sté l'fun s'blog english: Between the French Pyrenees and Spain

Photos: Val Grollemund and Piere Mahé

When we go paddling, you never know what the water level and the weather will be like… Our journey started at the third French competition (Free Kayak Tour) to St. Pé de Bigorre near Lourdes. A weekend between cool weather, rain and sun, but the wave was there and atmosphere was cool - everything you need for a great contest. For more info about the contest check out Mat’s article.
A big thanks to the organisation who stopped the race for 6 minutes so all competitors could watch the show on French national TV:

kayak-tessin from thiebaut raphael on Vimeo.

After the weekend we decided to go to Spain and look for some steep rivers with Eric Deguil and Val Grollemund. However, just before we went to the other side, we had a good opportunity to do the Carol River which rarely has a good water level!   Then, on the way to Spain, we did a short section on the Rio Ribagorçana, it was short but steep. At the first drop I broke my paddle and got a little hole in the nose of my boat!  “A good paddler and a paddler alive” ;-)… So I stopped my run and took some footage of Eric in the final part where he also broke his paddle in a 15m high waterfall. Those were some expensive few metres on the river… 

I followed the Spanish Pyrenees with my family, tested the local food “Tapas” and visited Huesca city and the quaint village of Aguero, located below the fascinating rock formation of the Mallos de Riglos in Aragonth where you can watch vultures soar above the peaks. Near this place, we did a big water, the Rio Callego, where the landscape was beautiful and I taught my son and daughter how to kayak before going back to France for the “Pyrenees Buddies Race”…   The climate change was quite radical, from +17°C in Spain to 0°C in France, near Laruns village… An awesome first French extreme competition, very well organised. It almost didn’t take place due to the snow (fifteen cm snow fell in May during three days, completely unheard of…) Finally, the “frozen frogs race” did take place with more than forty competitors coming from Belgium, Ireland, Spain and France. We had a nice sunny Sunday afternoon to complete the very cool weekend in style! 