Read Part one here
On Tuesday another couple of paddlers had joined the group
(not everyone could get the whole two weeks of holiday) and we headed back to
the Sun Run again. This time we started
from St Clements slalom course and did the full run down to Embrun. The addition of the two new paddlers, people
who I had not met or paddled with before, meant the feel of the group dynamics
changed a little and I was back to feeling a tad nervous. I had the little bit of sick feeling from the
start as the Slalom course was also the part I had portaged when we did the run
on Sunday, so it wasn’t familiar, and it meant starting on top form.
We got in at the bottom of the slalom course and used the
leat (a channel of flat water up the side of the river) to make our way to the
top of the course. Once all at the top
and in an eddy we waited for some rafts to pass before heading down the first
drop in to the next eddy. The first swim
of the holiday was taken by Dean at this point.
He got tripped over by the eddy line, which was a little more confused
water than a lot of the eddies we had done on previous days. The group waited for him to get back in,
after he and the kit were rescued, and then…. He swam again. It was the same line that tripped him up and
he was quite frustrated about it, but unscathed and not too rattled by the
experience. The group then moved on to
the next eddy before continuing a straight through run of the rest of the
course.
Not feeling at my best anyway I was paddling hard,
especially when I felt some of the boily water in between features turning me
and making me feel like I was getting tripped up. I ran straight in to Rob who was leading,
despite having given a good gap between us when we left the eddy, but was not
comfortable enough to stop paddling! We were
at the bottom on calmer waters anyway so he directed me past and I hugged the
bank until I could eddy out. I didn’t
feel much more settled by the time we made it to Rab wave, as the water levels
had changed slightly and meant there were some more boily patches of water and
the odd rock, although it was definitely an improvement on the previous run.
Rab wave also looked different with the change in the
levels, the waves themselves were just as big but there was less ‘messy’ water
either side, so we aimed straight for the middle this time rather than the
slightly river right path we had taken two days before. I was singing away all the way through the
run up, then paddled like mad for the wave itself. The first of the waves virtually covered me
completely, and I couldn’t see anymore (I hadn’t shut my eyes in time). I wasn’t sure if I had capsized but carried
on spinning my arms, and realised I ran through the second wave blind. Type 2 fun but I’m glad I went through it
again.
The remainder of the run down to Embrun gave us more big
bouncy wave trains and some more boily water, although I found these didn’t
unsettle me so much, and even dropped in to follow Keith for the most of
it. A little up stream from Embrun the
group eddied out just before an old bridge stantion on a bend in the river. The water here piled up on the outside of the
turn against a big rock, and the leaders just needed to make sure everyone kept
river right. We then quickly came up on
Embrun. There were a number of large
waves on the short run in, I had my eyes trained on Keith a couple of people
ahead of me at this point, I felt the big waves and saw him eddy out to the
right, I started planning to get to the eddy thinking ‘oh that wave was cool,
just this little drop down to….. OMG!...’ There was a huge wave of white water
up on my left side. I hadn’t realised I
was in the main wave until I was deep in it!
I quickly shut my eyes just before it hit so I wasn’t paddling blind,
and made it quite neatly in to the eddy.
I had done it without even realising it, gone in sideways as well, and
not been unbalanced or had my nerves shaken.
We tried again to get out to do a Via, aiming to do the
short one in the park near the house. It
wasn’t our day again, as when we got there the gates to the entrance were
shut. It was nice to have a little walk
around the park though, and we once again headed back to the house for the
evening.
The storms and dreary weather continued through to
Wednesday. The group headed out anyway
as we planned to cross the mountain roads and head in to the next valley, where
we hoped the weather may be a little better to paddle on the Guil. This wasn’t the case and with the water
levels looking a little low on the proposed river, enthusiasm among the group
was low. We decided not to paddle here,
and headed back to the house to eat the lunch which had taken a nice road trip
over the mountain with us in the ‘car fridge’.
Trevor, Keith and I decided not to paddle after lunch either, instead
opting for a lazier afternoon. It was
mine and Keith’s day to cook anyway, so we had shopping and food prep to get on
with, and Trevor decided to take a walk into town. The rest of the group went on to paddle on
the Upper Guisane again. I was really
pleased to hear Sam had a good run through, even though she was nervous at the
start (given her incident the other day playing on her mind) and she was
singing ‘Do your boobs hang low’ as she went as well!
Thursday saw the group head out to L’Argentiere. Sam and I were not paddling the first section
of this river as it was a bit of a step up and the advice for me at least was
that I might be up for this next week, but at this point it would be a
stretch. I certainly didn’t feel like
stretching myself too much so Sam and I had a more relaxed morning and did some
house tidying before we headed down to meet the group at the L’Argentiere
slalom course. We had planned to use the
lake here to do some rolling practice for me but, with the weather being not all
to wonderful again, and a bit of faff and chatting, the group had made it down
to us before we were ready anyway. We
finished kitting up and headed over to the slalom course. A few of the group got off the river at this
point, happy with the paddling they had done in the morning and ready for lunch. At the top of the course we sorted out that
Sam would follow Cakey, with Chucky as her back marker/my lead then me followed
by Keith. Missing a days paddling and
getting straight on to some big features I was fairly nervous, even though I
was feeling quite good about my paddling this week in general. I took a bit too long to get moving so I
ended up just following Keith instead with Brian and Matt coming down behind
us. For me, I felt like the first and
last drop were the biggest features here.
