Canyoning in Ariege Pyrenees France By: Yann

Canyoning in Ariege Pyrenees By Yann

 I always spend my summer holiday in Toulouse where is south France. Toulouse is located near the beach for 2 hour drive and near the mountain for only 40 minutes drive. For me it is just a paradise! One day during my last summer holiday, my father told me that he had found a place near mountain where we can have adventure. I didn't want to go, but my father and my uncles were trying to convince me that the place is very cool. Canyoning is located at a place called Ariege Pyrenees in the valley Vicdessos and is about one hour drive from Toulouse.

My uncle Vincent told me that it is good opportunity to discover the beautiful canyons that holds this beautiful location. Uncle Vincent is a person who is I meter 75 centimeter and gots a lot of muscles. He loves to play video games with me because he has skills of solving problem to pass through the levels. He is a knowledgeable person and he knows a lot of things so I always ask a lot of questions to uncle Vincent and he always answers my questions with patience. Just like my dad, who is interested in many things and he love to share with me about his experience. My father is pilot and every time when he flies to a city, he always talks about what city looks like and how friendly people are. My dad has a lot of energy and he doesn't like to waste the time and he always has a fully booked schedule. When I am with my father, I won't have time to stay home and stare my Ipad all day long. My dad and my uncle are good friends for me.

At first, I thought that canyoning was just wearing some kind of suit and jumping into river - nothing really interesting! When that day came, I got into the car, my uncles and dad said that the water temperature was estimated around 5 degrees! I was stunned when I heard that news.....what, what.....5 degrees! I need to swim in the river at that 5 degree temperature! I was not ready and to be fair, I was really stressed by going canyoning. I was trying to find any excuse that I wasn't feeling well. So I said to my dad " I got an headache and I do not feel well", and dad looked at me and asked uncle Vincent, " Do we have any painkiller at home?" Uncle Vincent stared at me and asked me, " Do you really have an headache or you don't want to go?" I didn't answer the question and just looked at my feet. I didn't succeed and my dad just kept driving and driving to that place.

When we arrived at the Ariege Pyrenees where we are going to do canyoning, the coach was standing near the tree and gave us some safety instructions to protect ourselves during the canyon trip. Coach said to everyone loudly, "the main problem in canyoning is that some people did not listen safety instructions carefully, so accidents happen! I was murmuring, "I hate to listen to those long whatever instructions". All of the sudden my dad change his face and looked at seriously, "I know it is troublesome for you to follow those safety instructions because it needs to be concentrated on listening." I nodded my head and listen coach blah blah blah blah...safety words. Finally, we were starting to choose our suitable size of swimming suite to maintain our body temperature from cold water.

I was disappointed because the suit which I was wearing was so small and it was really uncomfortable. When I was in the water, it was good because I was concentrating on doing something else.I didn't expect anything interesting would happen, but 30 seconds after we began, I started to get some ideas about canyoning, even though the water was 5 degrees. I looked up among those huge rocks and the landscape is an uncompromising different sizes of stones and they are massif, and waters falling down in between those rocks. When my hands touched the water at the beginning, I yelled, "So cold!" and I took a deep breath and jumped into the water. The feeling was shocking!

My dad and uncle Vincent looked at me with worried regards and my father said, "Calm down, you will get used to it." Ten minutes later, I was comfortable with activities they wanted me to do. Surprisingly, I was bitten by a small insect and I thought I was in a big trouble. Luckily, I was not, because it was just a small little spider and does no harm to me. While we reached a step where we have to get pass a 12-meter waterfall, then I was so so so... scared, because I was afraid that I would fall and die. When one of my uncle Vincent saw me scared half to death, he told me this is just a game and that everything is going to be alright. So basically we need to slide to the other side of the rock, and in the middle is a big waterfall with a dead rabbit in it. My uncle Vincent encouraged me by saying, " Yann, I know you can do it and I have confidence on you!" I looked at my dad and my uncle Vincent's faces to calm myself down and I took a deep breath and get my body to the right spot for sliding. Finally, I did it and I was proud of myself.

I think the most scaring is the last part of canyoning - it is the 8 meters high waterfall jumping - what it is?? There are two people from UK and their names are Josh and Jordi who think that I would never jump and choose to slide down with a rope. In general, we have two options to complete this 8 meter high waterfall jumping; one is sliding down with a rope and another is to jump. So I was prepared to take this challenge to jump from 8 meter high because I thought it was the best thing to do in canyoning. I was preparing mentally and physically when my dad asked me to confirm if I am braved to jump. My dad jumped first and my uncle Vincent took long time to prepare for jumping and the face of my uncle Vincent was really weird just like eating lime. His face turned white just like paper and I thought that it must be that my uncle Vincent had vertigo. I asked him carefully, " Are you ok? Do you have vertige?" He confirmed with a big mickey mouse smile and jumped. At that time, I admired my uncle because he faced his fear by taking the challenge.

After we finished canyoning, I felt amazing, but doing canyoning for 3 hours was exhausting. I didn't know how long does it take to get home because I was sleeping all the time. I even fall asleep during the dinner so next time I must get a good sleep before going to canyoning. I think that canyoning is awesome sport, and doing it with your family or with others is much better because it has much more fun.