Canyoning

July 5, 2018: We are staying in the Pyrenees town called Luz Saint-Sauveur. James and I stayed here with his family in 2004 when we biked in France. There are several "haut-catagorie" climbs in the Tour de France that come in and out of this town. One of the famous moments was in 2003 when Lance was pulled down off his bike when the handlebar caught the bag of a spectator on the side of the road. Anyways, today we did one of the big activities that we've been looking forward to doing. "Canyoning" is something James and I tried in the Alps in 2002. You wear a wetsuit, harness and helmet and go hiking through a river. We drive about 30 minutes south to a remote section of town. We travelled up a windy mountain road with cows and sheep crossing the road. It was gorgeous. Wild flowers, green hills, waterfalls here and there and snow capped mountains. We met our guides, Paul and Guillome, at an auberge up high. They brought out all the wet suits and gear for us to try on. Once we all got kitted up we got back in the car and drove down about 5 minutes to the place where we would enter the canyon. If there was ever a time I wish I had a camera, it was now. The water was absolutely freezing, but very manageable with the wet suits. They told us to scoop some water into them right away so they would warm up and not be a shock. The only thing that was chilly were our hands, and they were very cold. We were in the canyon for just over two hours. We did three rappels, two zip lines, a rock waterslide, and jumped off of a cliff into a deep hole. The kids did such a great job. It was such an incredible sight to look up and see them rappelling down through a giant waterfall. Julia ended up getting very chilly so we stopped. I'm not 100% sure if that was the stopping place anyways or if we would have continued. Our guides only spoke french and despite my french, I wasn't certain. We walked back to the cars and got our of all of the gear. The kids had an absolute blast and we were so excited to introduce them to canyoning.