In Italy, we decided to try something different and go to the river overlooking Mount Blanc for a day trip. There, you can go whitewater rafting, and since it was a warm day, the water would hopefully not be as freezing. While there was a longer session for adults, we decided to stick together and join a few other people on a boat to do the softer rapids.

After going through a few instructions on different paddling techniques, emergency procedures and putting on our wetsuits, we drove to the start of the river and got onto the boat. Apparently, the water was about 11 degrees, which is warmer than usual due to the fact it was a hot summer day. During winter, the river dried up and you couldn’t do the rafting, so this was somewhat a seasonal thing.

There was a photographer taking some photos throughout the experience, though most of our faces were covered in water or we were ducking down during a particularly bumpy part. We did buy a few photos at the end, however.

For most of the time, we were paddling forward, though I’m pretty sure the instructor was doing most of the work with the much bigger oars to steer with. We were also told to duck quite a lot whenever we reached rocky parts, getting splashed quite a few times since me and I were at the front. The coach had to speak in both English for us and Italian for the other family, but all he said was ‘forward’, ‘stop’ and ‘duck’ during our time on the boat, so it didn’t seem very complex. At a point, we turned to look at the mountains at his suggestion, which were beautiful, and down the clear river we sailed on.

Near the end, there was a waterfall we went down, though thankfully the impact we braced ourselves for was underwhelming. We slowed as we reached the shore, and our instructor said we could jump off to swim the rest of the few metres. Unconvinced, Z held back, but I, N and M were freezing in the water! It was deeper than it looked.

Overall, whitewater rafting was a fun experience we’d all like to do again at some point, but maybe on a warm day where the river isn’t quite so cold!