WHITE WATER RAFTING in the Basque Country ,pyrenees, south west of France, Aquitaine

Among all the river activities, it is the most spectacular, but paradoxically it is also the safest if practised correctly.

When you take into account the excellent nautical qualities of the boat, the collective side of the ride and the reassuring presence of a guide, one can say that white water rafting is accessible to nearly everybody.

An activity bringing much fun, rafting is first used as a feeling-arouser boat. It is the ideal tool for a first approach to a river, to see and understand the way it works, to discover a valley and its countryside.

On the rafting-boat, each team-mate , with his paddle, is involved in the feat, under the leadership of a coxswain. Half of your buttock on the side of the inflatable, one leg tucked under you, the other stretched, trying to find a non-existing lean-on spot, you have to propel the boat and keep your balance at the same time...This balance is, by definition, unstable. That's why you have to limit yourself , when beginning, to class-3 rivers with a few class-4 crossings.

Equipment:

An unsinkable inflatable dinghy, usually self-emptied. On a raft you don't need to take the water
out , in the rapids, it clears itself out automatically by the holes located around the inflatable floor.

It is made of a several separate parts in reinforced an rubber-like flexible plastic. They are inflated separately to make boats safer. They can welcome on board from 4 to 10 people, depending on the model.

Their lengths vary from 3.50 to 4.50 metres depending on the type of rivers where they will be used (difficulty, flow...)

Users will be dressed in complete isothermal suits to protect them from cold, impacts and to float more easily. They will have a paddle (1.45 metre in average for an adult), a life jacket, a hemlet and a pair of neopren boots to walk on rocks.