Jason Smith's The Ed

Le Epic..!

Time for our next French paddling trip. This time the plan was to paddle downstream on the river Tadoire from Mont Bron a whopping 22kms or so to the town of Rochefacuald and its impressive chateau. The sun was shining as we eagerly dropped of the boats and gear at the launching station at Mont Bron. Faye waited with the boats in the morning sun as Pete and I ran a shuttle so we could leave his big Sprinter van at the take out. Seemed like no time at all before we were to slide on to the calm waters of the Tadoire and float under the scenic bridge as we began our adventure. After the excitement of the first canoe flume we were all a bit perturbed by the apparent lack of water in the next section. It was strange, the section above the weir was deep, wide and full. Where was all the water now. We bumped and scraped along until it once again became deep. It's a very pretty river. But all too soon we came to another barrage and the river became shallow again afterwards, this time needing us to get out and haul our boats along on slings. This was not what we had in mind and it was hard work. By one o'clock we had been paddling, scraping and hauling our kayaks for four hours and it was time for lunch. We got out and sat on a lovely Roman bridge and enjoyed the usual baguette and smelly cheese, Nice! A swift call on a moby to Lynne at HQ revealed us to still only be a little under half way! But it was OK, the maps showed that the river appeared to grow and become bigger from then on. Yeah right! We were dead set to complete what we started though and after a short haul past some more shallows saw us find deep water again at last. This next section was great and even went past some prehistoric caves, but all too soon the water ran out again. The problem it seemed was the French and their love of whacking large amounts of ugly concrete in to many of their rivers. There were so many dams and weirs that the river was either backed up, so we were effectively paddling on mini-lakes, or dried out due to the flow being restricted combined with a low summer level. It was hot, frustrating and at times difficult as we portaged, hauled and occasionally paddled our way towards our goal. It became increasingly bleak as we past through an industrial area full of derelict buildings and one last, particularly ugly, weir before we finally rounded a corner and were greeted by the impressive site of the Rochefacauld Chateau. It was a tough trip, nine hours in total, and we were all cream crackered. But it was a great trip. Pete and Faye did amazingly well considering how much paddling they've done and as we looked on the map at the distance we'd covered over a cold beer later, we were pleased that we'd stuck it out and completed the journey. A French adventure to remember for sure.

Posted by Jason Smith

Brrrarrrrrrp!

OK, most of you will know that when I'm not in a kayak or canoe I like nothing more than to fall off mountain bike. But while in France I've discovered an even better way of maiming myself. Off-road motorbiking! Pete let me loose on his trail bike in the nearby forestr hills. Yep, going downhill on a mountain bike like a bat out of hell is fun (We raced one of the local downhills - me on my hardtail, Pete on the MX), but going uphill on a moto-X 4-stroke thumper at twice that speed is even more fun. I did have a few guilt pangs about greenhouse gasses, but a fist full of throttle around the next bermed-out switchback, and a satisfying spray of roost soon put paid to that. I want one! It can even double up as a handy shuttle vehicle for boating too.

Posted by Jason Smith

Bon Voyage

Just been out to France to visit Pete & Lynne, Faye's Folks. They've got themselves a lovely farmhouse in the Charente region and just so happen to have a few nice rivers right on the doorstep. Pete's been keen to explore the local river the Tadoire for a while, so it was a good chance for me to give the dodgy shoulder a gentle reintroduction to the joys of paddling. The French have an altogether different approach when it comes to river access and we launched at a purpose built landing/launching stage at the town of Mont Bron. As the river was still in summer flow style we decided on a trip upstream to explore and then a descent back down to where we started. It's a lovely stretch of river and not as sedate as it may seem. There are a number of river wide weirs along the way and as it was low it was possible to climb out and carry the boats up. It was clear that the descent would be a lot of fun as each weir had a purpose built canoe flume built in to it! As both Pete and Faye are new to whitewater it was going to be exciting. We paddled on past forest and some lovely river-side chateaus until we finally pitched up opposite some dramatic looking cliffs. As it was lunchtime we did the French thing and chilled out in the sun with some ice cold beers that had been stored in a dry bag filled with ice! Nice! With just a hint of current behind us the journey back was quicker as was the pulse rate as we neared the first canoe flume. Pete and Faye's because this was to be their first taste of whitewater. Mine because I was possibly about to drown the wife and the father-in-Law in one go! It was a straight shoot, about three metres high, but it had a wee stopper at the bottom and some fairly fierce eddy lines. I needn't of worried though as they both teed it up perfectly and came sailing down with big grins on their faces. That was it we we're off flume after flume, with the highlight being a double tiered drop of about ten metres. All to soon we were back and Mont Bron and it was time to retire back to the farmhouse for a celebratory BBQ, and to plan out next mission.

Posted by Jason Smith

Ice, Ice Baby

In an effort to kick my five-a-day thermamug of espresso habit (more if it's deadline) I've developed a bit of a thing for Liptons peach flavoured ice tea. It's so wrong it's right! Mind you Rossco will be back from his jaunt to the worlds next week, and he's got an even worse Java habit than me, so I need to get the 'coffe cold turkey' out of the way before returns and tempts me with a mug of something dark and roasted!

Posted by Jason Smith

Web Slinger Scares Crows!

The August Bank Holiday saw the return of the annual village scare crow competition, so on Sat the boats got left in the shed for a change. Last year we did a rather cool 'waterfall kayaker' hucking his hay of or CK Towers tool shed. This year we considered a straw-filled sea kayaker, and a couple of tilly-hatted, checked shirted open boating beardies, but after a few trial with hoisting the boats it was decided that the shed wasn't really up to the job (it's never really recovered from having a Dagger Maba danging off it) so it was time for a fresh approach. After a bit of head scratching Mrs S settled on a kid pleasing Spiderman effort. A bit of stitching, a lot of hay, some garden netting and some precarious ladder action and it was all done. Didn't win a prize, but as predicted, the local nippers loved it.

Posted by Jason Smith