Day 11 (Tuesday 8th July)
Sometimes you have days on the river when everything goes
fine. This was not one of those days.
So at 6am team gnar hunters drive off to the Verdon gorge,
we all hope they don’t die in a syphon then we roll over and go back to sleep.
The Onde seems like a good plan. It was fun last time and
nobody had too horrible a time. Except maybe Carolyn and Jonny, but hey, let’s
give it another shot. When we get there it’s raining so much some of us wonder
if we’ve accidently gone back to Scotland. The river is higher than the last
run, but it’ll probably be just like it was before with a few less rocks.
Probably.
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| Looking down the first rocky section below the grade 4. |
We join the rest of the group who are spectating from
rocky perches along the bank. Raffa leads off down the river with Dave, Carolyn
and Patsy following and me bringing up the rear. We’re unaware of it at the
time, but Gina has swum in the front group and they’re having issues getting
her boat out. A couple of corners in Patsy capsizes and is having difficulty
rolling so I go in for a t rescue, just as we both crash into a tree. Patsy
capsizes again and loses her paddle while I have a disagreement with some
branches and end up with a scratched face. I manage to get the nose of my boat
to Patsy and she tries to t rescue. Meanwhile I see an upside down red boat and
assume that Dave is swimming. Then I see Dave paddling past me. Raffa is
swimming. This is not good. Finally Patsy gets herself upright and spots her
paddles. They’re really close, so she lets go of my boat and makes a grab for
them, just as we both drop into a hole. I pop out the other side, but Patsy is
swimming. She gets out really quick so I make for her boat and almost get it in
an eddy. Dave and Carolyn get themselves in an eddy so I yell at them to stay
there. Raffa, for reasons best known to himself is still trying to get himself,
his boat and his paddle out on his own which is never going to work, so I start
yelling at him which he probably doesn’t hear, but hey, he’s somehow seen sense
and swims just himself to the side. We’re passing the other group now and Izzy
manages to get Raffa’s paddle. Someone else manages to grab Patsy’s boat, so
now it’s just me and Raffa’s boat. I try hard to shove it into eddy after eddy
and onto several rocks, but it’s not willing and eventually I’m exhausted and
kind of just floating beside it not really knowing what to do. I see some other
paddlers and have a go at pushing the boat towards them, but I’m too tired and
it doesn’t work. Thankfully, they couldn’t leave me all by myself and race to
catch up. One of them jams it against a rock and we all leap out in various
precarious positions. A bit of live baiting onto a rock and some hard pulling
on a throwline and we’ve got the boat which… seems to be draining awfully fast…
The crack is about two feet long along the bottom of the
hull. Not ideal. I thank the Cardiff paddlers profusely and find out where
they’re staying to bring them some beer. Then I sit for a good long while and
get my breath back. Raffa appears, limping down the track at the side of the
river looking a bit sad, but he looks a lot sadder when he sees his boat. I
leave him to grieve while I go upstream to look for anyone else. I’m pretty
sure I’ve walked most of the way upstream when I find Gina and Carolyn standing
by the riverbank. Patsy arrives too, then Izzy appears with Gina’s boat on the
opposite bank while we’re having a catch up about where everyone’s been walking
today. I throw a line across to Izzy and we pull the boat back over. Gina,
Patsy and Carolyn are going to walk out, so I run a few metres then walk most
of the way back to my boat because, meh, tiredness.
I wait on the bank in my boat ready to launch, talking to
Raffa. He swam because he was trying to show Dave a line, hit a rock, capsized
and tried to demolish a bolder with his head. He shows me a large dent and
scrape in his helmet – lucky he has a Sweet Rocker! Eventually James, Jonty,
Cami and Izzy appear and I paddle off with them. Turns out the take out is
literally just round the corner. No jokes.
Time for lunch and a lie down. I’m so knackered.
Some of the group head off to the Gyronde. The rest of us
drive down to the slalom course via a stop at the supermarket and have a laze
about it the sun which we had not expected to see today. Emily decides to
paddle to the campsite with the others when they arrive.
For dinner Carolyn and I make awesome Sweet and Sour Turkey
(Rory’s not here). It was supposed to be chicken, but chicken is expensive.
After dinner we drive back to the slalom site and leave the Cardiff paddlers a
crate of beer for rescuing Raffa’s boat!
Day 12
Everyone is a bit fed up of paddling today, except Jon
Harwell, but he’s never fed up of paddling. Like, ever. We decide to have an
additional rest day today and most of us head up to the source of the Gyr to go
see a glacier.
The drive up is long and slow, but since the car park is at
1874m above sea level this should be expected. There are large snow banks in
the car park and we have to convince Jonny that he does not in fact want to go
and have a snow ball fight. Some of the others are clearly lost, so we wait for
them at the alpine hut and I drink coffee while the others have crepes (good
luck getting the owners to understand what Coeliac disease is).
