Ardeche in April 2001

In April 2001 I went on a trip to the river Ardeche. The trip was organized by the sports department of the University of Mannheim. The trip was 4 days long, and we did day trips with canoes and kayaks. Following the two links below you can have a look on some pictures of other participants of the trip:

• Pictures of Marcus Romann - awesome!!!

• Pictures of Oliver Seufert

The first day we did a shorter trip upstream of ?. The trip was meant to be a warm-up. On the second and third day the group was split into two groups. One group did the beautiful paddle through the Ardeche Valley. The other group had a day off, and everybody could do whatever they wanted, e.g. rock climbing, sunbathing or sight-seeing. I belonged to the group that went through the gorge on the second day. On the third day Günther, Alexander and Harald and me did a short paddle to Pont d'Arc which is was our starting point for the paddle through the gorge. On the last day only kayakers were allowed to do the paddle on the upper part of the river. This is where the picture of me was taken.

Especially the last day has been a great experience because we had to master some difficult rapids. We were only ten people in our group, and most of them were already experienced kayakers. In particular Oliver, Beate und Günther are great kayakers. Those three and Marcus were our helper, advisors and teachers on our day trips. Unfortunately Marcus could not join us on the last day because he had an injury an his wrist.  We owe him the awesome pictures of the last day!

Oliver did a great job as organizer of this trip - thanks a lot! Everything was perfectly prepared: the equipment, the food, the  day trips the camp ground the support on the trips. 

Because I was afraid to take my camera on the trips I could not take as impressive pictures as Marcus. 

This rapid is situated at the access point at Pont d'Arc. It is just upstream to the starting point of our trip through the gorge. It took us about 2 hours easy paddling to get from out camp ground to Pont d'Arc. At the rapid people were waiting for paddlers to loose control and flip because this rapid was not easy. On the picture two beginners are just go over a stone. The "crack" go to this rapid to do tricks at the bottom of the rapid.

This break through in the rock at Pont d'Arc is due to the pressure of the water of the river Ardeche. This tunnel really is the work of the water!

On the picture is a part of our kayaks. On the last day I used the Tornado (third on from the right). The other days I sat in the bright blue one.