2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France Day 7 Friday: Middle Durance by Helen Siertsema After a leisurely lunch, and once the shuttle was completed, with the cars going down to Embrun, we set off down the Durance heading towards the Rab wave, encountering loads of big bouncy wave trains, Choo Choo! On approaching the Rab wave we took the kayak line down the left of the island… Read More »2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France Day 7 Friday: Middle Durance by Helen Siertsema

Saturday morning beginners/confidence booster session TNR Outdoors by Chris Marsden We arrived at TNR for our session around 9.30. The weather was dry but a bit overcast but quite warm. I was joined by Eamon and Dave. It was Eamon’s second or third go on moving water and although he seemed quite nervous, I knew he was looking forward to gaining more experience and knowledge of paddling on moving water. Dave… Read More »Saturday morning beginners/confidence booster session TNR Outdoors by Chris Marsden

2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France Day 6 Thursday: Slalom Course and Rescue Sessions and the delightful Upper Guisane by Keith Bold The morning saw the majority transporting kit to the top of the slalom course next to the campsite. The plan was to complete a few laps and add in some white-water rescue practice. A couple of rescues in the preceding days had been lacking in… Read More »2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France Day 6 Thursday: Slalom Course and Rescue Sessions and the delightful Upper Guisane by Keith Bold

2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France Day 5 Wednesday: Lower Gyronde by Elliot Bold Yet another day on the rivers in The Alps. Today we had a change of pace as we went from larger volume, wide rivers into one quite the opposite, steep, narrow and very technical. Once everyone was ready and the faffers had  faffed, Keith gave us a grave talk about the dangerous weir… Read More »2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France Day 5 Wednesday: Lower Gyronde by Elliot Bold

2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France Day 4 Tuesday: Lower Durance to Embrun by Andy Garland Another glorious day of paddling big and bouncy Alpine rivers. Today we returned to the Durance to run the section from St Clement to Embrun, a distance of around 18km. We all convened at the extremely convenient get-in at St Clement, with its associated bar, loos and slalom course (the French… Read More »2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France Day 4 Tuesday: Lower Durance to Embrun by Andy Garland

2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France Day 3 Monday: Gyronde to the campsite by Stuart Toulson Roy and I decided to head up to this section for a quick blast down at the end of the day when the water would be higher. We parked near the small village of Les Vigneaux just downstream from the garage on the entrance to the woods.  We quickly changed and carried… Read More »2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France Day 3 Monday: Gyronde to the campsite by Stuart Toulson

2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France Day 3 Monday: The Durance from the campsite to St Clement by Nikki Aldridge With the arrival of the rest of the group, who had stopped in various places all over France, today was the first day everyone was present. Unfortunately, after an incident with a car key and car boot, Nick and Oscar were not able to join us on… Read More »2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France Day 3 Monday: The Durance from the campsite to St Clement by Nikki Aldridge

2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France Day 2 Sunday: The Durance from the campsite to St Clement by Roy McHale Day 2 Sunday: The Durance from the campsite to St Clement by Roy McHale For the people who travelled directly to the L’Agentiere les-Ecrins campsite Saturday was a day of traveling and paddling only started on Sunday. The day started at a leisurely pace with the people… Read More »2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France Day 2 Sunday: The Durance from the campsite to St Clement by Roy McHale

2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France We set out with news of major port disruption in Dover. We had hoped that the M20 would settle down after midnight and we could just drive straight onto our waiting Eurotunnel train. Oh well, the best plans! Most of us ended up in a queue on either the M20 or one of the adjoining slip roads. With a 5+ hour… Read More »2022 LCC Alpine Holiday to Durance Region in France Day 1 Saturday: Espace Eau Vive de l’Isle de la Serre

Crossing from St Bees to the Isle of Man. TL/DR: Tim paddled from St Bees to the IoM and then got the ferry back, without any major dramas. I have been obsessively monitoring the Windy app for a couple of months in the hope of identifying a suitable weather window for the St Bees – Isle of Mann crossing. On Wednesday I had sufficient confidence to book Friday off work… Read More »Crossing from St Bees to the Isle of Man by Tim Haines