Last year whilst cycling around the
south of France Myself and the Welsh Dragon (Dru) cycled down the Ardeche Gorge.
It was a beautiful cycle ride and from the road I could see
canoeists going down the gorge, I then and there decided to come back the next
year and canoe down it.
So on the second week of July myself, Robert McDougal (another fell club member) and three others took a canoeing trip down in Southern France. The trip was a 65km canoe down the Ardeche river, starting at Balazuc and ending in St. Martin, going through the Ardeche Gorge, which is a national park. We arrived in a heat wave where the temperature at 8pm at night was 35 degrees! Thankfully it felt a lot cooler down on the river in the daytime.
Two of us took our inflatable kayaks but when we investigated the river we found that due to lack of rain it was really low, so we hired the canoes like the rest of the party.
The Canoes were open, with large
waterproof barrels on the back for the gear. For some reason though the company
that we hired the canoes off didn’t like us to have five single canoes, so we
had to have three singles and a double. Their excuse was that there had been
trouble in the past whenever they hired more than three singles out. They had
plenty more singles so we never really got to the bottom of it, but all other
canoes we saw down the river seemed to be doubles.
The first day was the hardest as the
Ardeche was really shallow until it joined with the Chassezac (because of the
lack of rain). After that the river was fine and the rapids were grade 1 and 2,
which are fine for novices. Two of us were experienced canoeists and would have
liked more water but for the other three it was fine. Day one was spent at a
campsite on the bank of the river just past Ruoms. For the first two days we had
to negotiate our way down seven dams on the river. Five of these dams have log
flume like chutes especially designed for canoes and great fun, but at two of
the dams you have to drag the canoes around them.
Day two saw us into the Gorge in a bivouac site, having passed under the Pont D’Arc, which is a natural arch over the river. Here by the arch it was packed full of day canoeists who paddle 8km, once past this it gets quieter again. There are only two sites in the gorge National Park that you can camp on and you need to purchase your bivouac camping site ticket before hand in the local town of Vallon Pont D’Arc, for about £3.50 a person. A park warden will fine you if you are found without one. We were asked twice on our site for our permits so I would recommend getting one.
Day three saw us down the rest of the gorge and with cliffs all around reaching up over three thousand feet it’s quite a spectacle, it’s not known as France’s Grand Canyon for nothing. The trip was magical and I would recommend it to anyone adventurous looking for a different holiday.
The hire of canoes for three days was 52
Euros from a company called Oceanide
www.oceanidecanoe.com,
found on the internet and the camp sites were about £5 to £6 each person but
with immaculate toilet blocks, pools, bar and restaurant and tall shady trees
which is the norm for three and four star camping in France. An unforgettable
holiday all round.