FRANCE EXPEDITION
JUNE 2005

DAY 5: GUIL
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  The Upper Guil  
     
   
     
   
     
   
     
   
     
   
     
   
     
   
     
   
     
   
     
  The letter box to the dam  
 
As the tail end of the group waited in our boats to launch, news came of a swimmer in the first section. I followed instructions and came around the first blind corner to see a strainer in the middle of the river which had caught a swimming Baz, chase boating Bertie and Paul, but had spat them all out apart from Paul's paddle. Boats and paddlers strewn all over the banks, I grabbed an eddy quickly as signalled.

  
   
  Photo above shows Bestie, on a safety line held by Bertie in the background, retrieving Paul's paddle from the strainer. Only one blade now attached.

  
   
     
   
  After a few more rapids the river becomes noticeably bigger and faster, large grade 3 rapids get much harder and push up to 4+. Pulsing eddies (a sign of flooding) and another swimmer lead us to abandon the river and evacuate out of the gorge. The river was now brown and we later learnt that a grade 4 rapid higher up the river, the staircase, had been swept away that day.