Verdon River Gorge

It was raining, raining hard when we got up, we went to the grocery store, and it was getting a little better, I visited 3 bakeries, looking for the best bread, we found antibiotics from another student for Katelynn who was very sick, then we took off for our hike.  By the time we got there it had stopped raining and we hiked up the ridge, it was 3 km, then some of us hiked up a little further.  It was a humid and steep hike, but a good view.  

  On our way there we stopped in La Palud at the bakery that sold the famous almond croissants, I cried again to be there, a couple of us stopped at the climbing shop and asked, “can we climb today?” she said, sure, when the roads are dry, the wall will be dry.  I wanted to stay there in La Palud, Paul, who wants me to climb, said, we had to make up our minds, which place to go, and of course, I could not climb because I had a van full of people to drive to the hike, so I took a bite of the croissant so I wouldn’t cry anymore, and we headed off.  

The drive does not seem so bad anymore, I am used to the curves. After the hike, around 3:00, everyone wanted to go down to the lake, and so at 3:30, we told them, back at 5:30.  Some of them swam, others dove off the rocks, greatly entertaining the other tourists, some of them rented paddle boats to go up the gorge, and Paul and I and Prisc rented a canoe, a plastic canoe and paddled up the gorge, while he told stories about kayaking in the northwest and building kayaks.

It was still not raining, even a little sun, I thought maybe there is a chance, so I suggested we go back up to the famous circuit drive above the gorge and everyone take pictures (I had not been on the drive yet, nor had two van loads of students), Paul wanted to go to, drive up to Belvedere Carrell, and throw the ropes off, like I had dreamed of doing for so many years.  So we drove back through La Palud, I bought a baguette and goat cheese for each van, and started down the road.

And it happened, some kind French climbers showed us where the rappel was, and the climb, and while everyone watched from the railing, I tied the 62 meter tag line to the rope, threw it off the cliff, and rappelled to the bottom, followed by Prisc, Tyler stayed up on top.  Then, moment of truth we pulled the ropes, and I climbed in the gorge of the Verdon, a long beautiful climb to the top in the evening.  As the sun went down, I cleaned the climb, then we lowered Tyler down, gave him my shoes, and he was able to do the climb. It was a happy moment for me. The 7 or 8 students who stayed to the end in my van were happy as could be too, singing along to their music as we drove home in the dark.

Castellane and the Verdon River Gorge