1. On Friday evening I was supposed to be going out to meet friends for drinks after getting my hair cut. Haircut reasonably successful and completed early, I went home and lay down for a short nap… and woke up 9 hours later, still wearing my clothes.

That’s it. My Nana-dom is official.

2. Tim and I went canyoning again yesterday morning, and this time I took my diving camera so there is even photographic evidence of how intrepid/bedraggled/ill-equipped we both were…

Thus I am not a Nana, after all.

Above: Tim, just leaving the carpark at the start of the 2 hour hike to the entry point…

A potential entry point – you abseil off the tree down into the hole on the right…

Yours truly, in full swing. Note, if you will, the left-handed abseiling… tricky, cos I’m right-handed, but unavoidable because the anchor point at the beginning of the abseil, about 25 feet above the gap you can see at the top of the photo, is rather awkwardly positioned.

I love to be in the water.

Breathtaking views. And no people ‘cept us.

Enormous trees formed log jams at various points along the river. Thrown about like toothpicks by the mountain storms.

Looking like the wreck of the Hesperus, but enjoying myself thoroughly.

Magical grottoes where the sunlight penetrated the canyon. And given even more of an ‘other-worldly’ quality by the water drops on the camera lens.

“Come on in, the water’s lovely!”

Tiny Tim. The canyon walls sometimes looked as though they were leaning in to have a closer look at us.

This one is especially for healingmagichands, who I know adores rocks in all their natural splendour.

This is how rumours of yetis start…

Rather a lot of fun scrambling over rocks and logs.

Something in the water makes it very yellow, although mostly extremely clear.

Nearing the end of the canyon section.

Tim basks to warm up, lizard-like, before we start the 2 hour hike back uphill to the car.

3. When we arrived back in Sydney we picked up Tim’s heavily pregnant partner and a bag full of nappies and headed over to the local hospital where one of our mutual friends has just had her baby. Mother and child are well – he’s 4 weeks premature and a wee bit jaundiced but doesn’t need an incubator and is feeding and sleeping fine. She’s wiped out – she lost 2 1/2 litres of blood and was anaemic to begin with – but relieved and delighted to have a healthy son after all those weeks of worry.*

Anyway, as soon as I picked him up all my dormant nannying** instincts kicked back in. Broody? Hell, yes.

Well, at least until I remember how much more difficult doing things like canyoning, kayaking and diving are when you have small children to look after.

* This is the friend with whom I had to dash to hospital 8 weeks ago, after she began bleeding at work, and who has been pretty much hospitalised and on bed-rest since then.

** I worked as a Nanny on and off for about 10 years, through University and my first years in London, and then again about 4 years ago when I quit my stressful charity-sector job. I would probably still be a Nanny if it paid decently. Which it doesn’t.

Bled, Slovenia – July 26th, 2009.

Up pretty early by my standards, we leave at 9 for Canyoning, and I grab some breakfast – big tub of yoghurt – and wait for the girls at their hostel. They seem to have had a pretty big night after I left – with some picking up slovenian men and going for a midnight dip in the lake. Georgie is still drunk and does a ‘Ashley’ jig from Cesky.

Doing the 'Ashley' Jig.

We hop in the car, and head out of town.  Before being called back as someone was left behind. We go to our guides crib and pick up our equipment which consisted of running shoes, booties, wetsuits and helmets. Piling into the car, we get driven out into the hills of the surrounding mountains, and end up between Bohinj and Bled at a canyon site.

We are told to put ALL of our stuff in the wetsuit and place them on like a backpack – see pic for details. And hike up about 20 minutes to the top of the canyon. Where our guide tells everyone to immediatly go to the toilet, as not to piss our wetties. Its a bit of a struggle getting on the wetsuits for most people but before you know it, the guides giving us all the info we need before setting off down the river.

Our wettie backpacks.

We climbed down into the canyon and were told to sit on the edge of this little pool – where the guide immediatly splashed us with ice cold water. Which was a good idea as we were just about to do our first dive into icy cold water.

The next few hours were spent traversing, sliding, jumping and climbing through a picturesqe canyon in Slovenia. And I must admit it was one of the most funnest activities I have done. Certainly an awesome experience. And plan to do it again, but at a higher degree of difficulty.

The gangs all here. After our canyoning trip.

We go back to the hostel, where we cook up some yummy omelletes before I say goodbye to the girls and head off to the train station to go to Ljubljana and then a train to Zagreb. Before getting on a night train to Zadar.

This would have to be one of the worst, but certainly one of the memorable train rides I have taken. The first train to Zagreb was fine – it was an Austrian train so it was modern and up to date. However, at Zagreb – where I got a quick snap – and a feed. Before getting onto the next train.

