Kayaking the Dourbie River in France

We are Phil and Izzy, aka as The Gap Decaders.  A year ago, we were fed up with the rat race and never having enough time to follow our try passions of adventure and the great outdoors, we sold our house, packed in our jobs and bought a motorhome.  We now travel Europe full-time, wild camping and seeking out adventure.

In August last year, we kayaked a section of the Dourbie River, which runs through the Aveyron department in France.  It was our first time out with a new inflatable two-man kayak; Phil is an experienced kayaker, me less so but I am always up for a challenge.  We wild camped about 22km upstream from Millau at Le Boffi Rocher, where there are fantastic limestone rock formations, and after inflating the kayak and familiarising ourselves with what goes where, we launched at 7 am, with our breakfast in a waterproof bag!

The Dourbie in August was flowing well although not that high, with class I and II rapids and some great deep swimming and diving pools and lots of river beaches.  We had an awesome paddle and saw lots of kingfishers and herons along the way.  The river was quiet as it was so early...we stopped for breakfast and had a swim, spending some time jumping off a riverside rock into a deep clear pool.  We enjoyed the sun starting to peak up behind the high rock formations of the Gorge de la Dourbie.  We knew it was time to move on though before the rental canoes would start clogging up the water.

The river could obviously sense we were feeling a bit cocky; we entered a class II rapid shortly after breakfast, judged it badly and ended up capsizing after an encounter with a large rock sideways on!  Phil got caught in an undercut, pushed up against the rock whilst I followed (no choice really!) the kayak and oars down the river.  Phil managed to extricate himself and we caught the kayak and oars and after getting our breath, continued paddling. It was a shock though and an important lesson in respecting the elements and the power of the river.

When you get it right, work as a team and direct the kayak into the rapid, the feeling of riding along on top of the white water is amazing.  We kayaked the same stretch twice more before moving on from Millau, and despite some trepidation about another dunking, we got the rapid right on both occasions and had that moment of pure exhilaration and adrenalin that drives our need for adventure.

To find out more about Phil and Izzy's adventures visit their website: www.thegapdecaders.com