(Probably not, but I can dream)...or would anyone be interested in a European Armada in Switzerland? My club here has a hut on the Simme in the Bernese Oberland....I was out paddling though and having fun in Cboats. Travelled with a group from the Kanu Klub Spiez to the Vorderrhein in the Graubunden part of Switzerland. It's known as one of the few big water rivers in Switzerland, is the home of the Kanuschule Versam (paddling school) and runs through the Grand Canyon of Switzerland (very pretty!). Unfortunately, it's also been rather cold this year and Pfingsten (which is essentially a religious holiday and timed based on when Easter happens) was early, so big water it was not.
Saturday the posse headed downstream from Ilanz to Versam, with me trucking along and having a ball in the Groove. Tons of fun, even without the normal big surfing waves. The run is class II-III most of the way down and unlike any of the other rivers I've paddled here in Switzerland actually has some flatwater sections. At Versam we stopped for some hot grub (it was cold and overcast) and picked up two who had decided to pass on the upper section. I swapped from the Groove into a tandem Mad River Rampage so I could paddle down with Jo. She's still recovering from a knee injury skiing over Easter and wasn't sure she could weight both knees properly, so we decided tandem was the plan so she could atleast get out and paddle a bit.
The run from Versam to Trin is class II, but has ever better scenery and is definitely worthwhile. We took out and portaged up to the railway station for our return shuttle - on the train! Boats and all! Certainly saves on time and gas trucking up and down some truly interesting Swiss roads.
Sunday we went back to the same run since nothing else in the area was running (when it's cold, the snow doesn't melt so the rivers don't flow). Having scouted the run the day before I decided it'd be fine to take the Acrobat down (mastercut). I was somewhat dismayed when I got to the river to put on and discovered the level was a foot lower than the day before (and I kid you not). Much of the flow passes through a power station upstream and on Sunday they don't need to generate, so not only do they not run water through the turbines, but they apparently use surplus atomic energy (from atomic stations throughout Europe) to pump water back upstream (and then use it to generate during peak times when they can sell the power at a premium)
Anyway, I decided that I'd rather paddle the Acrobat than swap to a kayak and it turned out OK. Shallow it places, but with care i could avoid the rocks. Of course I hit a few when squirting around, but that's not unexpected. Again at Versam I swapped to the tandem with Jo and this time another couple also took a tandem down - yeahaa! Some cboating company. We paddled a bit further down to Reichenau Sunday, which is where you have to take out as there's another big dam. More easy water, but still fun and another train shuttle back up river. You can actually buy a day card for the train and run the section multiple times if you want to, but it's a good length run so doing it just once is also fine.
So, on the positive a new place, a new river, good times paddling (and finally full days on the river instead of the normal 1-2 hours for most runs here) and some new friends. On the negative, not the Armada, so no huge group of c-boaters, and discovering two spots on the bow edges of the Acrobat I need to repair (only one definitively from this weekend - the other may be residual from transporting it here), having just finished repairing the stern edges last week. Douh! Maybe I'm just not meant to own glass
Monday was also a holiday, but we woke up to rain, and with no new river prospects to paddle we all decided to call it quits and come on home.
If anyone is going to be in this part of the world, look me up.
Cheers
Matt