The train to Zadar was an old fashion rattler, it had compartments and I’d managed to score one by myself for a while, til some friendly Germans joined myself in the carriage with an iPod dock and speakers. Thinking I’m gonna have a pretty good trip, the ticket conductor gets on board and tells me I have to go to a different carriage as this one will be seperated and going to Split, where as I’m going to Zadar.

Zagreb Station....not much going here.

So I head to the rear carriages as told, and I have a look at all the compartments. There is one with room – an old lady, a dog and a daughter (I presume) – and ask them if I can take a seat. Only to be rudely told “Seats taken” in a forrest gump kind of stupor. Fair enough. So I dump my back in the aisle and watch as the country side goes by in darkness with a twinkly of light.

I go to get comfy leaning up against my bag in the aisle, before the friendly Austrian girl who caught the train with me from Ljubljana comes up to me and says she has a spot for me in her compartment. Sweet.

The compartment is rather small, cramped and has 4 people. We all sort of spread out, and weave around each other as best as possible whilst trying to sleep. It was basically human tetris.

Its not long til we’re all drifting off to the rattle of the train carriage.

Το microcanyoning είναι όρος που έβγαλα για να καλύψω αυτή τη δραστηριότητα.  (Περισσότερα εδώ.)

Έκανα την πρώτη δοκιμή με πραγματικά παιδιά χθες με απόλυτη επιτυχία.  Παρά το γεγονός ότι μέχρι να πάμε ήταν σχεδόν σκοτάδι, το διασκεδάσαμε όλοι πολύ.  Η συγκεκριμένη διαδρομή είναι 3.39 χιλιόμετρα, αρχίζοντας από το κλασσικό και πανέμορφο μονοπάτι από το Δασικό Χωριό προς Μικροσπηλιά αλλά γυρνώντας μέσα από το ρέμα που άνοιξα ειδικά για αυτόν τον σκοπό.

Αναλυτικά σε υπόβαθρο Google Maps και με λεπτομέρειες πορείας, εδώ http://sportypal.com/Workouts/Details/94416

Πατήστε στην εικόνα για λεπτομέρειες

Όπως βλέπετε και από την υψομετρική καμπύλη, είναι ιδανική διαδρομή, αρχίζοντας με κατήφορο, ισιάδα και μετά την ανηφόρα.  Ξεκινάει έξω από το εστιατόριο (κατευθείαν μετά το πρωϊνό!) και καταλήγει στην κεντρική είσοδο του δασικού χωριού.

Ο χρόνος που βλέπετε στο SportyPal των δυο ωρών είναι επειδή τα παιδιά που με συνόδεψαν ήταν ηλικίας 1.5, 4, και 5.5 ετών και το πήγαμε αργά αργά!

Voor de durvers onder jullie biedt Spanje heel wat mogelijkheden: zo is er onder meer ‘Barranquismo’ of ‘canyoning’. Het komt erop neer dat je in neoprenen pak een rivier afdaalt inclusief steile hellingen en watervallen. ‘Kleine’ niveauverschillen onder de 8 meter kan je soms al springend overbruggen enkel en alleen je zekerheid hebt over de diepte van de kleine meertjes onder jou. Het meest van de tijd, wandel of waad je door de rivier. Soms dien je te abseilen steeds gezekerd door een monitor. Het mooie van deze sport is dat het een combinatie is van wandelen, rotsklimmen en speleologie en vooral dat je je temidden van de natuur bevindt, weg van de platgetreden paden met als enig geluid de rivier.

Ben je geïnterresseerd om eens deel te nemen aan een canyoninguitstap of wens je een cursus te volgen, bel dan naar (0034)666-821796. 

1) Canyoning Chli Schliere,

2) Canyoning

3) Interlaken the best place to be

So nun habe ich etwas Zeit um meinen  “Korsika-Gumpenführer” zu bloggen. Ich fange an mit den Gumpen im Solenzaratal. Alle Fotos stammen aus meiner Casio Exilim Z600 und sind dieses Jahr auf der  Insel der Schönheit entstanden. Die kleineren Fotos sind durch anklicken vergrößerbar.

Das Solenzaratal ist sehr Licht durchflutet und im Tal selbst sind 2 Campingplätze vorhanden, man zeltet fast direkt am Fluss. Das Wasser ist nicht kalt,das ist von Vorteil bei einem morgendlichen Bad kurz nach dem Aufstehen. Alleine ist man dort  im August leider nur kurzzeitig, den der Fluss ist so etwas wie die Canyoning Hochburg Korsikas.

Weiter geht es mit wohl dem kältesten Gumpen ganz Korsikas und zwar dem: Criviscia. Man bekommt für seine  mutigen Badeversuche einen Applaus von den restlichen Touristen. Die Sonne zeigt sich im Flussbett nur wenige Stunden am Tag.

