What a trip! Back to the vallee Durance with Birmingham Canoe Club, based at Prelles in Chalet Berwyn. A long drive however it's broken down, especially with the car so loaded (extended roof bars, 5 boats and paddlebag up top, packed to the gunwhales inside)! We did home to Twickenham where we collected the dear Sonia (of which more later!), dossed on her floor, then off to Dover at 4.00 am and to the land of the cheese eating surrender monkeys (sorry!).
The journey was pretty painless, apart from the mournful chill-out sounds that TDS had brought along; no Led Zep to keep us humming this time! We arrived early evening on the Saturday at Chalet Berwyn. This is a top notch doss for paddling, skiing or whatever else. Fully fitted out, lacking nothing, it proved a very comfy home-from-home for the duration at a very reasonable price. The rest of the team had arrived earlier than us and had enjoyed a cheeky run on the Briancon Gorge as a warm-up; the three from team Astra had to settle for vin rouge and made plans for the following morning...
I drove Andrew and Sonia down the road to the National Whitewater course below Briancon as they decided that a gentle warm-up would unwind us from the drive (and slightly sore heads) while the rest of the gang headed up the valley to the Lower and Upper Guisane. A good time was had by all, ours all the better for paying a visit to Mr Pizza in his wooden hut Pizzeria on the edge of Argentierre Le Basse - the best pizza you'll ever taste!
Paul Steels on the G5 Guil Staircase
After the trip, Ian D wrote in the BCC magazine:
"I have to say that this was by far the best alps trip I have been on (and I've done a lot of them over the years)! Here's a list of what we paddled:
Briancon Gorge (G3)
Upper Guil (G3+)
Middle Guil (G4 we paddled this twice during the week - it's sooo good!)
Chateau Queyras Gorge (G4+)
Ubaye Racecourse (G4)
Ubaye (La Thuile) (G3/4)
Upper Guisane (G3/4-)
Lower Guisane (G4 we paddled this one twice too - what a blast)
Durance Gorge (G4/5)
Upper Claree (G4)
Romanche (G4+)
Thanks to the fact that we had such a strong group of paddlers, we were able to make the most of the water in the Alps. The weather wasn't as sunny as we'd have liked, but it meant that some of the later season runs were going and we were able to bag them too.
The chalet was fantastic too, and was a perfect location to make the most of the rivers in the area. We'll certainly be going back there at some point.
Many funny moments over the week - really a great big thanks to Pete for making us all laugh, a true comedy genius!
Thanks to everyone there for making the trip very safe and a lot of fun. Next year - well there's talk of maybe Austria......??????"
Team Via Ferrata
Yep - no wonder we were knackered : )
Loads more to add when I make the time!
