Last day, last crazy activity, Having spent one day in wet suits and 2 days in climbing harnesses I suppose it made sense to combine the two. In our swim gear and lycra thermals and with wetsuits strapped to our backs we hiked for 1.5 hours up alongside the River Carol's canyon. Then we had lunch, kitted up - wetsuits, climbing harnesses, helmets and walked own to the river - sitting in it to acquaint ourselves with the 7.5 degree water! Then it was of down the canyon. Apart from just striding or swimming through the water there are 3 "moves". First is the abseil. We did 2, each about 10 - 20m, with via ferrata type traverses to get into position. Then down the abseil, usually alongside a waterfall. Only difference to a normal abseil is that the rope stops about 2ft form the bottom - you just let it run through the figure of eight and fall into the water! Next up is the slide, just cross you arms and just ride the water chutes down - usually with a dunking in the next big pool. The final move is the jump. In this case they ranged from 1m to 10m - I did two of the 5m jumps, Ruth did up to 3m. As you plunged into the pool you felt like you sank deep into the water until the bouyancy of your suit brought you back up to the top.
After about 1000ft of descent we got to the bottom of the canyon. The day is billed as the best of the week, but in some ways I, and I think a few others, thought it was a bit brief. Being in the canyon was wonderful and we had too many too long walks around the "boring" bits. It would have been nice to just stay in the water the whole way down, just wading or swimming or small jumps or chutes. Forget the macho jumps, just enjoy the canyon!
***Imported from old blog***
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