July 27th -Free Day Chamonix

Our last day in the Alps is a rainy one.  I'm so happy the rain held off until we were done hiking!  Some of those trails would not have been much fun in the rain!

7 of us had booked a "tour" of hydro speed - that's going down the raging river with a little hand held "boat" Looks more like a toboggan... anyways...  Ends up only 5 of us went down the river.  Here's how it went...

We got there, were fitted in wet suits as the river is glacial water.  Heather and I had a good laugh trying to put those on!  What a hoot!  Those are tight suckers! Once we were all dressed, we met outside for a briefing on what to do and what not to do.  This briefing got every single one of us thinking "what the hell did I get myself into"?!   Time came to get in the water...

Before going - I'm not sure we looked this happy at the end! 

We walk to the river, with all these thoughts in our heads - do this, don't do that, don't flip, don't let go of boat, don't stand... the list went on and on...or so it seemed.  OMG the water is cold on the feet!! You have booties on, but it's still really cold.

Ready to go - the guide says point your boat upstream and look downstream and off we go! WHEEE!  Within a few seconds, 2 of our group have flipped over, one has lost his helmet, what a team we make! haha  One guide takes care of the helmet while the other takes care of the flipped members.  All I can think of is don't flip, don't let go.

It's quite the ride! I don't know how fast we are going, but it's a little daunting.  We are supposed to stop -following strict instructions, we miss the first stop.  We did manage to stop a couple times - never a fun experience!  At one point, we hit huge waves, I'm pushed in them, hit my knee on rocks multiple times, we then stop and I hit my other knee on the one rock there.  Ouch!  More bruises!

By this point, I couldn't wait to be done, I'm sure, by the look on my buddies faces, they were feeling the same way.  Luckily, we were almost there.  The last bit was a bit harrowing!  The rapids were fast and furious - but quite fun after all!  This was an experience of a lifetime.  Would I do it again? Probably not even though I'm happy I did it.

We had a last dinner together at a restaurant.  The best part of this dinner was the desserts!

This adventure is now over.  Rémi and I will now be off on our own -in the south of France.  Off to the next leg of our trip!