Im Landesinneren bei Corte gibt es gleich zwei sehr sehr schöne Flusstäler. Ich fange an mit dem Restonicatal und seinen Gumpen.

Und das zweite Tal bei Corte ist das Tavignano-Tal und seine Gumpen.

Nun komme ich zum wohl wärmsten Fluss auf Korsika und dies ist sicherlich der Fango. Im Fluss selbst findet man immer wieder diesen rötlichen Fels.

Zuletzt noch ein Schmankerl vom Cap Corse, diesen Bach oder Fluss hatte ich bis dato nicht besucht umso mehr hat mich das Entdecken überrascht. Der Abstieg war mühsam und beinhaltet sicherlich einen Höhenunterschied von 100m, dies von der Straße bis runter zum Bach. Den Namen des Baches weiß ich leider nicht, nur den Namen der nächst gelegenen Ortschaft: Ogliastro. Was noch zu erwähnen wäre ist – man ist dort auch im August alleine und ungestört!

Viel Spaß beim stöbern und Fotos anschauen!

(c)Kai Peter Jasny

Galerie aller Fotos:

Um dia de Canyoning com a VivExperiência! O tempo mantém-se quente apesar de já terem começado a  cair as primeiras chuvas que voltam a  trazer bons caudais aos rios que estavam a necessitar de um pouco mais de  água para fazer aumentar a adrenalina de uma das mais apaixonantes actividades ao ar livre.

Desfruta da aventura, liberta-te e vive esta eXperiência…

The hostel room hates the 4:30 am guy. In fact, I send myself negative vibes at this ungodly hour. But I start early to join Cheyne and Nathan in Iwa Valley for two days of fun. If this trip is about gaining understanding while engaging the world, the two adventure-craving Jehovah’s Witnesses play a surprising role.

At the hostel, I overhear Anna and Christina renting bicycles. I join the two friendly Spanish girls. Once outside, we join Californians Cheyne and Nathan, also grabbing bikes. We ride carefree. Our wild impromptu bike gang owns the streets of magnificent Kyoto. We explore temples, gardens, markets and a castle. We eat huge ridiculously tasty grapes. Cheyne and Nathan invite me to join them canyoning and rafting a couple days later.

“The technical definition of canyoning,” guide Steve tells us, “is beginning at one point and ending at another.” This clears things up. Mulleted Steve directs us to jump in to get used to the cold. Preempting “cold water shock” is akin to tackling drills before football games. Accustomize to prepare for critical moments.

Allow a young man the indulgence of a reminiscence. For Pop Warner football games, my dad used to help me prepare with bananas and fried dough. With his culinary precision, I battled across the magical 80 pound threshold every game day. I loved playing on sunny upstate NY early fall days. I love fried dough.

As the clock ticks down, Albany’s star running back breaks through our linebackers. I am the last defender. Choose your own adventure: A) I watch him dance in the end zone from my back, shaking off stars; B) He heroically rides his teammates’ shoulders to postgame glory. Heads he wins, tails I lose. The great thing in a choose your own adventure is no wrong answers. Knowing what I know now, I would hire a private eye to follow that 8 year-old. I’d confirm my suspicion that his dad placed him on an all-”juice” diet. What are you gonna do? Hindsight’s 20/20.

Back to canyoning critical moments. Steve’s careful guidance prepares us for waterfall rapelling, zip-lines, natural water slides, and rock jumps. Easy trust makes it all the more fun. Happy Raft, our uber-competent outfitter, somehow lacks a classic Japanese “Lucky Super Funtime” at the front of its name. Don’t ask me why they shun naming convention because I don’t know.

All their guides are in equal parts qualified and adventure-crazy. On the rafting trip, we hear the story of the big bandage on guide Kama’s head. His friend mistakenly hit it with the van door after pulling out a surfboard. Kama didn’t miss the waves. At day’s end he went to the emergency room for seven stitches.

Guide Teru laughs as Cheyne and Nathan tackle each other off the raft. They egg each other on, executing swan dives and back flips off of high rock jumps. I perfectly execute the gray area between a pencil and a cannonball. It’s because I practice.

I tell them I know little about Jehovah’s Witnesses other than a general negative perception and frequent door-knocking. (Jay-Z references are my ace in the hole.) They patiently explain their convictions while respectfully challenging my ideas. I claim open-mindedness but fear permeates my interaction. I assume they seek to convert me and irrationally imagine this can somehow occur beyond my control. I begin to observe the operation of my fear. There are no grounds for it; I internally generate it.

With this acknowledgment, I enjoyably ease from rigid guardedness to free exchange of ideas. We agreeably, amicably maintain differences of opinion with new understanding.

