Dordogne Christmas 2000

From ICCC

People

• Lou 'Kappa Slappa'
• Raph 'Crocodile Dundee'
• Stefan 'Mr. Speedo'
• Rob 'Laughing Cow'
• Sam 'Err, Broken Car'
• Stella 'Ooops- Passport!'

Trip Report

Due to John's divine planning abilities from his elevated control office in Imperial, we managed to squeeze (and I do mean squeeze) five boats and one car all the way to the sunny Ardeche in S. France.

The trip started in pretty much chaotic disaster. Despite the hours of careful planning put in by Raph before-hand, things still went a little pear shaped. Sam's car broke down on the way to the ferry, resulting in a swift curtailment of his dreams of paddling in France. 1 down, 5 to go. The rest of us were catching the coach from Victoria the following evening, and just as Lou, Raph and I were wondering where everybody else was, Stella arrived at a run, only to realize she was missing both her passport and tickets... 2 down. It was nearly 3 down with 3 left as Stefan caught the bus with literally seconds to spare. German efficiency I suppose, but it left us a little worried.

After a mother of a coach journey (we were off to the South of France after all) and a swift taxi ride, the four of us arrived at Raph's house about lunchtime. Now he'd told us 'accommodation' forgetting to mention that in reality after the coach it seemed more like a luxury mansion... Armed with a bedroom each, hot water and a large kitchen and lounge, things were definitely looking up. After Stella arrived that evening, having caught up with us using the Eurostar, and through a haze induced by several 5 litre bidons of cheap wine, the trip was definitely back on it's feet.

The Monday was spent pottering around in the sunshine, looking round the chateau in Raph's little village, walking along a ridge, bartering with the local canoe club for a lift up the river, and exploring (both public and forbidden) caves. Raph's burglary skills seemed to be quite finely honed. That evening Raph's parents turned up with the last of the kit we needed for the river, and we were ready to go!

Comedy French bloke gave us a lift 90 km up river from Raph's house, and distance he reckoned would take 4 days - we hoped not as we had only two and a half... What followed were 2 and a half days of spiritual fulfillment in almost ideallic weather drifting downriver. That afternoon we reached the only real weir on the river, and after running it, Stefan and I did a rather dramatic breakout just below to empty our now half full boat. Lou went drifting on down river regardless, and her boat ended up pinned sideways to a tree a little further down. We rescued both her, the boat and the paddles in the end (all separately in age old fashion), to the amusement of the local spectators, who even offered to call the fire brigade for us! After a camp fire, beautiful food brewed on a camping stove (sometimes it does happen) and a few cheeky bevies under the stars we settled in for our first proper night out.

It didn't go too well in the end - we were woken at four in the morning by the warning siren to say the river was rising, and as we were on an island at the time, this really was not a good thing. After much discussion we moved the spare stuff into the boats and went back to bed. What else can you do? Undrowned and not even wet the next morning we carried on, eating lunch on the move, and after another night out and a cheeky swim from Stella and Stefan, we arrived back at Raph's house tired but happy to a large meal waiting on the table for us. Nice. Spiritual fulfillment was complete.

My thanks to Raph for the use of his house and the roof of his parent’s car, and Stella, Stefan and Lou for a gentile and eminently satisfying trip.