Ardeche Easter 2007
From ICCC
People
- Sophie "Injury-free holiday virgin" Gore
- Mark "Comedy" Flower
- Claire "Duracell bunny" Browne
- Jon "Tour guide" Lovell
Trip Report
The last day of March saw the start of my long journey to the South of France: the train to London from Edinburgh. A brief stop in London to catch up with a couple of old friends, eat Sophie’s great chilli bean casserole and cram in a couple of hours sleep, then we were off, meeting at SK stores at the dastardly time of 3 am. Lack of club faff meant an arrival at Dover more than 2 hours early, but we obviously looked a bit dodge as we got searched before they’d let us on the ferry. An efficient meeting with Jon in Calais saw us setting off to the Ardeche at a respectable time in the morning. Jon’s navigational skills were flawed from the start, setting off in the opposite direction to that planned. But a good 12 hours later, after Jon had remembered what road he lived on, we arrived at le Maison de Jon, greeted warmly by his parents and a much appreciated meal.
Monday, the first day of the holiday proper, saw us admiring dry riverbeds, namely the Beaume and the Drobie. We then headed to the PGL basecamp and jumped on the first part of the classic Ardeche touring section. Both Mark and I tested our open boating abilities, and we both disappointed Sophie and Jon by not swimming…just… A friendly little playwave kept us amused for the rest of the afternoon, then off for a beer.
A good 17 km of grade 3 the next day more than made up for the lack of white water on Monday. The Allier proved to be a good low volume technical run, with plenty of boulder gardens to eddy hop down and a couple of more challenging rapids. We were all pretty knackered by the end of the river, and glad to finally see the take out. It was a real test for Sophie’s shoulder, being the longest river she’d been on since her operation. It stood up well, only flagging near the end. Our reward that evening was copious quantities of red wine, ranging considerably in quality.
Next on Jon’s list of rivers that go with little or no rain was the Tarn. We decided against the infamous Upper, and settled with the two sections below. Beautiful bedrock rapids greeted us, after an initial uncomfortable scrape down some moist pebbles that made us begin to doubt Jon’s assurances that ‘it would go’. The second section was more chilled, with short, straightforward rapids interspersed with gorgeous deep clear water pools full of shoals and shoals of fish scurrying beneath us. Another great day was had by all, polished off by the now customary red wine and quality French cheese.
Due to the lack of water in the region, we decided to head over to the Verdon region, with the intention of tackling the Grand Canyon of Verdon as well as some other classics. So in the morning, we packed up, loaded the car and drove a couple of hundred metres down the road before Jon’s exhaust fell off. As Jon headed into town to catch the garages before the bank holiday weekend, Mark, Sophie and I braved the 24 km Ardeche gorge – no mean feat for playboats! The gorge was beautiful but the water gradient was shallow and the wind seemed to be constantly against us. We were kept amused and motivated by the large groups of Germans and the classic game of ‘I spy…’ and were particularly pleased to see Jon paddling his wooden boat upstream carrying cold beers. The 24 km had turned out to be less arduous than we were expecting!
With expectations of a new exhaust by the following afternoon it was decided to retry our Verdon expedition, driving over in the evening. In the morning (after a quick trip to the market to buy a kilo of our favourite blue cheese) we headed to the dam release Upper Ardeche following a conjecture from our resident hydrologist that there appeared to be more water in the river. Thankfully this conjecture proved affirmative and following some comedy bad lines by both Mark and myself on the top rapid, we all enjoyed the rest of the run, that consisted of several decent grade 3 rapids, interspersed by grade 2 gravel beds. Jon arrived as evening set in, with a strong determination to paddle the Herault before nightfall. The long drive South to the river was lengthened even further by closed roads that diverted us via a windy mountain pass. But Jon’s determination saw the two of us getting on the river at 7.45 pm, after having tired the other two out with the crazy driving! In the twilight, the beauty of the gorge was rather eerie, and the ‘straightforward’, uninspectable rapids became quite intimidating, causing Jon to take an unexpected dip. The last part of the gorge was paddled in the remainder of post-twilight light - the sight of the bridge bringing a sigh of relief.
Indeed we did all end up deep in the Grand Canyon the following day, sporting walking boots instead of boats. The water level was decidedly lacking, as even an untrained hydrologist could tell. It was good to give the upper body a rest however, and work those neglected legs for a change. The footpath headed down into the Canyon at the start of the first harder section, crossed a footbridge and followed the left bank down into the gorge. It was good for future reference to discover that this footpath exists, although it seemed I was the only one that vaguely thought walking out with boats from the gorge was possible from here in an emergency. Maybe that just shows how much we all value our boats!
Jon’s favourite restaurant was graced with our presence on our last evening in France, and much good food and wine was consumed by all. I braved Jon’s favourite French dessert, described (by Jon) as ‘unset meringue in cold custard’. It was much better than it sounded. A good closing evening to an enjoyable holiday.
We had time to squeeze in one last river on our way back to the UK the following day - a lower section of the Allier. Another enjoyable grade 3 run, only slightly marred by speedo-wearing Germans. As we stepped out of our boats at the take out, copious quantities of H2O starting falling from large dark rain clouds overhead. The inevitable end to a boating holiday…
Many thanks to Jon for being a wonderful host (tea in bed is a much appreciated luxury), and marvellous tour guide. Also thanks to Sophie for pre-holiday organisation, and her mother for lending us her car! Cheers to Mark for being Mark (‘twas good to see him take a back seat for once).
It felt fantastic to finally make it out to the Ardeche. I’ll definitely be back again – hopefully when there’s rain!
Quotes
Mark (half way down the (mainly flat) Ardeche gorge): “I think the gradient’s easing a little”
Jon (to Sophie): “Other than hot chocolate, is there anything else you’d like in bed in the morning?”
