Alps White Water Holiday – France 2026 – Saturday Day 08 Middle Durance

2026 08 08 Middle Durance

We were well-oiled today (and do not only mean with copious amounts of sunscreen), with cars setting off for St Clements at 9:30 am and the drivers safely being returned to the campsite. The group soon got on the river and followed as one large, organised group down the wave trains and breaking in and out of the eddies. This was Ella’s first day, having arrived at 2:00 am last night from a delayed flight into Turin.

We soon reached the first road bridge (Pont des Traverses). This is an excellent 400m section with good eddies, waves and stoppers at grade 2, which is ideal to build your skills and play on the way down. Clara was now confident in running Alpine grade 2 water and dropped into the biggest stopper on the run. Her junior kayak was slowly pulled backwards, where she then did a vertical tailie (stern squirt), landed upside down and tried to roll. It looked spectacular, and she was soon upbeat after her short swim.

We were soon back in the boat and paddling with her usual smile, and by now powerful eddy turns. Before long we passed La Roche-de-Rame, the cement works and were gazing back at the Écrins and Queyras mountains. A little further along we came across some paddlers from L’Argentière Kayak Club (kayak, raft and what can only be described as a large plastic septic tank which had been cut in half). They were doing a clean of the river and had collected all the rubbish in the raft and the septic tank en route.

We had a brief stop at Saint-Crépin Airfield and helped L’Argentière Kayak Club carry up some of the rubbish to the road. The route down to Saint-Clément-sur-Durance had some winding bends with several overhanging trees to avoid. We stopped again at the confluence (joining) of the Lower Guil with its crystal clear waters marking a distinct eddy line to practise our break-ins.

The slalom course at Saint-Clément-sur-Durance was no issue to any of us, and we made good use of the eddies and now familiar route down through the rapids. At the bottom we again practised and rehearsed our throwline rescues. This was especially pertinent with a new paddler and in light of yesterday’s “incident”.