Host 2: Kayak adventure

A popular activity here is to kayak the river. Denis and Perrine have a friend that works at one of the rental places just up river of Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val, so they took us there and dropped us off. The family friend helped us and spoke enough English to get by. We both got single kayaks instead of a double because the river is very shallow in some spots and we would have been riding lower in a double and less maneuverable. The kayaks didn’t have a dry storage compartment in them, but instead they put a big jug on the back that they strapped onto the kayak.

The start was a blast, as you sit down in the kayak still about 30 feet from the water and they push you down a ramp into the river. Right away the front of the kayak dips under the water and soaks you. It was a hot day and of course we didn’t have hats or sunscreen, so we were thankful to get splashed and paddled down the shady side of the river. The river started out wide, slow, and deep, which gave us some time to get used to our kayaks and paddles. Pretty soon we were paddling through Saint-Antonin-Noble-Val and had people sitting in restaurants and cafes watching us. Shortly after we came to a water mill or something and they was a chute that we didn’t notice you were suppose to go down. There were 3 or 4 of these obstacles during our trip. Basically, there were concrete embankments that sloped down a little less than 45 degrees and were probably 15 feet in length. The water was far too shallow to go down on top of them, but there were little chutes to go down where two walls of the embankment met. We were made aware of the chute from some French girls no older than 11 or 12 that kindly came all the way out to the middle of the river and pushed us down the chute, as the beginning was too shallow. These chutes were fun, as you really got some speed then crashed into the water below, getting soaked in the process. 

After that it really became picturesque. Both sides of the river had trees and the elevation gently climbed then got steeper and steeper finally to a cliff face, making a perfect parabolic curve. I’ve never been anywhere quite like it. There were many birds like herons, ducks, magpies, swallows, and a really pretty blue woodpecker. The river was shallow most the way and we could often see little fish just a couple inches long, and the occasional fish maybe about a foot in length. There was a great mixture of easy flowing water and rapids. The rapids were a blast, but were made quite difficult by the shallowness of the water at times. You would be going fast, then get lodged an awkward way and struggle to get free and maintain balance. We never fell, but I came close once and Tawnie had to get out in a sketchy part of the river once to reorient her kayak.

A bit later there was another dam type thing, and this time there was a chute that had concrete walls built up on both sides. We were unsure if that was really the way, as the water was raging through it so we stalled and saw our first other kayaker coming up behind us. They sped by and went down it, so we followed suit and got drenched and had a blast! Later on there was one more of these and I wish I could just do them over and over.

When we were about halfway done with our 13.5 mile journey, I heard my phone vibrate in the dry storage. Tawnie came over and undid the container, opened it, and pulled out a Samsung phone just like mine - but it wasn’t mine. Mine was still in there, but when we were at the rental place Tawnie had set my wallet down on the counter. I asked her to go grab it, and sitting next to my wallet was a phone that looked very similar to mine. She grabbed both, and threw them in our container. Oh no! The other issue was that our dry container had a broken seal and stuff wasn’t dry at all! But the phones were fine, so we dried them off, then hurriedly paddled the rest of the way, as we didn’t want to have this guys phone for too long.

After about 3 hours and 15 minutes we covered the 22 kilometers and got out. Our instructions were to call the rental place and let them know to pick us up. I grabbed my phone and it didn’t work. It had been wet and now I couldn’t get it to turn on at all. So we grabbed the other phone we took, in hopes the contacts would have our place. This phone was fine until we discovered the touch screen no longer worked. Uh oh. We were abandoned and alone with no way to contact anybody. We mulled over our options and decided to just wait, as this was the designated pick up point.

Luckily, about 3 minutes later a van came rolling up with another rental. He agreed to call our rental place to us to notify them, and our ride came about 15 minutes later. Whew. On the ride back, my phone even came back on, and everything seems to be working except the flashlight function. Back at the rental place, we gave the phone back to the dude that we stole it from. He was extremely happy, until discovering that the touchscreen was broken. It was a bit awkward. This also happens to be the guy that is going to come live with us and help out on the work projects here. He was upset but told us it was okay. We didn’t have enough cash on us to buy him a new phone, nor were we sure if that would be a normal thing to do in this culture. We will probably ask our hosts and if he does come stay with us maybe throw some money his way, but I don’t know yet.

Overall it was great fun.  We’ve got bruises and sore arms to prove it. As you can see, there is rarely a dull moment for us. Internet has been wacky lately so posts are going to come flooding in every now and then, as I have enjoyed writing during my free time. It’s Saturday morning as I write this and we don’t work on the weekends, so I’ll get out and take some pictures for real and fill y’all in on where we’re staying and the work we’re doing. At least that’s my plan.