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| At the cafe drinking coffee! |
Finally they arrive and we head off up the path. Soon we
have a good view of the Glacier Noir, covered in moraine and not particularly
impressive.
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| The path up with the Glacier Noir in the background. |
Some marmots appear and Sarah is very amused by them eating bread.
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| Marmot. |
Up and up we go, way way up until we finally crest a slope into a
hanging valley and we can see the Glacier Blanc.
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| Glacier Blanc. |
It’s slightly surreal. It is huge of course, but a
foreshortening effect and the fact that it doesn’t look quite real anyway means
that it’s difficult to get the scale of the thing in your head. We stop for
lunch on a large rocky outcrop that has a great view up to the glacier. Some
Alpine Choughs come and scavenge around us. They seem to like gluten free bread!
Most of the students climb up on a large rock overlooking the glacier and strip
off. All for charity, I volunteer to take the photo.
Onwards and upwards as it starts snowing a little, but the
climbing is hard work so we’re still in t shirts. We have a stop and regroup
and Dave tells us that it doesn’t get any harder from here and we’re nearly
there. When it gets considerably steeper and we need to scramble up some bits
and we’re still going an hour later I feel a flashback to Rory on the Guisane.
Nevertheless, we finally make it to the Refuge du Glacier
Blanc at 2542m above sea level. Woo! We all pile in for a look and get
coffee/hot chocolate/beer depending on preference.
It’s very luxurious inside
and very busy, so we soon pile back out and take another naked photo outside
the Refuge, giving everyone inside a nice bit of entertainment.
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| Refuge du Glacier Blanc. |
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| The view point and scene of much nakedness shortly. |
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| The Glacier Blanc from the Refuge. Taken by Carolyn Nisbet. |
John and I are not very good at walking downhill and much
prefer running, so we whiz off ahead. We stop at the Torrent du Glacier Blanc
so that lots of the others can give me vertigo by standing on the rock balanced
over the huge waterfall.
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| Heading back down the path. |
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| Torrent du Glacier Blanc. |
Just as the path drops over the edge and heads down the
steep valley sides is a small gully with snow in it, so John decides to hide
and wait for Dave to come round so he can throw snowballs at him. Dave,
however, manages to catch the snowball and throw it back.
On the way down the zig zags we spot some marmots and John
fails to tempt any to taking bread out of his hand, no matter how determined he
is.
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| There actually is a marmot there taunting John. |
Finally we reach the Torrent du Glacier Noir on the level of
the car park and John and I sit down to wait for the others to catch up, until
John decides that we need to take another naked photo of him in the meltwater
stream. A few girlish screams later and I’ve taken the photo and a couple of
tourists are in agreement with me that he’s a bit of a nutcase. The rest of the
group arrives and we take a few group shots on the bridge.
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| I think John took this. |
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| Photo by Izzy Tween. |
Back in the cars, I manage to make it to the confluence of
the Gyr and the Onde before I actually need to use the accelerator, so the day’s
fuel efficiency comes in at 105mpg.
Andre is on cooking duty tonight and makes an amazing leek
and bacon creamy sauce that I have with gluten free pasta.
After the sun has
gone down I star gaze for a bit and manage to spot an iridium flare from a
passing satellite!
Day 13
We head back to the Ubaye today so that those who chickened
out of the racecourse the first time round can have a go at it. My group is Jon
H, Raffa, Sarah and Patsy. Raffa has managed to borrow Mr. De Lac’s boat which
is a little too small for him, but he’s glad just to be back on the water. The
water level is lower than last time, making for an easier run.
Jon and I lead Sarah and Patsy, respectively, with Raffa
floating at the back in case of emergencies. Sarah swims twice and has a less
than happy day, while Patsy nails everything, even when I fall sideways into a
pourover and have to roll. Nice to be on a deep river this time! Jon, who has
swapped boats with Jonny so he can paddle his playboat for a bit, is having
issues because Jonny’s deck is fairly awful and lets in floods of water. Every
time he stops and empties, half the river pours out of the boat.
We get to the end ok though, as do all the other groups. Jon
is annoyed because no one wants to come do the Ubaye gorge with him, but we’re
all more excited about the prospect of ice cream.
We stop at a car park on the
side of the Lake on the way back and some brave souls go for a swim in the
freezing cold water. Others have a sun bathe while the pale brigade hide under
the shade of some trees.
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| Photo by Izzy Tween. |
Ice cream is sourced at the “funny rocks” café (can’t
remember its actual name) in the form of magnums. Rory is extremely
disappointed at the lack of Calyppo.
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| The funny rocks. |
At the campsite Chris and Jon cook up a concoction of
vegetables and saucisson which I put in a pasta sauce and the rest have with
cous cous. Someone starts a drinking game of ring of fire and the evening
descends from there…
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