Paddlers and pics - Steven & Birdy
N orth of France, March 2003

Bye
______Birdy_

Steven, half asleep, nagging why we're still driving after a couple of hours in the middle of nowhere looking for some shitty fall and then pissed because he has to change clothes in this pouring rain. But when we pull over, the sun pops out and the river is filled with brown muddy water. When we see the entry of the drop, he's still not convinced, but when we finally see the fall and hear the roaring sound of the water gutting down, I say 'yeeeeah'.

 

...several weeks of no rain and no paddling, you really need to get out there. A little rain shower, no hesitation, you take off, heading South, a couple of hundred kilometers, seeking water.

And then suddenly, a little cloud bursts open, loads of rain fall down and you know it's too late to get those playspots going. Still you know, now is the time to head for that little creek that never has water.

And it starts pumping inside...

There's an easy entry slide going down a bit, but then there's a 90°curve left on the edge, where you go straight down. All rocks are edgy, even sharp. The pool must be about 1m20 deep, so don't go to deep and it's between concrete walls.
And then Steven takes off, just slides down, takes the curve, no boof, still falling down he pull's up his nose and it slams down making a popping sound, yeehaaa.
Then I go, slide down the entry, take the curve, no boof, dive down, go under and popp up, yeehaaa, coooool.

Ok, ok, Steven was right, no big deal. But hey, these aren't the Alps and you must say 'these pics look great !!!!'