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| Somewhere on the shuttle |
This year marks the 10th anniversary of my first
trip to the French Alps, and it’s still one of my favourite places to go
boating. As well as hitting all the classic runs, this year I wanted to do
something a little different. Enter the Verdon... its quite a distance
from any other Alpine rivers so doesn't often feature in trips to the
French Alps; plus its controlled by a hydro release which limits the number of
days it’s actually possible to paddle. However the South Alps guide promises a mini expedition
in one of the most spectacular gorges in Europe, it’s not wrong.
Thursday morning saw us crawl out of our tents after a late
night, we called the tourist info centre who confirmed a hydro release for the
Friday, it was time to make this happen! Ralph Mark and I packed up camp said out
goodbyes to IC and set off on our driving mission, taking it turns to read the
guidebook on the way.
We made reasonable time across the lavender fields of Haute Provence
arriving at the take out just before 7pm. Being three people and two cars we
were able to leave one car at the take out before heading to a campsite in La
Palud, thus avoiding morning faff with the shuttle.
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| Photographing the guidebook turned out to be a good move! |
At camp we continued
reading our way through the guide, and sorting out what gear we would need to
carry in boats (including head torches in case of a paddle out in the dark). In
the end we took photos of the guidebook in case we needed to consult it during
the run, (we did!). the phrase “well we’ll just have to inspect the rapid when
we get there and make a decision” was repeated many times over the course of
the evening
At the campsite we met a group of Czech paddlers, also
planning a descent the following day, they assured us they had done it before. (Quote:
“ah you have the Knowles book , he say 8 hours we will finish in 5”). Somewhat reassured by their confidence and the knowledge there would be another group on
the river if anything went horrendously wrong we adjusted our up time to a
slightly more reasonable 7am.
After an uneasy sleep (I thought it might be a little
hypocritical to tell our fellow campers off for keeping us awake), Friday
morning came around, our options were either to put in at river level upstream and
paddle 5km of the grade 3 pre-canyon or a steep and arduous 30 min walk in.
Needless to say we chose the extra 5km.
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| Floaty floaty precanyon |
After many nervous wees we set off, the pre canyon
section offering a taster of what was to come. Some technical eddy practice on
the initial section lead to surprise yelp and a roll, from me. Embarrassing.
and not an ideal way to start the day. Still we reached the start of the gorge
proper at Point Sublime, took some token photos and were underway. As the walls
closed in we started spotting siphons, the Verdon is a limestone gorge and
hence littered with them. It’s the danger of siphons rather than the difficulty
of the rapids that makes the gorge so intimidating. Trying not to recall all the stories about
fatalities on the section we paddled on.
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| Start of the canyon proper |
An iron bridge indicated our approach to the first named
rapid and the hardest on the run L’estelle. It required a tight move around a
boulder just above another big siphony boulder. I decided to portage (sweaty
work wearing a drysuit in the blinding sunshine). Ralph and Mark ran the rapid
to the delight on the tourists on the bridge, and with just a cheeky roll from
Mark and we were off away from the masses again. Plenty of blind corners
followed some hiding flat water some hiding tricksy drops.
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| Ralph on L'Estelle |
The gorge walls closed in further but the river was
deceptively calm, I took the lead for a little bit, after all what could
possibly go wrong on the flat... A
couple of corners later the river appeared to disappear into a cave, I
hit an eddy fast. We’d arrived at the infamous Styx rapid.
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| Styx: Me keeping far Away from river right cave wall |
On any other river this rapid would be barely worth a
mention, however since you paddle the rapid into a cave and at the back of the
cave is a monster siphon it might rate as one of the scariest rapids I’ve run!
We took our time setting safety (and cameras), fortunately all were successful
in running the rapid.
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| Mark goes for the meat |
We scooted out of the cave and carried on around more blind
corners and more siphon (If it sounds like I’m repeating myself here it because
blind corners and siphons were something of a theme for the day). The next
rapid of note we arrived as was Chaos de l’limbut... or was it? The river seem
to disappear under a boulder choke.
After some discussion about whether this was the mandatory portage or if we really were supposed to paddle into a massive boudler choke through a tiny crack in the cliff, we decided to have lunch and and check the guidebook photos.
We peeled off our drysuits and tucked into the brie and
baguette we’d stashed in Ralphs boat. It was a well deserved break, we were
prepared for it to be cold in the canyon, actually it was about a million
degrees and I curled up on the river bank for a little nap. During lunch we fired up the camera and
picked out the guidebook pages we’d snapped, confirming we were indeed at Caos
l’limbut. Also we had an unexpected surprise: we’d just passed the halfway
point!
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| L'limbut yep we paddled into that crack in the wall, (blinding sunshine + dark cave = crappy photo) |
Just as we were about to set off the Czech’s turned up, in
typical fashion I managed to made a complete hash of rapid and went worringly
close to one of the big boulder siphons. Luckily I stayed upright and slipped
into the underground boulder choke section.
Once inside the boulder choke (yes you are actually meant to end up in
there) the river calms down and gives you space to look up at the massive lumps
of rock and bits of tree above you. At the end of the choke we did need to
climb up through the rocks and seal launch back into the river. I was a bit
nervous about being first but far better than being last. With no-one to hold
him on the rock Mark had to hurl his boat down and then jump in after it!
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| Mark in a Cave |
After this we kept up a good pace partly to keep ahead of
the Czech’s and party because we (ok me) were getting a bit tired, so I don’t
have any more pics of the gorge. The mandatory portages downstream we fairly
ardous, heaving my boat over boulders in the blaring heat is not the most fun.
Several blind bends later I was sitting in an eddy waiting for a signal, Mark
made a portage sign, sigh. Then he ferried over to the other side of the river,
a new sign. It does go, it’s just very tight. After ‘the incident’ on the
Gyronde a few days earlier I thought I’d
really rather get out and look. Mark was right it did go, but only just, and I
was out of beans. Ralph lined up and ran the rapid with typical annoying ease,
it looked effortless. Marks line, well lets just say it made me glad I’d
decided to portage.
A little further the river calmed and widened, we realised
that rapid must have L’Oublie (the forgotten) and the final rapid of the gorge.
We’d made it! Now it was just a 6 km flat section to ice creams and the take
out. We stopped on a gravel bed to clamber out of drysuits and finish the
paddle in the sunshine just in swimmers, lovely. Our Czech friends reappeared
and helped up take some victory photos.
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| Victory photo! |
With energies picked up we commenced the flat paddle out.
Pretty soon we were seeing tourists everywhere in peadalos and sit-on-tops. I’m
sure we must have looked as strange to them as them to us. After such an
intense experience in the gorge it was very strange to finish the paddle
surrounded by people out for a relaxing day on the lake, (something something... you don’t know man, you weren’t there!)
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| The paddle out as seen from the shuttle flat but pretty |
After a fruitless search for icecream at the take out we
headed back to the campsite for much needed shower, before a night out on the
town in La Palud. (very reminiscent of a night out in Barcolonette some years
previous, Rory you were missed!). We wandered slowly back to the campsite under
a full moon pretty satisfied after an epic day on the water.
All in all the Verdon is a fantastic trip, not the hardest
whitewater ever, but both mentally and physically taxing, it’s not to be
underestimated. Many thanks to Mark and
Ralph for putting up with me and gererally being excellent, I hope you enjoyed it half as much as I did!
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| the Mega Siphon in The Styx |
