Tarn-ation brilliance
How I would love to be able to produce such epic blogs as Mals recent epic pirate adventures, but Im not in the same wordsmith or imagesmith league.
However as a lot of the value, information and enjoyment of SOTP comes from the blogs, and the above timely reminder to get my act together, here are some thoughts and ramblings on the first part of our recent(ish) trip to France. Our consisting of Mayobren (Bren), Ictaun (Martin) and Cankay (Jon).
This trip had its origins with the somewhat premature ending to a third of our trios Tiber adventures last year. The suggestion was another international trip, but not to redo the Tiber. For the other two thirds the Tiber was a wonderful life affirming trip, and to do it again so soon also felt like a vain attempt to recreate something made even more special by its uniqueness. The suggestion then, was France, for a two part trip, 3 or 4 days on the Tarn, followed by 3 or four days at the on Drome at the Open Canoe Festival.
This blog covers the Tarn days.
Although we had some idea on what were about, we also recognised pretty early on that none of us speak French, know the lay of the land, or more importantly the water, and as we kinda figured we wanted to paddle and have a relaxing-ish holiday, what we really needed was a local expert.
Enter stage left MarkL, of www.canoemassifcentral.com fame.
We initially pinged Mark with a few questions to which he helpfully furbished appropriate answers, and over a few messages we kinda asked him to be our guide/support, specifically to select best bits to paddle, campsite bookings, cater and assist in shuttles. An agreeable rate was quickly sorted, and a whole lot less hassle removed - for us anyway.
This blog, therefore comes with many thanks to Mark and Louise for their support!.
The Tarn is quite a long drive, so we arranged to have the three of us on my vehicles insurance so we can have one driver, one rester, and one position, that for one specific member of our wee group came to be known as the Nagrevator role.
The plan was to drive to Dover, smooth crossing to Calais, arrive midnight-ish and a rotated drive through the night to get us to campsite on or before 4:07pm. Not quite sure what time we arrived, but thanks mostly to an earlier ferry we made it on time to meet Mark, and fellow brits Steve and Alistair suitably encamped.
The rest of that first day was about pitching tents, settling in & catching up, eating, drinking, relaxing and enjoying the views. Its a kinda awesome feeling when you know youve arrived, nothing to do but enjoy and look up to the stunning gorge, and down to the crystal clear tarn a few feet away, knowing very well that there are three great days of paddling ahead.
At this point Im hoping one of my more learned colleagues can actually document where we went each day, as I confess Ive no real idea - I know the first two days were up river sections, with the second one finishing back at the campsite. The third one started at the campsite and header down river. Actually we enjoyed the third day so much, we did it again on the fourth day too before the drive to the OCF.
You may be wondering ok so where are the photos?
The answer is
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...g1cEZhVmoyU2ZR
And
https://www.flickr.com/photos/156222515@N07/sets/72157680042895988/
The first are from Martin and I, the second link is Brens.
Whatever words I came up with would not really do justice to either the simple natural beauty we enjoyed or the fun that we had each day. Id like to think that if peeps do have questions like whats the Tarn like, then the photos will do more to provide a full and complete answer than I ever could.
That said, I/we will certainly endeavour to answer any relevant questions should peeps have any.
Its also possible I or my fellow paddlers may well add more content herein too, maybe some details on what we did each day with some specifc captioned photos, but suffice for now to say we had a brilliant time, thoroughly recommend the experience and thanks again for Mark for taking so much of the stress and organisation of our shoulders so we were free to appreciate everything the days had to offer us.
Ta for readin'
However as a lot of the value, information and enjoyment of SOTP comes from the blogs, and the above timely reminder to get my act together, here are some thoughts and ramblings on the first part of our recent(ish) trip to France. Our consisting of Mayobren (Bren), Ictaun (Martin) and Cankay (Jon).
This trip had its origins with the somewhat premature ending to a third of our trios Tiber adventures last year. The suggestion was another international trip, but not to redo the Tiber. For the other two thirds the Tiber was a wonderful life affirming trip, and to do it again so soon also felt like a vain attempt to recreate something made even more special by its uniqueness. The suggestion then, was France, for a two part trip, 3 or 4 days on the Tarn, followed by 3 or four days at the on Drome at the Open Canoe Festival.
This blog covers the Tarn days.
Although we had some idea on what were about, we also recognised pretty early on that none of us speak French, know the lay of the land, or more importantly the water, and as we kinda figured we wanted to paddle and have a relaxing-ish holiday, what we really needed was a local expert.
Enter stage left MarkL, of www.canoemassifcentral.com fame.
We initially pinged Mark with a few questions to which he helpfully furbished appropriate answers, and over a few messages we kinda asked him to be our guide/support, specifically to select best bits to paddle, campsite bookings, cater and assist in shuttles. An agreeable rate was quickly sorted, and a whole lot less hassle removed - for us anyway.
This blog, therefore comes with many thanks to Mark and Louise for their support!.
The Tarn is quite a long drive, so we arranged to have the three of us on my vehicles insurance so we can have one driver, one rester, and one position, that for one specific member of our wee group came to be known as the Nagrevator role.
The plan was to drive to Dover, smooth crossing to Calais, arrive midnight-ish and a rotated drive through the night to get us to campsite on or before 4:07pm. Not quite sure what time we arrived, but thanks mostly to an earlier ferry we made it on time to meet Mark, and fellow brits Steve and Alistair suitably encamped.
The rest of that first day was about pitching tents, settling in & catching up, eating, drinking, relaxing and enjoying the views. Its a kinda awesome feeling when you know youve arrived, nothing to do but enjoy and look up to the stunning gorge, and down to the crystal clear tarn a few feet away, knowing very well that there are three great days of paddling ahead.
At this point Im hoping one of my more learned colleagues can actually document where we went each day, as I confess Ive no real idea - I know the first two days were up river sections, with the second one finishing back at the campsite. The third one started at the campsite and header down river. Actually we enjoyed the third day so much, we did it again on the fourth day too before the drive to the OCF.
You may be wondering ok so where are the photos?
The answer is
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1Q...g1cEZhVmoyU2ZR
And
https://www.flickr.com/photos/156222515@N07/sets/72157680042895988/
The first are from Martin and I, the second link is Brens.
Whatever words I came up with would not really do justice to either the simple natural beauty we enjoyed or the fun that we had each day. Id like to think that if peeps do have questions like whats the Tarn like, then the photos will do more to provide a full and complete answer than I ever could.
That said, I/we will certainly endeavour to answer any relevant questions should peeps have any.
Its also possible I or my fellow paddlers may well add more content herein too, maybe some details on what we did each day with some specifc captioned photos, but suffice for now to say we had a brilliant time, thoroughly recommend the experience and thanks again for Mark for taking so much of the stress and organisation of our shoulders so we were free to appreciate everything the days had to offer us.
Ta for readin'