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Billy Harris - Trip Reports June 9th: Mission: Creeking in the French Alps. June 8th: Mission: My Swiss Miss, holy cow and remembering a loved Friend.

Mission: Creeking in the French Alps
June 9th 2005

Did you know it costs 15 Euros for a double Bacardi and coke in France? Wow, I nearly fell of the bar stool when she gave me the bill - I could have bought a whole bottle in the supermarket for 9 Euros. It's a good job I didn't though couz I'd just drink the whole thing anyways.

Big thanks to Roger + Edd at Halco Narrowboats for the van and the outfitting. It has been a god sent for this trip for me and the lad, would have been a good idea to get someone else to pay for the fuel for the monster too (working on that) - we have the fastest van in Europe but she's a greedy little girl on the old fuel. I think my driving at mach speeds while the pommy sleeps ain't helping (he has no idea).

Coffee: the other morning I spent 3 Euros on a coffee, it was a shot glass in size! She handed it to me and I just looked at her, wating for more, out came her palm and a nice French look… you know the one, 20 euros on a toll booth.. eek. I am lucky though, H20 paddles sent me a care package before I left which is dampening my financial woe!

When you do this much driving it's funny when the person driving grinds the gears… We have been having a grind off comp, I hope the Halco folks are not reading this. But it's 5 to 4 for the pommy. Poor guy, he grinds the gears so bad every once in a while..

Finally after 3 weeks I dropped the camera, ya she hit the ground pretty hard. I can't help it, im just a clumsy farm boy who has no business owning any kind of technology. I should stop buying nice things as I keep throwing them on the pavement, I'm an accident waiting for technology to happen! I finally demoed my ipod, on the 19 th drop it gave up the ghost, it actually had lots of dents in it.. whoops.. but she didn't make this trip, gone to get fixed. Like there is any hope of that!!!

I have Skype now, the best thing ever. You can talk for free, all over the world. I talk to Koen from xackers.net and he has been pimping us maps, detailed photos of everything. I think that he is living vicarously through us the old fossile, sending us here and there. Thanks for the maps buddy, you're a champ. He's been here for years before I ever got here. It's funny, all the old chaps have run all this stuff at one time or another. Needs to be run again I say. Meeting the Dutchy tomorrow because cookie's on his 5* assesment. Going to find a drop Koen told us to check out he says it's a monster... Without Matt around it's kind of boring. The pommy is good fun.

The pommy is almost done with the course thing he is taking. Simon Westgarth is directing the course with Stuart Woodward from Canoe Control where there are tents, wine and great stories. I guess it's good that he is taking it but I have to say, it sucks for me. Normally I would be down and out but I ran into a little Dutch man named 'Casper'. He's an awesome guy, good fun to hang out with, and his buddy Paul is a crack up as well. We ran the Guil today, Casper decided he was going to dissapear under the undercut on Tripple drop. Thought he was going to be a ghost. Heheh and I was checking for fish on the first one. So embarrassing. All these people watching too all lined up cheak by jowl expecting whatever. That's the thing about being a kayaker people know, I'm just a guy. Everyone expects your cape to be on and miracles to happen, the fact is I messed up like every one else. And today I left my cape at home evidently. I am sitting here typing away, milking my 15 Euro drink for all it's worth, trying to ignore Matt with the camera. Flashing away, I have to sleep. I have to stop typing all these articles too.

Ok, sweet, back on the road after a great adventure down the Cascade de la pisse, yeah I know it a weird one and at first it was thought it was the local sewage drain off. Billy checked it out on my final day of assessment and seemed to think it was good to go after extensive scouting so today we ran the bad boy, picked up Ben Stone from the UK for the trip and headed up and spent 4hrs running what I would say was a class 4+ / 5 bone yard. Every now and again there was a sweet section with some good drops but overall it wasn't as good as it looked from the road. It sure kept us on our toes and we had great fun all day. The walk out was fairly extreme, a 30 min hike with our creek boats in the blazing sun, mmmmm we stank good after that one... Luckily, we stashed some beers at the take out that were awesome, we sure did get a thirst first!!!

So, hill billy's back behind the wheel and we are heading to Locarno in Switzerland because we desperately need some sweet creeks and some waterfalls so off we go North back to Switzeland. Koen has been our e-guide for this whole trip. We were uncertain for a while but he has been sitting at home finding us good locations and up to date information. As soon as we get the text from him we go wherever he tells us and he has not been wrong yet. Without him, we would probabally be cursing at the map and getting nothing done at all. Thank you Koen, you're a legend :-)

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Mission: Swiss Miss
June 8th 2005

We are driving through beautiful little mountain towns with flat stone roofs; cable carts that go up and out of sight. Faces looking and wondering. We have clipped our mirrors on other people twice now but I thought we would hit more than that honestly. The roads are one lane and can just fit two if you're really careful. Like cobble stone goat paths nothing in the world have I seen up to this point could match this king of human/environment element apart from Nepal or south Americas 3 world. Living harmoniously with Mountain and stone is so fascinating especially considering the fact I can get wireless Internet at the same time. There's no combination of word that could describe what I see or experience really. Locarno is 12 km away, about a 40 minute drive of twisting and turning and epic views.

And then I met her....

She looked at me just the right way, big dark brown face deep dark eyes. She looked at me like I was a slice of cheesecake. I knew at that moment we were going to exchange saliva and I was not keen at all. She just moved in on me and there was no escape. Her big tongue slipped out and left its nasty green trail right up my right biceps. We had a moment together me and my Swiss Miss I have to say I think she felt it too. Then she ate my trail mix too, so rude but quite a milker my friend Dave New-in-house would say - udders everywhere...

Well we arrived in Bern and Marc Girardin from France was the first thing we saw when we rolled up. He paddles for Necky Kayaks and is the finest C1 paddler I have ever seen. He runs even skill with the Flying French of Quebec and has been a friend for a long time. My favorite saying is: “no one likes the French” ( I don't really mean it). But I have to say I have yet to meet one I didn't like. We can't say too much to each other but he's as good a guy as you can find. He's 6'2 long with arms and legs that keep unfolding. It's like human origami when he gets out of his boat and he can huck that Orbit Fish like it was a toy…

The wave in Bern is not in so we are sitting at a gas station together headed for his brother's flat in Lyon France for a little Mono et Mono on the big wave of Hawaii-sur-Rhone. Marc Girardin just fired up his little Citroen, Obie Trice is playing and we are out of here, Pat Camblin and Matty on my heels driving the van. Pat Camblin was waiting at out cars when we bounced out of the coffee shop all buzzing for France. Droopy pants, big shades, hoodie pulled low. Boat in tow. Pat is a young punk that has done more traveling then most pros I know. Backed by plenty of money he travels like veterans I know in the sport - earphones in, head bobbin and a smile a mile wide. Couldn't be any happier about the crew we are with, the grinning youngin, the peppy little Pom and the big Frenchmen. You got to love the guys you run with or it just isn't the same.

We slammed into the Lyon wave like a storm front on a wheat field. Leveled the joint. I like to think that I work with the river but what was going on out there was amazing. I witnessed some of the best paddling on earth and I am not afraid to say it. Clean blunts, pan ams, bread and butter, Flash back (super clean spin into a clean backstab), Flash Forward (super clean spin to clean blunts) the nasty moves of the new era of paddling were being unleashed and there was no holding it back. The feeling of that wave on the hull of your boat is like no other. So hard you feel that anything is possible, and anything was... AIR. The bliss of freedom.

Harris Hamblin Girardin Cookie an a mission.
(Remembering our friend Fraz. His passion and love of kayaking and the people who shared it with him will be remembered forever, he was one of the boys, our friend Fraser Champion.)

[more photos in the gallery]