Piemonte tales

River: Egua. Paddler: Nikos Mavris. Photo: D.Konstantinidis

From 4 to 9 of May 2003, Pavlos, Dimitris and Nikos, joined an advanced whitewater trip in Piemonte Italy, organised by Gene 17 kayaking. Instructor Simon Westgarth, and "Big Dave Caroll" introduced us to some "new school" attitudes and some wonderful plates of italian salami!

We stayed at Campertogno, by the river Sesia, where there is a camping place and a WW activities base (EddyLine).

During school time we managed to scare ourselves, paddling some hairy stuff and boofing another 6m drop every day (...or every other day), in Sesia, Sermenza, Mastellone, Egua and Gronda rivers. Fortunately Big Dave was running the rapids first, just to make sure that it could be done.

We greatly welcome the school's flexible timetable that left plenty of free time to relax and enjoy this special vacation. The presence of many rivers in less than 30km distance from our base camp, along with their easy access, minimize the logistics time in such levels that it was unbelievable.

Imagine: Breakfast at 9, leaving base around 11 to be at the put in at 11.30. Paddling a 6km stretch in 3 to 4 hours and back to the camp around 5. In the afternoon we were watching paddling videos at EddyLine kayak school base ristorante, or having pizza zola at camp's pizzeria.

Watching first class paddlers, running rapids we'd normally portage back home and having the opportunity to run some of them, was a thrilling procedure. We all reached a little further, closer to our ability limits and we all know, that won't be the last of it!

Stay around. Soon there 'll be an extencive report on these rivers. For now, you can visit the Val Sessia trip photo gallery.

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