A group of us from the club have just been away for a week in the Pyrenees, paddling the beautiful Noguera Palleresa river. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noguera_Pallaresa I wanted to share some of our experiences with other club members.
Leading: Mark, Geoff, Wendy
The Group: Paul Carter/Paolo; Danger Dave; Dave C/Biltong; Kate; Tom and me.
The first couple of days it looked as though the white water might be coming into the campsite to join us, as our campsite was a paddle’s length from the river itself and it rained non-stop for 48 hours. But the rain couldn’t detract from the fantastic fun to be had on this big, fast flowing river, which kept the adrenalin pumping with bouncy wave trains at regular intervals.
It was a different experience from paddling in the UK, as the flow is of a different magnitude, with a massive volume of water zipping through fast - it’s more about waves and holes than drops and stoppers (hurray!). There are long stretches of the river that are perfect for a first taste of big water paddling – mostly grade II with a few grade III rapids and one or two (easily portaged) grade IV.
We spent the week running various sections of this – on one day doing an epic 25km paddle (that’s a long way even for a sea kayak!). Some of the group dabbled in a more challenging section higher up stream with lots of grade III+ snaking round blind corners.
The weather did eventually turn around and we were treated to views of the pine-covered slopes and spectacular mountains under clear blue skies. Herons, swifts, swallows, chaffinches, bints, buzzards and eagles (well, something massive that we reckon was an eagle) shared the river with us each day.
The highlight for me was entering a narrow gorge at the end of our 25km paddle that cut deeply through the mountains – the entrance was guarded by a rapid with at least a 50 metre wave train with 5ft waves (in places) and a massive hole which sucked down some of our group (although they did re-emerge unscathed). After passing through this, we were treated to a unique view of the gorge, whose weathered rocks inspired Gaudi’s architecture - a glorious end to a day of paddling.
On the non-paddling front: Dave cooked up an awesome braai on several nights and most days we all enjoyed trying to consume our own weight in cheese and ham (a local tradition). There are drinking establishments in Sort, the local small town, considering making Danger their new patron saint. And I won’t mention the Paul and The Bottle of Whiskey incident.
So, if this sounds good (and it really, really was) I’ve only been paddling white water for just over 12 months and I never thought I’d be able to achieve so much in this space of time. So, even if you are a beginner – keep going and you can be paddling this amazing river next year too.
If you are not familiar with grading: http://www.welsh-canoeing.org.uk/access/river_grading.htm
And - I know this is what everyone wants really - the pics:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/decollett/Spain02
http://picasaweb.google.com/joff.in.london/Spain2008