French Alps 2018 paddling trip
Day 1 The Durance from the campsite to St Clement by Sarah Gille
After the usual long journey to get to the alps for our yearly Liverpool canoe club whitewater paddling trip. We decided to start off with an easy grade ½ paddle from the campsite down to St Clement.
The aim would be to get our paddling legs/arms ready before we advanced onto the much harder sections of rivers within the Southern Alps.
As we drifted down the flowing river we caught a few eddies and bounced along the wave trains whilst admiring the spectacular scenery.
We had set off a bit later so had the river too ourselves and chatted about what we could cook for tea and what we had been up to since the last trip.
We approached a sweeping bend and suddenly noticed graham upside down in his boat. Its ok we thought as he is a highly competent whitewater paddler however if we push our 
limits sometimes the best of paddlers can get a bit wet.
Out of his boat Keith dashed to his rescue but with only a camera in hand and on the opposing side of the river Graham was left to perform a self-rescue.
A paddler of the year contender some suggested. Keep your eye out on the website when voting opens??
Soon we were at St clement where we practiced throw lines in case anyone else was to have a similar misfortune to that of Graham. (most likely me for writing this piece)
Then back to the campsite for the more willing paddlers for a few runs of the slalom course.