Saturday morning : CANO-RAFT on the Middle Verdon
Meet at 9:30 am at our private ground “Adventure Forest” (see the access map) – our guides are there to welcome you.
They hand out your equipment and give a safety talk. You are now ready to embark on a cano-raft descent on the Verdon that will take you from the Castellane to “La Pinède” beach (8 km and 1h30 of navigation).
The difficulty level on this trip is progressive, with an easy first section and a more challenging one at the end. In the first part, you ride mostly small rapids (class II), which gives you time to become fully acquainted with the boat and learn to manoeuver it smoothly.
Towards the end of the descent, you hit the exciting “Barre St. Jean” class III rapid (medium difficulty), which is the final one of this descent. Depending on the route you choose, this rapid can be more or less challenging. But it is definitely the place to apply what you have learnt during the trip. In any case, it is the highlight of your descent and a lot fo fun.
Following this rapid, it is time to stop for lunch at our private beach “La Pinède” and have a rest. In the afternoon, the activity is resumed, but this time, you all get inside one raft.
Saturday afternoon : RAFTING on the Middle Verdon
The rafting trip will take you right through the entrance of the gorges, from our private beach “La Pinède” to the Samson Corridor (16 km and 2h30 of navigation).
During the first hour of navigation, your guide teaches you the basics of rafting techniques. On this first part of the river, class II (easy) rapids are mostly encountered.
Right at the entrance of the gorges, a fun rapid (class III) called “La Dégoulinante” is waiting for you for a real roller-coaster ride on the waves. From that point, we take some time to marvel at the work of millions of years of erosion on the impressive limestone cliffs surrounding us between the successive class II and III rapids.
But the excitement is not yet over, as the right-angle shaped “Solitaire” rapid – the steepest and the fastest rapid of the descent – is soon coming up. This exhilarating rapid marks the end of the trip.
There is a 10 mn walk out of the gorge to reach the Samson Corridor Belvedere, where our bus is waiting to drive you back to Adventure Forest.
Sunday morning : CANYONING in the Jabron
Meet at 9:00 am next to the village of La Batie, 10 km from Castellane on the D 4085 road to Nice, (see access map), for a real incursion inside one of the tributaries of the Verdon river : the Jabron canyon.
The canyoning guide is there to welcome you on the car park of the restaurant. He hands out your equipment and you are ready to go. A 30 min. walk takes you right up to the entrance of the canyon.
There, you are introduced to the abseiling techniques and then gradually penetrate inside the canyon.
Soon, you need to adapt your progression technique. Abseiling down a 5 m “rappel”, sliding down a natural stone slide, and jumping in clear pools at the heart of the canyon become the necessary techniques…
At the end, we walk back in the forest brings to the start.
The Jabron canyon is a short but spectacular canyon, accessible to everyone in reasonable fitness.
None of the jumps and slides is compulsory and can be abseiled down instead, if you wish not to jump.