Through this new lens, in the spirit of open-mindedness, I reluctantly accept that maybe the 8 year-old star tailback wasn’t on steroids after all. Maybe. Too many things don’t quite add up. He and I should talk about it over fried dough.

Click for KYOTO, NARA PICS

Finally! My post about canyoning.

Two weekends ago we took our first weekend trip- to Interlaken, Switzerland. Immediately following the Da Vinci Challenge, 40 students had about 45 minutes to shower, change, and hop on the bus for a seven hour ride across the border into the Swiss Alps. As my friend Jake said the bus driver “drove the bus like it was a sports car” and boy was he good. When we got up into the mountains all the roads were narrow switchbacks with sheer rock faces on one side and straight drops on the other. On some of the turns I was sure that the bus was going to graze the side of the mountain, but miraculously we arrived in Interlaken without so much as a scratch on a side mirror. We checked in to our hostel at almost 2 am and split into 5 8-person rooms. Some students were ready to go down to the disco until it closed at 2, but our room picked our beds and just crashed. There was some commotion over a few unwelcome roommates of the insect variety (the kind they have at Roxie’s Deli) so some people had a bit of trouble sleeping, and Kate (my roommate from school) slept with her shoes on!

Danyelle (top) and Denise (sleeping) in our room at the hostel

We had made an agreement to wake up by 9 (canyoning wasn’t until 1:30) yet at 8:00 everyone was up and about, including me surprisingly enough. Our reservation included vouchers for breakfast where we had the choice of muesli (so good) or bread and jam, powdered instant coffee. hot chocolate, or Lipton’s tea. The coffee wasn’t that bad but it was nice to have a good cup of tea! After breakfast we went exploring the town. All of the buildings had that swiss chalet look, it was so cute!

Besties

We walked to the downtown area and stopped at McDonalds, of all places, for lunch. This was no ordinary McDonalds, however. It had a very chic feel, and had a brown and gray theme to it.

The next stop was my favorite- a Swiss chocolate shop! I couldv’e spent all day in there, but I settled for a few amazing truffles and some chocolate bars (I still have them in my room). Those truffles were so pretty I almost didn’t want to eat them. Almost.

The best stuff on earth

After the chocolate shop we headed back to the hostel to change before getting picked up by a 10 seater van for canyoning. Our driver/canyoning guide was this really cool Scottish guy named Ian (he had the best accent-not to mention the best job ever). They outfitted us with wet suits, neoprene jackets, life jackets, harnesses, and these dee-dee-dee bright yellow helmets that each had a different word written across the front. I was “Rat”.

The whole gang before going into the canyon

Canyoning was SO much fun. We followed the canyon all the way back to where the van was parked- it took us ten minutes to walk along the ridge to the starting point and over an hour to get back along the canyon. The guides (Scottish Guy Ian and another French guy whose name escapes me) had us jumping off of waterfalls, sliding down rocks, and even rappelling down the side of a cliff at one point.

Scaling a cliff- no the picture is not sideways!

On the last jump Scottish Dude Ian had me do a flip off of the waterfall. It was so cool! The rest of the group told me my flip was the best At least I didn’t hit my head like my friend Denise (She’s fine, by the way–her helmet just grazed the rock). It was over way too quickly in my opinion, but it was such a different experience and so much fun!

They drove us back to the “tent city” where we started, and we redeemed our drink vouchers while we waited for our pictures and chatted with the canyoning guides. While we were there they showed all the pictures from the trip on these screens, and some of them are just priceless. For example, there are a few of me looking just terrified!

That night we were out on the town again, and stopped for dinner in this Thai food place that was actually pretty good. I won’t go into detail, but it was a really fun night at the discotheque!

The next day was supposed to be for shopping, but due to bad planning and all the shops being closed on Sundays it turned into another jaunt around the town. We were going to try to find one of the two lakes around the city, but it was a bit farther than we had anticipated, and we ended up turning back after an hour had passed and we hadn’t found it. We did see a lot of wildlife, however. There was one Bed and Breakfast that had two goats out in the front yard, Julie and Minko.

Minko!

There were also a bunch of sheep in someone else’s yard. And just about everyone in Interlaken owns a dog.

Oh, and my roommate has decided that she wants to be Heidi for Halloween after seeing a postcard with little Swiss children on it, lol!

Here are my pictures from Interlaken, the canyoning photos are all the way at the end: Interlaken

By PAT HARTMAN
News Editor

“Canyoneering – a perspective” is mis-titled. The piece gives way more than a point of view; it’s almost like a 101 course. Chuck, a.k.a. the Motor City Exile, is a certified Wilderness First Responder and a self-defined adventure junkie. He says:

Canyoneering is an adventure sport that is still relatively young and not yet as well known as rock climbing or mountaineering. It does require a variety of technical skills and equipment if you want to avoid becoming a Darwin Award winner by removing yourself from the gene pool.

