I
take a little wander to see the gorge while Rob sets the BBQ going. I haven’t bought a drink with me, just a mug
as the rivers are so clean you just drink directly from them. I go to the river to get some water, and
thinking I would just take one step further to get the water from the flow of the
river, I slip off the rock and I’m up to my ankles. Oops!
Nevermind, it’s quite refreshing! 
After dinner we all get back to the house around the same
time and we sit with drinks and nibbles chatting over our plans for tomorrow. I’m riding in the morning and Clare is going
Rafting, so Rob and Matt make some plans to get a grade 3-4 section done. We are all pretty tired so we say we are
getting an early night, but it’s still almost midnight before we go to bed!
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