The first mainly because I’d had no warm up so was a little tense in the
boat. The slalom markers also had me a
bit distracted as I was paddling through these, and no matter how much you tell
yourself you don’t need to avoid them you still duck or try to move paddles round
them as instinct, which is not constructive for me at this point. (Slalom markers/poles are suspended above the
river on wires that go way overhead, they aren’t particularly heavy, just solid
enough so they don’t sway about too much in the wind.)
I made it down the run without incident but it didn’t feel
smooth as I hadn’t loosened up in the boat yet, and it was all much more effort
than it needed to be. I was very happy
however, that where Keith chose to eddy out in the middle of the course, was the
one I had seen from the bank to perhaps be one that would be tricky for
me. There was a rock half way down the
edge of the eddy so you needed to either eddy above it or below it really. As I had imagined might be the case, I was a
little too late to eddy at the top, and got pushed back out/spun round by the
rock. My heart rate certainly raised as
this meant I was now heading down the course in front of Keith, but I didn’t
panic, and as I expected he quickly got past me and back in front again.
I decided I’d like to run it again, hoping to feel a little
smoother this time, and as this was the only section for me to be paddling
today, I may as well give it another run through to make it worth the hassle of
coming out and kitting up!!!
This time it didn’t go so well. Sam, Chucky and Cakey had come up again, but
were a way in front of us before I was ready so I just paddled as a pair with
Keith again, Brian and Matt had got off the water as they weren’t doing another
run here. We decided to eddy river left
before heading down the first feature this time, instead of right as we had done
before. As we left the eddy I realised I
hadn’t made sure what our plan was for the next bit of water and consequently I
was not paddling forward with much conviction in to the first wave. This top wave had a little bit of a curl to
it on the left side of the tounge (the tounge is the middle part of the wave
that forms a V shape you go down). Being
a little to the left of the tounge this time and not being committed to the
paddling, the curl of the wave caught the edge of my boat. I was already shaking so when I tried to
brace out of it, my arm felt like it was moving through treacle, I could see
myself tipping faster than I could get the paddle in the water, and when I did
get it there, it did nothing. Knowing I
was going in I gave a snort through my nose as I went under (this avoids half
the river going up your nose and cleaning out your sinuses), I briefly considered
whether there was anything I could do about it, but as I can’t roll it was time
to pull my deck and resign myself to a swim.
This all happened in a matter of seconds; it felt like minutes. Although the water felt cold I was glad I‘d
chosen to wear my drysuit. I was quickly
on to trying to do the right thing when you swim. I got my feet up in front of me, and used
‘defensive’ swimming while I looked for an eddy. Remembering we were river right for get on
and off, I first started trying to go that way, but then realised I was closer
to eddies on river left, so worked back that way. I went past a couple of eddies before I felt
close enough to turn over and swim forward towards it. I didn’t quite make it so I had to go back to
the defensive position to go round a rock, and swim for the next eddy
instead. Once in the eddy, I could kneel
on the rocky beach area but I was still not at the river side. These eddies were behind rocks about 10 feet
from the river bank and there was a little bit of a flow over the rocky area
before I reached the bank. Keith had
been with me just a few feet away the whole time, making sure I got safe and
stayed with me until I’d slowly made my way over to the bank on shaky
legs. As soon as I was safe he was
heading down stream to chase my kit, which I was sure was long gone by
now. While I was walking back up to the
bridge, over, and then back down river right to help with a boat recovery (if
they found it), Keith was heading down stream.
Chucky who was in the bottom eddy had seen my boat go past and jumped to
action, with Cakey close behind. They
managed to get the boat over to the side and a couple of others in the group had
walked down the bank to get it out up the rocky side of the river. Keith, Chucky and Cakey had then paddled on
further down chasing my paddle, which I'd seen, washed up and stuck in a rocky
beach area in the middle of the river below the slalom course. They were looking for something they wouldn’t
find! I then met up with the guys who
had pulled my boat up, helped them get it back to the car park, and got some
other people to get cars to head on to finding the paddlers if they needed a
lift back from wherever they had given up chasing imaginary paddles. Once we met up with them they then sorted
fetching my paddles. During the time
since getting out of the water and now, I had started to feel a twinge down my
back and leg, and although I would’ve liked to try again, I didn’t want to pull
something and damage myself. I decided
to leave it there and just rest. I was
determined (as long as my back and leg didn’t feel any worse) to paddle
tomorrow to make sure I didn’t let my subconscious build up a sense of dread
about getting on the water again.
I didn’t feel too shaken by the swim, mainly because I was
aware at the time of what was going wrong and why, and it was more annoying
than terrifying, and this also made me note how much my confidence has been
boosted by the paddling this week, and how glad I am to own a dry suit! I
headed on to lunch, and once afternoon paddlers were sorted Sam and I headed out
to find a horse riding venue for next week.
It wasn’t until much later in the afternoon, when I knew my leg and back
were doing ok, and we were back at the house chilling out, that the adrenaline
really dropped off and I got frustrated and wound up about the ordeal. I was also frustrated and wound up about the
fact I had let it bother me.
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