After a good breakfast of fresh croissants we drove to Menat to start our river tour. It's still early in the season and so the place was fairly quiet although a German family turned up. We donned our life vests and signed our life away so that if things went wrong it was our fault that we lost the canoe, paddles and everything else . We started with a frantic minibus drive for about twenty five minutes though the hills to Chateauneuf . If we survive this minibus ride then the rest is a piece of cake.
We arrived at Chateauneuf and put the canoes in the water with the only instruction being keep left for the next 100 metres or so. I said what about the 12.9 kilometres and he said keep to the middle. So we left and very soon after came to our first rapid which was not too bad and was a bit bumpy as the fibreglass canoe bumped over the large boulders.
Well we made the first rapid ok not knowing about the other twenty five or so, some we got stuck on and Noel had to get out and move the canoe whilst on others due to water pressure we started out ok but ended up going backwards at about fifteen miles per hour through a rock stream.
The journey took almost 3.5 hours to do the twelve kilometres and by the times we arrived back at Menat we were tired and very wet. At one time Noel was sitting in six inches of water which was slopping around inside the canoe.
As this was going to be a very wet trip I decided not to take my nice camera just in case it went overboard, this was a wise move but a shame as some of the views were really spectacular.
After a shower and change into dry clothes at the canoe centre we knocked back a few beers and had a pizza and chips lunch and headed home for some rest which we both sorely needed.
The temperature today was around 32 degrees centigrade and so we both got a little browner today but it doesn’t hurt yet.
No doubt the muscles will start aching tomorrow morning but the trip was great very enjoyable and one that we wil do again sometime but perhaps with a cheap camera to record the views.
Well, I am writing this at ten pm and its beginning to get dark and the bugs are beginning to find the screen of the computer and so it must be near bed time for us old folks.
I forgot to mention the amount of bats flying around at night, more than aeroplanes at Heathrow.
