France'99 - Day 6 (Monday, Aug 23)

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Today's activity is canyoning. There are two days of this on the schedule, and we're still undecided whether to swap the second day for a day of mountain biking instead. At the end of the day it's pretty much unanimous - we want to go canyoning again. The fact that a mere three weeks prior the radio reported the deaths of 20-odd Australians and New Zealanders while canyoning in Switzerland does nothing to dispell our enthusiasm. Canyoning is one of the most beautiful activities I've ever done. All day long, you're active, you're in absolutely mindblowing surroundings, there's plenty of team work and personal challenges to overcome, in a word, it was fantastic.

We start by driving the van up a windy path, and getting into our gear, which consist of a full body wetsuit, a climbing harness for abseiling down the waterfalls, a special set of clips, a skirting of sorts to protect the material, a lifevest, and a helmet. The wetsuit is absolutely essential - we're going to be fully submerged in the mountain stream many times before the day's end, and it's not one of those specially heated streams you see on tv.

Ok, for those who are wondering - the term "canyoning" refers to the process of descending a canyon. Sounds simple enough, until you add the inevitable stream running through it, and a lot of sheer drops with enormous cliffs on either side. With the aid of the abseiling gear, these are overcomable, of course. Occasionally, we'd get to a waterfall, and the Jan-Willem would simply stop and wait for the team to catch up, instead of securing the ropes. These were the drops (of usually considerable height) where it was safe to jump. Again, although you know it's safe, it's a different story actually convincing yourself of this. One particular drop that springs to mind was of a lesser height (only 2-3 meters or so), but with a rock wall so close to it that you couldn't really jump - just step off the ledge. And as soon as you hit the water, the full force of the waterfall hits your helmet and tries to drag you under. Luckily the lifevest pulls you up pretty much straight away.

At the end of the day we arrive back at the car park, where the van is already waiting for us. We all get out of our wet gear, and let the sun warm us up a bit before heading off back to the camp. A most succesful day.