Story: Oli Kershaw
Part two of two
To read part one see here: https://joom.ag/a1OL/p88
Our paddling buddies had left France, so we decided to head off further afield and experience some new places. After a bit of discussion we settled on Slovenia. A bit of a drive from Briancon but that’s the point of a road trip, right? We knew our friends from Aston University would be there to share the river and shuttles with so now seemed as good a time as any!
Bio
Oli Kershaw can be found spending his summer travelling across Europe, running his company Next Level Coaching and Guiding. Next Level runs chalet-catered whitewater kayaking trips to some of the most glorious destinations Europe has to offer including Slovenia, Italy, France and Spain, as well as providing whitewater coaching and British Canoeing courses here in the UK too. If you see Oli on the river, be sure to say hi!
Oli would like to thank his sponsors Peak UK, Canoe and Kayak Store and Surfplugs for their continued support.
The beauty of Europe
Our paddling buddies had left France, so we decided to head off further afield and experience some new places. After a bit of discussion we settled on Slovenia. A bit of a drive from Briancon but that’s the point of a road trip, right? We knew our friends from Aston University would be there to share the river and shuttles with so now seemed as good a time as any!
Slovenia truly is as beautiful as everybody says. Crystal blue waters and stunning scenery really do make the Soča River the perfect playground for dialling in your river skills. With guaranteed levels for such a large proportion of the year, it is little wonder Slovenia produces as many strong whitewater boaters as they do.
With most sections being at a fairly comfortable grade for the pair us by the time of year we arrived, we weren’t expecting too much in the way of a challenge but were instead looking forward to some relaxed boating with friends in beautiful surroundings. There was just the one section that sounded as though it might give a bit of a challenge; the infamous Syphon Canyon.
Having tried in vain to get some information on this section other than, “If you swim, you die,” I gave my good friend Andrew Bonney a call. I won’t go into the details of the 45-minute phone call, but the information gained could be summed up with the phrase, “If you swim, you die,” Chatting to the local shops about the section, I was warned off, told the grade wasn’t too difficult, but consequences severe followed by the now all too familiar, “If you swim, you die.”
Not one to be scared off easily, the next day I found myself at the bottom of Trnovo 2, Tony getting off leaving me all alone above the daunting Syphon Canyon, about to drop into the unknown.
Alarming
The hour or two that followed was some of the slowest progress I’ve ever made downriver. Inspecting every bend, every rock and every feature. I could see how this place had got its name. The number of siphons really was quite alarming. Most were fairly easy to avoid with prior inspection and clean lines, but there were the odd one or two with tight lines that certainly got the heart pumping.
All in all, Slovenia was a destination I fell in love with, particularly as a coaching venue! So much so, we’ll be back there running our development holidays next year! www.Next-Level-Coaching.co.uk/Slovenia
Where to after Slovenia? Somewhere had some big shoes to fill… Tony and I put our heads together and started flicking through the guidebook. We wanted somewhere neither of us had been before, somewhere challenging. After a little discussion we decided on the Upper Rhone region. The southwest corner of Switzerland and surrounding areas of Italy and France hide some magnificent rivers just slightly too far apart to have a central hub. Prime for a road trip though!
Plotting our route on Google maps, we couldn’t help but notice our route took us within about half an hour of Venice. World famous for romance, Venice was a city I begrudgingly listened to my parents wax lyrical about for many years, and seemed the perfect place for our very manly rest day. I have to admit, when we planned this trip, I had never considered that Venice might have been one of our destinations. Yet here I found myself, sat in the passenger seat of my van en-route to Venice, Googling if we were allowed to paddle on the canals.
As it turns out, that is very much frowned upon. A bit of searching on Google will turn up a map of all the canals in Venice and the restrictions on them. Unfortunately for us, all of the canals that we were allowed to paddle on were on the far side of town from parking, and I didn’t fancy carrying my boat for several kilometres across the packed city. Though it would make a very amusing story, so I’m still tempted to this day!
Walking (read: getting lost) around Venice, I couldn’t help but feel the magic was lost on me. The streets all looked the same, street vendors sold the same tat as the last, and it was far too busy. I did start to wonder whether another city may have done something about the flooding situation before it got quite so out of hand, but everyone seemed happy enough so I tried not to dwell on it too much.
Before we could head on over to Switzerland, I had some business to attend to; the stag do of one of my best friends. Tenerife beckoned. Dropping me at the airport, Tony picked up his wife (who landed the same day I left) and headed over to a chalet near Lake Como. A time Tony insists he didn’t enjoy at all as he was missing me far too much. I might be paraphrasing…
Back from the stag do, ever so slightly hungover, and now minus several hundred euros and my phone, I landed back in Milan last than 48 hours after I had left. I needed some paddling therapy. Time to head to Switzerland.
Upper Rhône Valley
The Upper Rhône Valley certainly had some big shoes to fill to following Slovenia. It did not disappoint. Our first run was the Rhône from Sierre to Susten. An absolute belter of a run I cannot recommend highly enough. Four kilometres of big volume Grade 4 like nothing I’ve ever found in Western Europe. Be careful though, this one starts with a bang! The first rapid certainly woke us up after a few days off!
