Adventure you said? Sure!

Last saturday (13.09.08), I draggued Cécilia to a canyoning excursion organized by the hostel were I stayed when I arrived. Franck, my boyfriend, decided to join as well.

We woke up pretty early (6.30 am for me) to get prepared and arrived at the hostel on time. The guide arrived and we first figured out we were the only participants. The guide, Eric, was pretty scary: he was roughly dressed up with a jean and a common T-shirt, had not combed his hair and looked like he just woke up. Ok it was only 8.30 but that didn't give a good impression.

He announced us he had decided to change the destination of our trip. Instead of going to Barbera canyon, we were going to a "more adventurous" canyon always in the same area. Cécilia got a bit scared. She had never done canyoning and she was afraid she wouldn't manage to follow.

The 4 of us left in Eric's car to go Clue de la Maglia canyon. On the way, we stopped to meet the other 3 participants: 3 guys, beginners as well, but older and stronger than us.

Cécilia is pretty little and light, so to be sure she would bear the cold water, Eric gave her 3 combinations.

We walked down to the canyon through a path in the forest and started straight away the canyon by jumping directly in the cold water. I mean... the REALLY cold water!! It wasn't more than 7 or 8 degrees!!

The canyon went on well through water slides and jumps. The higher jump we made was 12m high!! I prayed each time before jumping as I was always pretty scared. But Cécilia and I had really a lot of fun! Franck, on his side, was like a kid: jumping in the water without calculating were he was about to land, sliding without any fear or regret, enjoying his time and the people he was with, wanting to go always further and first...

We finaly arrived in a cave. It was incredible! The landscape so far had been really nice and awsome as, in the canyon, you really felt like being part of the river going down the mountains. I was discovering the water cycle at each step. I was so little in this water path compared to those giant walls!
In this cave, things were even more emphasized. The water was flowing down the walls, there was a small waterfall straight upon my head and we had to go through it, stalactite were decorating the cave everywere... it was just awsome being there, feeling like nothing in the middle of the ice-cold water.

But I am not sure Cécilia really enjoyed this landscape. Short time before, we had to abseil a wall next to a waterfall. Everyone did good... except for Cécilia. She got stucked under the waterfall, the two ropes tangled around her leg, the head upside down... about to drown herself!!
She screamed and struggled... and when we finaly managed to take her out of this hell, her shoulder was really hurting.

We continued the canyon until the next exit (that means for at least another half an hour!) and then we asked Eric to bring Cécilia, Franck and me to the closest hospital (Menton's one).
A doctor saw her, she got some X rays and they determined she got a dislocation of her shoulder (no kidding!).

They anesthetized her and replaced her shoulder. She is now on sick leave for 1 month!
She finaly called her father and he came to pick us up and to bring us home.
When I arrived, after having been worried for the whole afternoon, tired and exhausted of this athletic day, it was already 11pm.

Regarding the guide, let me tell you he was not educationist AT ALL!! What happened is almost all his falt. He didn't look after us, didn't gave us the basis of security... was simply not the guy we needed.

Though Cécilia got this accident and, therefore, appreciated less the activity, we all had a lot of fun and will, FOR SURE, remember this day!