An early start to what ended up a disastrous day. The day started by paddling the Upper Ubaye, poor Jason took two horrific swims within a few hundred meters of leaving the bank. His boat went cartwheeling down the river and stopped suddenly on a rock flattening the front end. Joe mistakenly told Richard to eddy in because there was a large drop just the corner, what a mistake as he leaped out and tried to divert the drop, however we had only stopped to gain space between the two groups.
The afternoon was spent on the ubaye racecourse, what a mistake. Jason took another swim in monster stopper and then the fun began. His boat was stopped some several hundred meters later, by this time it was too far down river for him to get back. It was lugged high up the valley side and left under a tree for collection later that night. In the process of trying to stop the runaway boat Simon found himself swiped out by a tree heading upside down a grade 4+ rapid. With rocks pounding him in every direction he called it a day and popped his deck. The damage was later revealed when his helmet was heavily gouged and battered. He was majorly pissed off with this because after 8 years of paddling he has never swum. Luckily unlike Jason he walked away with a bruised hand & shin and lost shoe. Whilst this was all happening Jason climbed the river bank to the road and thumbed a left to the finish.
The river Ubaye consisted of some almighty stoppers some friendly and quite a few boating eatting ones. The wave trains were the hight of small vans. Normally wave trains are fun and bouncy, however behind these waves out of sight there were non boat friendily stoppers waiting to catch paddlers unaware. For some this river was not so enjoyable, seeing the get out was light relief.
The last swim Jason took, turned his already battered legsinto overdrive with swelling. His ankle swelled to the size of a small melon. The evening was spent trying to find the tree hiding Jason boat, this took several hours. With a late finish that night we quickly headed to the local pizza shack for dinner before closing time. To top the day off we lost our travel money in the supermarket, we think.
Some impressive insurance claims are going to have to be made when back in the UK for lost and damaged kit.
Today’s statistics: 4 Swims, 5 Injury’s, 1 Broken boat, Lots of bruises.
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