ThePaddler 122
24 hours of travelling Getting to the island involved a drive to Dover, the channel ferry, a 13-hour drive to Toulon and an overnight ferry across the Mediterranean Sea. This journey allowed the eight-strong team to become well acquainted with each other with most of us having never paddled together before. Despite over 24 hours of travelling, once you’re on the island, the rivers are all very close by and range from relaxing grades 2/3 to some scary 5/6 with siphons the size of cars and portages as long as some British rivers! We spent the first day finding our feet on the grade 2/3+ Lower Vecchio and Tavignano Gorge, working out team dynamics and acclimatizing to the Corsican style. Later in the
Both of these rivers have an incredibly remote and wild feel about them, being boxed in by high canyons and surrounded by dense forest
(roamed by wild boar!) week we paddled another section of the Tavignano, which had some awesome surf spots and flair opportunities, a great river for beginner and intermediate paddlers to practice skills on!
asco and Upper Golo
Subsequent days were spent on the Asco and Upper Golo, the first being a relentless 12km of boulder garden grade 3/4 and the second being a high-
Ian D ovey cruis ing t he w aves on
the T avign ano