Even the most experienced guide can never guarantee that an excursion will go smoothly. Challenge is inevitable, and a person needs to be up for it. The very big point made by the writer is that book-learnin’ can only take you so far. The most important piece of equipment to bring along is your adaptability. Conformity to expectation will not get you over. And here’s the best part — Chuck tackles the tricky question of political correctness.

I will hurt your feelings and make you cry if you try to insist on me using an anchor or rope system that I think is sub-standard. You are welcome to do the same should the situation be reversed.

He also covers the mental-health benefits and essential equipment and much more. More basic info is available from the American Canyoneering Association. Apparently, “canyoneering” is American for what the rest of the English-speaking world calls “canyoning.” Whatever. Some of the good places are the Dominican Republic; Aviemore, Scotland; Lake Bled in Slovenia; and Asturius, which is in Spain.

At his blog called Canyonlands: Tales from Narrow Places, David Wallace discusses the culture of secrecy. Some participants in the sport are at great pains to conceal the prime locations from the rabble. No two canyons are alike. Andrew at StraightChuter specializes in those formed from sandstone.

Examiner Jenna Voight who has, among other things, worked in Beijing at the 2008 Olympics, shares her experience of canyoning in Interlaken, Switzerland, where hypothermia is a particular hazard. At Everest Uncensored, there’s a splendid collection of descriptions of canyoning in a place in Nepal called Sundarijal. And great pictures, too.

Did we mention that Kevin went canyoning? In Corsica, of course, where there’s a river called the Fiumicelli. In The Third Tower Up From the Road he says, “One of the good things about canyoning is that you can’t actually get lost in the traditional sense of the word.” Which is always a plus.

photo courtesy of rover0 , used under this Creative Commons license

I promise this is the last (ish) post about Đà Lạt, lest this blog turn into an ode to a town outside of Hà Nội – as opposed to a blog that professes to be about Hà Nội, bikes and ice cream but in reality is about questionable foods and other things I may or may not have made up.

The last (ish) thing I wanted to say about why Đà Lạt was so much fun was that you can also go canyoning there:

This is not a picture of me

The picture of me abseiling/rappelling down these falls is much less graceful than this one, mostly because I was struggling to breathe, while also struggling to see. A word to the wise: you might want to consider wearing goggles, or a globe that covers your entire head, if at any time you wish to submerse yourself in a large body of falling water, while wearing contact lenses. The video of me doing this is even less graceful, as I was doing my best impression of an open-mouthed carnival clown at which one might aim small colourful plastic balls. Given all of this, I thought I’d feature someone with better legs on this post.

There is a picture of me doing this though:

Men at work

Make no mistake: for the most part of that day, I was either terrified; falling over; or thinking about how terrified I was while falling over.

I absolutely love Switzerland!

On Friday, we left for Zurich, Switzerland around 3pm.  We walked from the London Centre to Victoria Station near Parliament in order to catch a train to London’s Gatwick Airport.   Since at this time I was only with three other people, we were able to get a 4 for 2 deal on the express train to Gatwick.  I highly recommend this to anyone traveling to the airport because it saves you half the price of a ticket.  On the train, we met a guy from Zurich who talked to us a lot about living in different places around Europe and where we should go in Zurich.  What he failed to mention, however, was how much more expensive Switzerland is than London…

Once at the airport, we boarded our flight to Zurich which I immediately fell asleep on.  Once we arrived in Zurich, we took a train to Interlaken (translated to “Between the Lakes”) because the rest of our group was already at our Hostel, Balmer’s.  The train was really cool and was a double decker. It was a very pleasant ride despite the drunken Italian man who insisted on singing for a good 20min and the fact that a bag of pretzels cost me 3 Swiss Francs.

When we arrived in Interlaken, we had to walk through the town to get to where our hostel was.  After walking for a little while in pretty much the dark, someone noticed what they thought was a plane.  After further inspection, what we were looking at was clearly entirely too large to be a plane.  We realized that as we were walking in the dark, we were actually surrounded by the Swiss Alps, but we could not see them.  What we thought was a plane was actually a restaurant at the top of the mountain.  It was one of the coolest sights ever; it looked like there was a free floating building in the sky.

