Kayaking - Val Sesia, Italy

In May we headed off on a three week trip in Europe. We got a van kitted out with a bed inside and storage underneath, packed everything including the kitchen sink then headed up to catch the ferry at Dover, we had it all planned we got the late ferry, we going to drive into the early hours of the morning and then take a nap. When we got to France we managed two hours driving before we decided to stop for a quick nap. At 8am we woke up after a good 8 hours sleep and decided we should get moving again. We decided before we left that we would drive through France to Switzerland and then head down though Switzerland to try and avoid most of the Toll Roads.

View Europe Trip in a larger map

This is the route we took

Me running the top drop of the Egua

We spent just under two weeks in the Val Sesia Region of Italy paddling with friends that arrived whilst we were staying there. We never had problems with finding people to paddle with and the campsite was full of other paddlers from around Europe. We eat a few times in the Campsite restaurant were they made really good Pizza's, we also found an ice cream shop in another local town that sold the best ice cream I've eaten!

Here are some more pics of our trip in Italy

Me on the Sorba Slides

Owen leading me down the Sorba Slides for the first time

The boys on the Egua

Andy on the top drop of Egua

After we finished paddling in Italy we headed up to the Soca in Slovenia. We arrived at Kamp Koren and went for a stroll up the river.

The next day we got up and headed up to paddle a grade three section, we parked up on the side of the road and had to walk down a lot of steep steps to get down to the river. The water was amazingly turquoise!

 

We finished paddling then went for a wander around Kobarid and got some shopping. As we we were eating out dinner it began to rain and then did so solidly for the next three days, the Soca went into flood and we didn't risk paddling a river we didn't know very well with just the two of us. When we checked the weather it was due to continue for a few more days so we decided to head onto Pattling in Germany.

 

Plattling is hole/ wave feature where they hold chamionship freestyle events. We stayed there for a few days before heading back to Boulogne and catching the ferry back to Devon and back to work.

My 22nd Birthday

It was my birthday on Sunday, so we ended up going out on Saturday night so i didn't have to work the next day (although i did go for a cycle along the canal with Andy, Steph & Owen and got cooked cooked a lovely roast dinner by Steph & Owen, cheers guys). Here's a few pics of what we got up to.

Alice, Tom and Sam

We started off at Andy, Tom & Lou's, then headed to Henry's bar. From there we went to Amber Rooms, then to John Gandys.

Me & Andy - and yes he always makes stupid faces for pictures!

Sam, Me, Andy, Steph and Owen, Louise was taking the photo - in rococos!

We ended up going to Rococo's - think we were the youngest in there, but the music was cheesy and i dragged the girls off for a dance, while the guys chatted then later joined us.

Andy & Lou - a bit of shoe swapping for the way home

Cheers to everyone that came out and made my birthday so much fun

Not much happening in the world of Jem

Hey, soz theres been no new post for a little while. Not really been up to anything exciting recently, just been working hard (ish)! spending time with Andy and catching up with my mates.

It is my birthday this month though so that should be a good laugh, I'll keep u informed of my birthday activities, not sure exactly what I'm doing at the mo.

Also I'm going on holiday next month which obviously I'm looking forward to. Although its only a week its still gonna be nice to get away for a bit. Me and Andy are looking at heading out to the Canary Islands for a nice chilled relaxing holiday in the warm. I can't wait!

Hope ur all well and will keep u updated.

Flower Pots Rodeo

This post took a while but did it in the end!!

Although at first it was meant to be a Boater X due to high water levels it was turned in to the first ever Flower Pots Rodeo!

There was around 25 competitors mainly guys, with only two ladies - me and Sian!

It was very cold, dark and pretty miserable really, but everyone gave it there all and had a laugh. It was my first time ever in pots and i was advised to try and stay to the right avoiding the pit. This was going ok, until i surfed straight into it. doh! (not nice! i got stuck for a bit then got washed out, i would recommend it though).

The winner of the rodeo being Sam Anderson (no surprise there then!)

Sunday Walk

Last Sunday fancied going for a nice walk so took the fattest dog (she could do with some exercise) up to the Avon Dam and whilst we where there of course had to check out the river as well.

little fat Dog (Sophie)

The dam had quite abit of water coming over it

A rather rocky kinda slide

As u can see some areas of the river were still a little rocky and there was a lot of low trees

Nice little pool drop