Tarn trip April 2010

Trip to the Tarn April 2010

When my husband announced that we would be going paddling for 3 days with a group of his friends from the UK (we live in the South of France), I hesitantly agreed. It’s not that I dislike paddling, or his friends for that matter ‘au contraire’, it is the bivying and camping that concerns me the most. Whilst the odd night or two in a hammok or tent down here in July is bearable, indeed sometimes enjoyable, I wasn’t overly keen on the idea of 3 nights, in the Tarn at Easter. I really need not have worried.

Despite living in France for 5 years I had barely even heard of the river Tarn, let alone visited it; and was quite surprised to learn that it is only a 2 hour drive from the bottom of the Ardéche, where we live.

The others had been in the Tarn for about 10 days already, and were based in a fantastic stone building (with more in common with a castle than a Gîte), 500m from the access point onto the river, in the stunning village of St Chély du Tarn. No need for tents, as we had spacious bedrooms, bathrooms, a kitchen and an open fire.

We arrived on the Sunday night, so after a civilised breakfast on the Monday, it was time to get on the river. Day one for us, consisted of a 14km paddle from St Chély du Tarn, down to just above a rapid called Pas de Soucy. As we were already at the river, the shuttle simply involved dropping a 7-seater vehicle and boat trailer at the egress point, and a lift back up.

The access point in St Chély really is quite something to behold. It is immediately below the huge, arched, stone bridge that crosses the river Tarn, and just up-stream of the waterfall that flows from the village out into the river. After this very picturesque beginning, the river just gets prettier and prettier. It looks quite similar to the Ardéche gorge in many respects, not least because it is a limestone gorge, but is also very different. It feels fundamentally wilder than the Ardéche, with its thick coniferous forrests, griffon and black vultures. Yes, I did say vultures.

The 14 km flew by in a blur of beautiful stone villages, friendly class 1 / 2 rapids and wildlife (including 2 donkeys). There was also a weir to be shot about 4km above the egress point. I’m really not a fan of weirs, especially ones without canoe shutes but this was fine. It was easiest river left, but is probably worth a look before running.

After getting off the river, we drove a further km or so down the Gorge to take a look at the famous ‘Pas de Soucy’ rapid. This is essentially the site of a huge rock fall into the river, creating a very impressive rapid to look at, and almost certain death for anyone attempting to paddle it. As ‘Pas de Soucy’ literally translates as ‘no worries’, I can only assume that this is a French attempt at irony. It is definitely worth going to look at, if only to play the ‘I-can-see-the-line-through game’, but to me it looks just like death-by-syphon.

That evening, we ate out in the little restaurant in St Chély. Foie gras, Porc medallion in mustard sauce, cheese and pud. All for about 25€ each. Definitely my sort of paddling trip!

Day 2 we paddled down from Montbrun to St Chély. I found this section to be even prettier than the previous day, if that is possible. Again it was about a 14 km section with lots of friendly rapids, a few of them reasonably big and bouncy. Just before lunch we stopped to explore a cave on river left, that had a stream running out of it. After a bit of a climb up into it (and a fair amount of pushing and pulling by Blue, Reg and Steve – thanks boys), it opened up into a chamber with a sump. We got pretty wet, but the weather was warm and it was well worth it.

Immediately below the cave was the second very low submersible bridge of the day. The first we had to portage; the second we just about all scraped under, but it’s worth checking first as you really wouldn’t want to get wedged.

Lunch was definitely a highlight of the day for me (the location, not the food). We stopped on a beach just across the river and below the village of Castelbouc, with it’s ruined church perched higher up the side of the gorge. Absolutely beautiful.

There were 2 weirs on this section to be dealt with. The first, a rather nasty semi-circular weir, was a definite portage river right. The second, at the village of Saint Enimie, had 3 options. There is a canoe shute river left, but due to strainers and fallen trees was arguably more hazardous than the weir itself. There was the weir (have I mentioned that I don’t like weirs), and there was a very short, easy portage river left between the shute and the weir. 2 canoes took the shute, 1 ran the weir and 2 portaged, and noone fell in. Directly after the weir on river right is an ideal spot to pull over, and go and buy hideously overpriced yet very yummy ice creams from the cafés in the village.

After the ice cream break, it was just a quick 4 km back to St Chély. It was lovely being able to get off the river and walk 500m back to the Gîte for showers and beers.

On our final day, we paddled the upper section; 18km from Pont du Tarn to Montbrun. Whilst marginly less scenic than the previous 2 days, what this section lacked in scenery, it made up for in rapids. Right from the start the rapids were bigger (although still sympathetic) and maintained reasonable class 2 with one debatable 3? two-thirds of the way down. The final 5km or so was fairly flat, so would probably be a bit of a slog in a kayak. Although the weather turned for the worse and got a bit cold and windy, my husband and I both agreed that this was our favorite section so far.

So, in summary, a great class 2 river in a stunning gorge. Particularly suited to open boats, but in our group we had 15 and 16ft prospectors, a 12ft ottowa as well as a really short prelude and a spud. Something for everyone really. It is also worth mentioning that in 3 days on the river, the only other people we saw were 3 fishermen. Apparently the river gets much busier in the summer, as you would expect, and the river trickles away to next to nothing, so early season is the time to go. The entire area seems to be almost exclusively Gîtes, so finding accomodation should not be a problem. We stayed in a Gîte called ‘le Pigeonnier’ in the village St Chély du Tarn, although if you are searching for it online (www.gites-de-france.com) it is listed as being in Saint Enimie (the nearest town).

If you don’t want to lug boats all the way down, there is a plethora of boat hire companies up and down the gorge who will rent you sit-on-tops and organise your transport. If you prefer proper open boats and kit, try Tony (my husband) and Chris at LTAdventure (www.ltadventure.com). The nearest airport is Montpellier (about 2 hours away by car), and you can get excelent deals on flights with ryanair.

I must say a huge thank you to Mark and Heather for organising the trip and inviting us, and especially to Heather for organising the Gîte. We had a great time, and are trying to sort out a return trip in the near future.

Caroline Pape