When we arrived to our hostel, we found out that all the private rooms were booked so we had to sleep in a dorm style room which sleeps 40 people… Our “dorm room” can most easily be described if you are familiar with the set up of Sam’s Club or Ikea.  There were very thin mattress pads basically on the same sort of flat, stacked shelving they use at a place like Sam’s.  Every two mattresses were separated by a thin wooden bar.  I, of course, was stuck in a mattress that was not separated from the person next to me- whom I did not know… Luckily, the boy who was supposed to sleep on the mattress next to me decided that was not a very gentlemanly thing to do and gave me the whole area. The boys in our group had it worse though because their feet hung off the mattresses, and they were stepped on multiple times during the night.  All-in-all it would not have been too bad if the kids staying in our same room, who were from Boston University’s program, had not been extremely loud while we were trying to sleep.  One girl woke me up in the middle of the night to ask me my name… and the others kept yelling and talking loudly about how someone threw up in the hallway. There is also a club in the basement of the hostel, which you can barely move in once there, and every time someone would come out of it the entire room would pulsate with the beat of techno music. We booked a private room for all 10 of us the next night.

The next morning we woke up early because we had already booked our canyoning trip and needed to be there at 9am.  We stopped in the hostel and had breakfast which consisted either of what amounted to half a loaf of bread or muesli, a sort of oatmeal.  It was nice to have free food though, so it was not that bad.

The place we went for canyoning was called Alpin Raft (HIGHLY RECOMMEND) and was just around the bend from our hostel.  When we arrived, they had us write and sign our name on what appeared to be a sign-in sheet.  We later learned that that was actually a safety waiver.  One thing we discovered about Interlaken, extreme sports capital of the world, is that they have little concerns for safety regulations or potential law suits. Our “safety talk” consisted of about 3min of instructions on not doing anything the guides didn’t tell us to do.  After the talk, we all grabbed wetsuits, life jackets, special shoes and socks, and helmets.  Each helmet has a name on it that was to be your name for the trip. I somehow wound up being Rocky.  After everything was packed in the bus, we bused up a mountain.  On the way up, they pointed out the waterfall that Sherlock Holmes is pushed down in one of Sir Doyle’s stories. At the spot where we were to later end our canyoning excursion, we changed with much difficulty into our gear.  We then bused further up the mountain with Daren and Sue, our leaders, to begin.  Sue was one of the toughest looking women I have ever seen in my life and frankly, she frightened me a little.  Daren, a sheep shearer from New Zealand, would never give you a straight answer about anything and thus chose to hide from us that to begin canyoning we had to do a 159ft rappel down a stone wall- the highest rappel they offer.  In order to rappel, you had to climb over a railing, which hopefully he was joking when he told us not to lean on because it wasn’t sturdy, and stand on the edge of the straight dropping cliff while Daren held onto your rope.  To see if the rope is tight and in place, you have to lean back as if you are standing on the side of the cliff at a 90 degree angle.  Some of the boys did cart wheels and flips on the wall while I opted to just walk down as quickly as possible.  Looking back I really enjoyed this part, but while in the process all I could think about was the chance of losing my footing, smacking against a rock and breaking my face… not how I would like to begin my time in Europe.

Once we were all in the canyon, we began walking through very slippery, moss-covered rocks to get to all the natural water slides and jumps they had deemed acceptable for us to use.  Also, it is important to mention that the whole time we are surrounded by freezing cold water, although with the wet suit I was never really that cold.  The first “activity” we engaged in was jumping from a 20ft cliff into the water below.  The actual idea of jumping was really not what worried me- it was the fact that if I didn’t jump right where Sue threw a pebble (a very precise way of telling us what to do, I am sure) I could have hit a rock.  Also, if you didn’t stay in a ball you risked hurting your legs.  I had to just make the jump without thinking about all the possible ways that someone as ungraceful as I am could manage to hurt herself.  I am also apparently still a small child and cannot jump into water without holding my nose. The first jump proved to be the least of my worries.

After that jump, we went down a natural waterslide.  We had blue plastic pieces attached to us that made sliding much easier.  Sue or Daren would ask us to lay down on the rock and roll into a ball with our hands in.  If for some reason  your hands were out, they could get stuck in the cracks of the rock and, as Daren so warmly informed us, would be ripped off immediately.  Again, it wasn’t really what they asked me to do that was scary it was what surrounded me.  After the first couple slides though, they became more enjoyable.  The only thing I did not do was the highest jump offered, but neither did some others.  It involved first climbing to the spot to jump and as my friend Phoebe and I both discovered, having smalls legs made a lot of what they wanted us to do very difficult.  The weight of the water in our boots and in the wet suit made lifting our legs even more difficult on top of already not being able to lift them far.  At one point one of the guys had to peer-pressure me into climbing back up a rock to do another slide, but it was definitely worth it.