This was probably my favourite river of the entire trip. Although short, it was a completely unexpected big volume playground. Fortunately for me, Tony didn’t fancy more than the one lap, meaning I had a shuttle bunny. After lap five, I decided it was probably time to call it a day and give Tony’s poor heart (and my tired arms) a rest.
The next day we headed over to the Lonza, another four kilometres of stunning Grade 4, in the most beautiful of picture-postcard valleys. A totally different feel to it, the Lonza was low volume and in places even shallow. With few eddies to speak of and no let up for its entirety, it gave a whole different thrill to the Rhône, but certainly no less enjoyable. Except maybe for the fact the water was colder than any river I had ever known. How it wasn’t actually frozen can only be described as some sort of scientific miracle.
After our non-stop paddle on the Lonza, we felt we had earned ourselves a nice easy meal on the way home and so stopped at a lovely local eatery known as McDonalds. If you haven’t ever been to a McDonalds in Switzerland, don’t. We ordered ourselves a burger, chips and drink each and were horrified to hear the server declare the price at 40… Forgetting briefly that Switzerland still uses the Franc, Tony and I were horrified at the thought that a McDonalds meal could come to 40 euros.
We quickly dismissed this awful thought. As we sat down to our meal, I thought I would google just how much 40 Swiss Francs is in Euros – it’s 35! Not much better! Tony was so wounded by this I still don’t think he’s stopped telling people. His line, “I thought I was at the point in my life I could afford a McDonalds,” certainly made me chuckle every time he told it though. He still has nightmares about it now.
It was time to leave Switzerland, fast! Both wounded by Switzerland’s outrageous prices. We hatched a plan to leave first thing in the morning. We decided to head off to the Dranse de Thonon, a popular rafting river not far from the ski resort of Morzine. Heading for the rafting centre, we hoped we might be able to blag a shuttle from the locals for the Middle Dranse de Thonon.
Clearly catching the place on quite a quiet day, we were greeted by several staff relaxing over lunch, one of whom kindly offered to help with the shuttle. We thanked him, and started getting changed. Baffled when we wandered over without a vehicle declaring he was ready to go, it was obvious there was something we hadn’t quite understood! After a little more discussion, I realised what he meant by his offer of help was that he would drop us at the top and drive my van back down to the rafting centre take-out. Quite nervous about the concept of letting a total stranger drive my pride and joy, I was unsure what to do. However, I was also river blind and conceded he seemed like a trustworthy fellow and probably wouldn’t steal or crash it.
Fortunately for me, my trust was well placed and much to my relief we found the van unharmed and waiting at the take out to the middle section. Time for the upper! Tony had decided that the upper wasn’t for him, and would run the shuttle for me. We decided to take a look at the ‘definite portage’ before I committed to dropping in. After locating the portage and accessing it with relative ease, a good 20 minutes was spent considering just how possible the line was. There definitely was a line and it most definitely was washing into a vast undercut. Still, there was a tight but untidy line that would get you through and I was confident I could make it.
I turned to Tony. “I think I’ll decide when I get there.” Not a response he was happy with. I could empathise, but didn’t want to rule out running it just yet. I had to consider how I felt once I was there in a boat. Half an hour or so later, a fun but fairly uneventful run brought me back face to face with the undercut, this time in my boat. This time the decision was almost instant – I was walking. I knew I could’ve boned down the chossy line and I thought I probably could’ve made the main line. A quick 50-metre walk saw me back in my boat and grinning like a Cheshire cat yet again as I flew down what remained of the Upper Dranse de Thonon with hardly a second thought.
Risk your life?
So why did I walk around a rapid I felt I could run? For me it comes down to risk vs reward. The rapids I had encountered so far on that run had clean, fun, fast lines. The portage had none of that. It had the option of scraping down hard right, it also had the main line option, a line that certainly went but didn’t look smooth. All that with the knowledge that 80% of the water was going under a vast undercut made the decision boil down to the following; “Do you want to risk your life to run the worst rapid of this river?” That’s a no brainer!
After our fun in Morzine, we had to consider where we were off to next. Tony and I had a great time exploring, but decided we wanted a nice easy end to our trip. Back to Briancon it was!
Heading back to Camping Les Ecrins, the hub campsite of the French Alps, felt like a second home after such a long trip. With all the familiar faces it felt almost like being back on the Dee or the Dart, only with good weather! To paddle and share the evening with fellow coaches Chris Brain, Andrew Bonney, Paul Smith, Tom Parker really was a true pleasure. www.Next-Level-Coaching.co.uk/France
I honestly can’t think of many times I’ve been happier than the times spent boating in glorious sunshine all day followed recounting stories with great friends in the evening. I would like to say a massive personal thanks to every single person we encountered on our road trip, whether we shared good times on the river, off the river or both, or even just shared a laugh in a lay-by. Thank you for some of the best times of my life.
