2024 LCC Alpine Paddling Holiday
Day 06 Thursday afternoon 25th July: Middle Guil by Stuart Toulson
A smaller group of 5 paddlers now headed up the Guil Valley to paddle the middle section. The Guil is a 32-mile-long river, that drains into the Durance. The section we planned to paddle today was from the road tunnel down to Maison du Roy, which is grade 4. We quickly dropped one vehicle at the bottom and then arrived at the get-on by the road tunnel. We met a small group of Dutch paddlers and helped them rope their boats down into the gorge.
Once everyone was seated in their boats, we paddled down in order, assessing each obstacle as we reached it. The closed in gorge adding to the isolation and feeling of excitement, stopping every few minutes to catch our breath as we found a suitable eddy.
Towards the end of the section, one of the team went offline and capsized into an overhung rock. They tried to roll but we’re tight against the rock. As we watched from our separate eddies they resurfaced and then managed to get to the bank. As Keith had led, he chased the paddle and boat, managing to throw the paddle to the bank then recover the boat. We followed down but didn’t see any sign of the paddle, this was later collected by a local friendly raft guide, who phoned us to say he had it. (It pays to label all of your kit with your name phone number and email address)
After we had safely left the river, we packed all of the equipment onto the vehicles and prepared to return to camp.