WHITE WATER TRAVELLERS
by Rob Murphy

I turned to Noelle-“Watch this - two red heads in a Hiace - they have to stop us”.
Customs- “Sorry can you pull over to the side. What’s the business of your trip?”
Reply –“We are going to Italy white water kayaking.”
Customs officer - with a grin – “So you’re white water travellers then.”

With that, we were on the ferry to Roscoff with a one way ticket and plans to follow the water around Europe for the summer.


09/05/05
Roscoff, France -Val Sesia, Italy (900 miles)
Woke up to the sound of two strong Cork accents outside the van, so we knew we had people to paddle with. It was a bad year for snow in the Alps; the warm April in Italy meant that it was a short early season. We only managed to get four days paddling in when the water levels dropped off. Even though there was heavy rain forecasted, we decided to head across to Briancon.
The Aosta valley and Val Sesia are the best known kayaking destinations in Italy, famous for their big granite bedrock slides.


14/05/05
Val Sesia, Italy –Briancon, France (180miles)

We arrived to cloud cover and lowish water but as the levels improved we got to tick off some French classics - the Guil, Ubaye, Romanche, Guisane…Then we ventured back across the border to Italy for a high water run on the Dora Riaparia where we had a swimmer pulled out of the water as his legs where getting sucked into a siphon.

After the previous day’s close call we decided to have a play run on the Ubaye race course - we didn’t get much play! Noelle’s paddles got broached as she rolled up and her hand slipped along the loom cutting her thumb on the blade. Luckily there were three experienced guides with us and we got her up the steep bank and to the hospital very quickly.

In the time it would have taken for her to get seen at home, she was operated on and had her tendon stitched back together - even with the delay of my fainting in the corridor!!! Unfortunately that put an end to Noelle’s paddling for the summer but she stayed on in a shuttle bunny capacity.

We spent a month in the French Alps, the highlight being a sun blessed day with no carnage and great water, on the Ubaye gorge with three local paddlers and Colin Irvine After getting directions in the Wonderland shop we headed to Lyon and Hawaii sur Rhone.


14/06/05
Briancon, France –Lyon, France (140miles)

We arrived when the Lyon River Festival had been scheduled to start. There was a strong international contingent present who had their plane tickets booked before the late cancellation of the event. The wave was flushy but there were still some spectacular aerial displays from Pat Camblin and Ed Smith. The Irish contingent didn’t look bad either with Joe Ryan and Alan Leonard getting some sweet air. With the water getting shut off for the weekend it was time to head for Austria.


18/06/05
Lyon, France – Landeck, Austria (400 miles)

Having left everyone in France I needed to find some people to paddle with. I met a group of Germans. One was the film maker Olaf Obsommers who had organized a protest to try and stop the proposed damming of the Oetz River and its tributaries. There was a film showing a neighbouring valley that had been dammed a number of years ago where the white water and natural beauty have been destroyed. This was followed by a night paddle with a hundred kayakers holding burning torches through the town of Solden- an unique and moving experience.

It didn’t take me long to get in to the Austrian routine of getting up early - running the upper Venter Ache, then down to run the upper Oetz. After that, you sit around drinking coffee and waiting for the river to rise. Paddle it a few more times- the later in the day the higher it gets. At eight o’clock you slide into your play boat to have a blast down the Lower section catching waves on the run.


01/07/05
Landeck, Austria-

We drove the forty minutes up to Engadine across the Swiss border and into the beautiful villages of the Swiss Inn Valley. In the Ardez Gorge we turned a corner to meet the sound of gun fire over head; the traffic light wasn’t needed to be told to stop! In the guide book it says to “press the button and wait” … we found two wires presumably from the button. Twenty minutes later the clay pigeons stopped dropping in the water the light changed to green and it was save to pass under the targets.

Having left Brian Keogh and Jenny “You’re Not The Boss Of Me” Kilbride to work for H2O in Briancon we reunited with them in Austria. Due to dwindling water levels, we took a drive over the Timmelsjoch Pass, motoring through vast apple orchards to the Italian national slalom course at Noce. Unfortunately they were having the same weather, so no water but you could spend at least three good days there.


13/07/05
Landeck, Austria –Kiel, Germany (625 miles)
Ferry: Kiel, Germany –Oslo, Norway
Oslo, Norway –Sjoa, Norway (190 miles)

“Welcome To Norway, Land of Trolls and WATERFALLS”

We were lucky to meet straight up with a group from Limerick, most of whom were on their second trip to Norway - a country that seems to have a mandatory portage on each river. You need a strong group and any local knowledge is a great bonus. After a few days warming up on the Sjoa, we went up to Dombas to run some typical Norwegian slides-long and steep - care of the Upper Jori and the Ulvaa.

Norway has something unique to offer - 24hr daylight, which can find you surfing the Jorgans wave at midnight and cooking dinner at two in the morning!

Sjoa River Festival, known for having one of the best boater cross events in the world, threw up a great freestyle comp with Ed Cornfield and Tyler Curtis doing identical runs in the final. The judges couldn’t pick a winner, they had a second run and Curtis took the honours.


26/07/05
Voss

We chose to drive over the glacier to run the Sognadalsalva on the way to Voss and the opportunity for some snow boating was not passed up. Upon the way to the Lower Myrk, Mike Jones received a phone call to say that the ferry had left Bergan and to meet it in Stavanger. Whether or not it was Jimmy’s fault that they had the wrong day, they had to make a quick exit!

I got to run the Lower Myrkaldaelva again, its reputation is well deserved with horizon lines around every corner. There must be at least twelve drops that will test anyone’s nerves and skill! After three months on the road, this was a real classic to end the trip.

All there was left to do was to get the twenty four hour ferry from Bergen to Newcastle and drive to Stranraer for the Belfast ferry marking the end of a ten thousand mile journey around the top white water destinations in Europe.


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