The best part of canyoning was that there was some zip lining involved.  They hooked us to a rope and sent us through an opening in rocks and over water.  They also sent us on a zip line out over a larger space of water and told us to let go and fall in.  A few of the kids I was with opted to do back flips, but after my friend Mimi belly-flopped, I knew that was not something I was going to do.  The scariest part of the trip for me was when we were asked to, in one motion, jump from one rock to another and slide down the later. My leg could not even reach the other rock without jumping, but after watching a few other people go I attempted with no problem.  I of course slipped and fell on the rocks a few times, but luckily in places where I was right in the water.  I really did not like walking on the slippery rocks with nothing to hold onto, but our shoes proved to have pretty good grips.  Overall, I would say the experience was amazing despite being sort of terrifying.  I would probably do it again and am so glad I did it in the first place.  I highly suggest everyone go to Interlaken when abroad and go canyoning. I can now say I have rappelled down, water slided through, jumped off of, hiked through, and zip lined through the Swiss Alps.

After we changed out of our clothes, they had a picnic lunch of homemade bread, Swiss cheese, tomato, onion, cucumber, apple pie, and beer for us.  Picnicking in the Swiss Alps was beautiful and a definite plus to the adventure that we had not counted on.  There was also a lady who took pictures of us the whole way and we all bought the cd.  It was a perfect way to capture the day except I resemble a member of the Lollipop Guild in most of them.

Once we were back to the Hostel and in our private room, which was actually a very nice set up of 5 bunk beds, we all took a much needed nap.  For dinner, we walked to a local grocery store call Coop to get some bread and cheese and had a picnic on the floor of our hostel.  While we walked to the store, we finally got to see all that we had missed at night when it was dark. We were  in a valley of the Swiss Alps and mountains surrounded us everywhere.  Everything around us looked straight out of ‘Heidi’ and was gorgeous.  Some people were saying the area seemed semi-comparable to Colorado except of course these were the Alps.  It was a pretty cloudy day so we couldn’t see the tips of the mountains, but we did see some people paragliding which looked very neat.

After dinner, we hung out in the open yard behind the hostel which I guess they consider to be a part of their bar. They also hold two happy hours out there which is very interesting. (People studying abroad in the fall, I suggest you stay at this hostel, but in a private room of course.) We also found a place to watch the ND v. Michigan game which while fun at first, proved to be a huge let down.  The bar we watched it in was showing it on ESPN America, and was a great place except they insisted we had to buy drinks to stay. It was totally worth it, however, to see one Andy Pieffer on the screen looking very serious in his kilt. We also met a guy who now works in Zurich but went to Miami of Ohio! Bean, I obviously thought about you and it made me sad I cannot visit this semester! When the bar was forced to close at 12:30am due to regulations, we walked back across the street to our hostel and checked out the club/dance party going on in the basement.  While the 10 of us had fun hanging out together, there were some very creepy men in this club, so we eventually just went up to our hostel and hung out there for the remainder of the night.

The next day, we went to a German church.  This is my second week of not being able to understand anything at mass.  It was of course a great experience though, and we all really enjoyed it.

We then got on a train to Zurich and spent the day there.  Prices in Zurich were even more outrageous than in Interlaken.  To try to avoid thinking about how hungry we were, we walked about 45min to a botanical garden.  After, we walked down by the lake and found 4 of the people we were with sitting on a bench.  We all just lay on the grass listening to a string group and talking.  While the day was nice, we have decided that it will be much better to  come home earlier on Sunday’s rather than catching a 9:30p flight like we did.

Our flight back to London was delayed, and then was very bumpy.  We were apparently only 10k behind another plane so we were caught in their drift.  After the ride steadied, we all fell asleep immediately.  To get back to our flats, we had to bus from the airport to a train station and then walk to our flats. Once we got to the train station, we learned that the train we wanted to take was canceled and the next one coming wasn’t for 40min, at 12:07am. However, we have all become even better friends after our weekend experience together so we were able to keep ourselves entertained.  We partook in one of our new favorite past times of listening to our friend Nick read this very bizarre book aloud.  His reading has put us to sleep a couple nights already. But by now it was freezing and we were all super tired.  When it finally came, we realized the stop we wanted was now closed since it was after midnight.  We got out of the train station hoping to find a bus and saw one marked “Special Services.”  The bus driver told us he would get us to where we needed to be and we didn’t need to pay.  We wound up being the only people on one of the commonly used double decker buses and the driver dropped us off right outside of our flat which was amazing and the perfect end to the trip.  We have a 1am curfew so we were forced to call our rectors and tell them we would be late. We were thus greeted by our rector in her Navajo bathrobe at 1:05am waiting for us. Perhaps an even better ending to the weekend.

Sorry this was so lengthy, and I will add pictures soon… although I am sure they are all embarrassing.

