Rafting with our partner Oxygen Aventure

A rafting session with our partner Oxygen Aventure

We woke up early with my friend Yann for our rafting session, we had a coffee at the PMU in Saint Paul de Fenouillet and we hit the road towards Cavirac. There, in the Oxygène Aventure rafting base, we found Agathe. She was accompanied by a small family, a dad and his two daughters. This was our group for the morning. Agathe gave us our equipment; wetsuits, helmets and shoes, with a magnificent life jacket as a bonus. We all loaded the boat onto a trailer and settled into the van that was towing it. We hit the road to go back up the route that we would do later a little further down the river. When we arrived at the starting point, we unloaded the raft. It’s a big inflatable boat, in the middle there are two big tubes that hold everything together and on the ground there are things to put your feet on. Before putting it in the water, we organized the placement. Yann and I were at the front, the two girls behind us and at the end were the dad and Agathe at the end to maneuver the boat. Very good. Agathe gave us a briefing on the paddles and how to use them to be efficient. Above all, we had to be well coordinated in all the movements. She showed us how to position ourselves when she said “safety!” and what the main instructions she was going to give us would be. Sometimes only the right side would paddle, sometimes the right forward, the left backward, raise the paddles. It was better to be awake! A demonstration of how to get someone back on board the boat was given and then we got into the water.

The start of the descent was very wild, in the middle of the river, between the trees, in a magnificent gorge. The first small rapids got us into the swing of things. Agathe then explained to us that we were going to do a 360. Ha… To do that, you had to go straight ahead onto a rock, hit it head-on and with the current the boat would turn around. The first time, it was strange, you mustn’t stop paddling when the rock is very close, the idea seems crazy. But the effect is effective, the boat bounces on the rock, we tighten up all over to stay on board and after a complete turn we find ourselves in the right direction of the current. The captain knew what she was doing. It became calmer and it was an opportunity to practice fishing someone out of the water. To do that, you had to go into this cool liquid at this early hour. I was chosen, as an Ariégeois who wasn’t afraid of cold water, to start the exercise. It was cold but it was fun to play at fishing yourself out of the water. Yann and I laughed like children, trying to recreate scenes from Titanic. We continued on the river, calmer moments alternated with small rapids and 360s hitting rocks. Which is very funny but we wondered after a while. Why all these 360s? Was it because the captain was laughing while doing that? In fact, she explained to us that it was to prepare for the slightly bigger rapids at the end. That way we at least had the experience of the boat hitting the rocks and we wouldn’t be surprised. It made sense!

Between two trees stood out the mountains, the setting was superb, contemplative moments specific to nature lovers. Agathe told us a thousand things about the ecosystem of the river. A bird that flew low over the water in front of us was in fact a dipper that could dive into the river and walk underwater! The water was becoming cloudy because of the storms of the day before and a tributary that came from the Sault region, one of the watersheds of the Pyrenees. The Aude was going to flow into the Mediterranean and the Garonne into the Atlantic Ocean. We passed villages on the banks of the river with houses quietly wedged in lawns on the beach. The bridges of the old railway line passed over our heads. At times, it was like being in the Jungle Book. Yann wanted to see Bagueera but I told him he had a better chance of meeting Balou.

We stopped to take a little jump in the river, Agathe asked us if we wanted to make a "crêpe", we said yes. "Crêpe" is the act of turning the raft over. Of course it was intentional, we all had to be on one side of the boat and Agathe insisted on resisting and not jumping into the water before the boat turned over. Okay, okay, with Yann we sang "resist, prove that you exist" while waiting for the moment to come. "Everyone to the left" shouted Agathe and Yann threw himself on my knees but we barely had time to understand what was happening before we were in the water, holding the paddle as best we could, Yann's face in front of mine, we got our heads out of the water and we laughed. It happens quickly when a raft turns over! We did a "surf" session, trying to keep the raft facing a small waterfall, a very beautiful moment too, the water was spraying in all directions, we took it full in the face with Yann pushing on the paddles to keep everything going in big bursts of laughter. Real kids!

In the gorge, great climbing routes stood on sumptuous peaks, the sky was blue, the birds were chirping. We put our paddles on the side of the raft and looked with wide eyes at the mysteries of Mother Nature. Up there, huge vultures were flying in circles in the blue of the sky. Then Agathe told us that we were reaching the end of the course, in the slightly more serious rapids. In one of them, after touching the rock, we had to get into the "safety" position. The water was flowing in big bubbles, waves were forming between the rocks, we must not have taken the right path, Agathe shouted "Safety" and we found ourselves with Yann sitting side by side with the oar in the air saying "whoa fuck" when the raft took a nice descent between two rocks. I didn't remember all the names of the rapids but the last one I did; "the dessert". Agathe explains the procedure to us a little, we go, "left forward", "everyone forward, go!", we paddle like crazy but it bubbles and goes down, we feel like we're paddling in the void, then the boat takes off, turns, we paddle, a movement of water and there I am, nose in the water and foot hanging on the raft! Yann laughs and pulls me out of the water, the dad has fallen in the water too, immediately rescued by Agathe. It was the last rapid, we continue to slide on the river, in what could look like mangroves. We arrived at the base of Cavirac, we had to go back up the boat and it was all smiles that our little group enjoyed a mint in water around a table.