Glacier Melt in Austria

We spent the last week running rivers in the Oetz valley and the Engadine valley kayaking, hanging out and enjoying the Alps.

Jordie and Jen have taken off for a few days of site seeing and we will join up with them in a few days time.

Mark and Jordie on the Upper Oetz

Upper Oetz

Why does nobody stop for us?


Mark on the Middle Oetz

Car Troubles and Switzerland

Sunday morning we picked up Jen & Jordie from the airport and we hit the road. Took the ferry to France and drove towards Switzerland to get to some rivers. On Monday we just about made it to Colmar and the radiator blew a leak. BOO! We coaxed the van down the hill and got it to a radiator mechanic. No paddling for us as it would take a couple days to get fixed L. So until Wednesday afternoon we wandered around Colmar checking out the sites.

Colmar

So Wednesday we got the radiator back into the car and we made our way to Uster (near Zurich), Switzerland to visit my Aunt and Uncle. They hooked us up with a place to stay, loads of food and good company. The next morning we took off making our way to Thun and the rivers close by. All of us were itching to get paddling but unfortunately the rivers we checked out were low. The boys did end up running the Engstlige, but said that it was a boulder bash most of the way down.

Visiting family.

Friday we managed to hook up with a local boater, Simon, and he took the boys on the Wiesse Luetschine. They came off the river with smiles on their faces so it must have been a good run. Saturday Jen and I finally managed to get on a river, the Schwarse Luetschine. A sweet little run that had a train shuttle right back to our van.

Jordie on Wiesse Luetschine.

Saturday afternoon we took the tram up to Gimmelwald and then wandered around up there trying to catch a view of the Eiger… unfortunately the clouds were not cooperating so all we got was a partial glimpse.

View from Gimmelwald.

It rained all night so when we woke up most of the rivers were high. We decided that we would start heading towards Austria as the rivers in the area we were in were either to high or too low. We managed to get a run in on the Sanna before we set up camp for the night.

Today we pulled a few wood ticks off of each other and headed to the Oetz river. We ran the lower Oetz and now we are about to go swimming and have a shower to clean our the grim off of our bodies as showers have been in short supply.

New van, boats and a broken windscreen

So Mark showed up in London on July 3rd and first thing on our agenda was to go van hunting. I had already scoped out a couple possible prospects. In a couple days we were the proud owners of a van. It's a Nissan Urvan... very similar to the van we had while traveling through South America. It was a panel van used for work by a carpeter and then a drywaller. So he was filthy when we got him. We spent a few days cleaning him up and outfitting him and now he's set for a road trip across Europe. He's been named Norman II, in honor of our South American van.

Norman and Michelle

The sweet bed we built in the back (check out the mattress).

Saturday we went to Hyde Park to participate in the festivities of the Tour de France. We watched part of the Prologue, which was taking place in London this year.

Then we headed to Aylesbury to catch up with Mark's friend Jay, as well as borrow some boats so that we could spend a couple of days playing at Hurley. A sweet little playspot that was only running because of all the rain England has been getting over the past couple weeks.

Jay, Mark and Chrissy

Yesterday we made a trip to Bristol to pick up some kayaks (thanks Dagger!), as we didn't want to haul our boats on the planes. Everything was going great until we were on the M4 motorway and Mark hit the brakes for a traffic jam only to have his new kayak slide from the back of the van and take out our windsheild!! So we are another £120 down on the Visa watching this stupidy be repaired. At least we weren't decapitated! In Mark's words"There are too many people here....be thankfull for the open spaces in Canada - driving in London is CRAZY and makes Calgary feel like a one-street town!"

Looking out of Norman after the kayak tried to take out the windshield.

Ouch.

We had to stop off at Hurley to work out our frustrations on the river (and try out the new boats) before we headed back to Aylesbury. Today we have hung around waiting for the windscreen replacement guy to show up... then it's off to London for a couple days before we pick up Jen and Jordie and begin the trek to the alps.

Hurley

Mark with fixed Norman