DP in the Alps: Part 4

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Part 4: the part where I did no kayaking whatsoever

Day 11
It was by far the hottest day of the trip so far, and we didn't have any rivers planned. A few went to the Durance gorge, but most stayed at the campsite and either paddled on the lake or just sunbathed. I've developed a pretty nice dunce shirt tan. Needless to say, there are no photos of those tan lines - I hope.

Lars ran the slalom in a paddling pool... as you do.

Later on in the afternoon was the BoaterX competition. All entrants go down the slalom at the same time and the first person to reach the end wins a set of paddles. The entrants from Bath destroyed the competition, winning the Beginner (Joe) and Intermediate (George) competitions, and 2nd place in the Expert (Luke) competition. There was a race across the lake in inflatables as well, which we didn't win, but they enjoyed it.

Joe winning the race across the lake

The inflatable race was definitely entertaining to watch.

The evening saw a party on the island, which from the stories I heard I'm glad I didn't go to, since I was definitely not drunk enough.

Somehow I still have the dunce shirt. It (and consequently I) smells like last night's bonfire. Many silly things happened today: Hannah broke her chair; Josh pissed on the beers; and I dropped my beer (but that's fine since I'm already wearing the shirt). Anyway tomorrow I will have passed it on.

Day 12
Today was a day of complete non-water-ness. A few people did complex runs on the water, but the majority did other things. Many, including myself, did Via Ferrata. I had no idea what it was; it's similar to Go Ape, only more challenging, with cliff edges, and higher up. There were 3 courses, all of which involved climbing across cliff faces. We had limited harnesses, so I didn't do the second run so that others could. I'm glad I did the last one though - for 3 hours we climbed up cliff faces, walked across bridges, climbed across cliff faces, enjoyed the view etc. It was probably the most fun day of the trip so far simply because I felt so comfortable doing it. I never felt scared or unsafe, even while holding on to the cliff face 350ft above the ground. That last run in particular made for an absolutely fantastic view!

Don't look down - not for those afraid of heights!

120m higher than when we started off - and we still had to get back down!

I still have the dunce shirt! Even though Priyanka almost burned herself on the hot pan; Ralex spilt squash down his leg; and Alice had melon seeds stuck in her hair, but apparently those are not duncey enough to be awarded the shirt...

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