Envie d’adrénaline et de grands espaces à seulement quelques heures d’avion ? Au Portugal, aux Açores et  à Madère, des professionnels des sports extrêmes vous emmènent à la rencontre de contrées mystérieuses où la nature luxuriante côtoie le tumulte de l’océan Atlantique.

Associação de Turismo dos Açores

• Canyoning sur le fleuve Teixeira au Portugal

Aux environs d’Oliveira de Frades, au nord du Portugal, le fleuve Teixeira constitue un terrain d’action et de jeu idéal. Aux beaux jours, par groupes de huit participants, la progression en eau vive dans le lit du fleuve, la rencontre avec une cascade de 20 m, la descente en rappel et les sauts dans l’eau vous garantiront leur lot d’adrénaline. Casque, combinaison et chaussures en néoprène fournis par l’organisateur. 100€ pour 4h de sensations fortes – www.odisseias.com.

Comment y aller ?

Nouvelles Frontières propose des séjours et voyages à la carte au Portugal (www.nouvelles-frontieres.be ou 02/547.44.44). Un vol sec et/ou un hôtel ou séjour complet à Lisbonne ou en Algarve ? Rendez-vous sur www.jetair.be.

Laissez-vous surprendre, le temps d’un parcours sportif, par l’exubérance sauvage des Açores.

● Traversée en quad sur l’île de São Miguel aux Açores

Entre prairies, forêts, plages et volcans, laissez-vous surprendre, le temps d’un parcours sportif,  par l’exubérance sauvage des Açores. Sur l’île de São Miguel, la plus grande des neuf îles de l’archipel, c’est plein gaz, sur votre quad, que vous vous lancez à la découverte de l’Est de l’île. Après un briefing matinal, le départ des engins Fourtrax 250EX est donné par un guide professionnel au village de Povoação. Prévoir chaussures de sport, imper’ et permis de conduire. www.trilhogia.com.

Comment y aller ?

www.ucpa.be

Pour réserver un vol pour Ponta Delgada (São Miguel) ou pour d’autres îles et/ou un hôtel : www.connections.be (070/23 33 13).

A voir absolument : l’île de Flores, Faial (l’île bleue) et sa voisine Pico, l’île basaltique dominée par son volcan.

Le long des récifs, les fonds marins de Madère sont riches en poissons et coraux de toutes sortes

● Plongée sous-marine à Madère

Madeira Dive Point DR

A dix minutes à pied du centre-ville de Funchal, cap sur le club de plongée Madeira Divepoint. Intégré au Pestana Carlton Madeira Hotel, il met à votre disposition un staff de professionnels formés pour vous faire découvrir des sites marins à couper le souffle. Plongeurs débutants ou confirmés, à vos bouteilles ! Le long des récifs, les fonds marins de Madère sont riches en poissons – barracudas, raies et murènes – et coraux de toutes sortes. Lieux à ne pas manquer : Machico pour ses coraux noirs et la très courue réserve naturelle de Garajau. www.madeiradivepoint.com.

Comment y aller ?

Nouvelles Frontières propose des séjours et voyages à la carte à Madère (www.nouvelles-frontieres.be ou 02/547.44.44). Pour un vol sec Bruxelles-Funchal avec ou sans hôtel : www.travelprice.be ou sur www.airstop.be ou 070/233.188.

A voir absolument : Au large Porto Santo, sous les eaux, gît depuis 2000 l’épave du Madeirense. Depuis Madère, des vols quotidiens permettent de rallier l’île en 15 minutes.

Aux Açores, embrassez la nature et arrêtez le temps sur l’île de Flores, 4000 habitants. Parsemée de lacs volcaniques (les lagoas) et fleurie à perte de vue en été par des hortensias bleus, cette île surprendra les amoureux du trekking et des longues balades à pied. Flores offre aussi aux curieux de nombreux belvédères le long de ses côtes. Les incontournables : à l’ouest, la petite lagune de Bacalhau et les cascades, ainsi que la piscine naturelle de Porto Velho, sur la côte est. www.visitazores.org.

Accordez-vous une halte dans l’un des plus séduisants hôtels de charme de Madère, situé à seulement 10 km à l’est de Funchal : la Quinta Splendida Wellness & Botanical Garden. Dans ce manoir du XVIIIe siècle reconverti en hôtel, vos sens seront délicatement flattés. Au menu : exubérance florale du jardin botanique, design soigné des lieux et repos vivifiant au spa de la Quinta. A partir de 240€ la nuit en Spa suite - www.quintasplendida.com.

Sabrina Pessanha

Article publié dans Elle Belgique, octobre 2007

For a management expidition Riaan, Jon, Beni, Roman and I went to Ticino for doing the famous and difficult Canyon Lodrino. We don`t have good foto material or own video material yet but watch out this video from Youtube: