CANOEING-by Belén Mañá

Hello! In order to continue describing all the strange sports I’ve practised, this month I am writing about another activity that I like to do.

I started doing this activity five years ago but, as it’s difficult to find some place near to do it; I only do it like three times a year (or even less).

But... which is this activity? Let me explain my last experience doing it and I’ll tell you what it is.

As I wrote some months ago, during our stay in Gran Canaria, one day my uncle and I went to do this activity. We drove for more than an hour while I still didn’t know what we were going to do because my family had told us it was a surprise. Eventually my uncle parked in a tiny village, just in front of a group of people dressed with neoprene wetsuits. At this moment I realised what the surprise was: we were going canyoning!!

Canyoning consists on walking down a river following the riverbed, and using every slide that the water has carved into the rock or descending the waterfalls either jumping or using ropes. 

We put on our neoprene wetsuits too and as soon as the group was ready, we hiked up a mountain in 15 minutes, we ate a piece of fruit and we started the adventure:

We started out descending a cliff.

After that, there were some slides which are, in my opinion, the funniest things of canyoning. In the cliffs you are insured by the rope and you can stop if you need to. You descend slowly but surely and looking usually at some amazing views. But when you are falling over a slide you can’t stop nor go back once you’ve started, and that’s always thrilling.

Continuing our route we found more cliffs (one of those was more than 50 metres high!) and, although people think cliffs are the most dangerous things when practicing these kind of sports, these are actually quite safe and easy to go through. You just have to tie the rope to the harness and control the speed you want with your hands.

After this, there were some jumps in small waterfalls. To do this, it’s indispensable that there’s enough water at the bottom so you don’t break your legs if you jump. These jumps are really fun too. Although these ones were quite short (less than 8m high) and I’ve jumped higher ones (up until 11 metres), it’s always a bit scary when you’re on top of the cliff. It is because the height seems to double or triple when you are at the top and there’s usually no other way to move forward unless you jump. 

After 6 hours, we arrived to the final attraction: “The Relocator”:a mix between a cliff and a slide. The guide told us that it’s name’s because it relocates your vertebrae. He explained to us what to do: we had to descend with the rope and then drop it, and let us slide... but being careful not to hurt our spine...!!! “It doesn’t seem too difficult” I thought. So I started descending with the rope, and then the guide said “Now! Drop the rope!”.  I thought “How am I supposed to do that if I am 15 metres high and the wall is completely vertical?” I finally did it, but I took a couple of minutes until I found enough courage to do it and luckily, I didn’t break any bones!!! But unfortunately when I went down I realised that the lake was full of tourists clapping and cheering at me... Is it necessary to say that it was really embarrassing??!!

This is the last time I’ve gone canyoning, for now, but as the summer is getting closer I think I won’t delay much doing it again with my club.

As we live in Madrid and it’s a huge city, there are not many rivers to do it, so we usually go to Guadalajara, Cuenca, Zaragoza, León, etc.

Although it seems a weird sport there are more companies and clubs doing it than what you think so... why don’t you try it?!