I recently spent an exciting, adventurous and exhilarating day, canyoning with Ultimate Rock Adventures.
James, the proprietor, has been a friend for many years and this is his second year of business. The activities and services he offers are steadily gaining the kudos they deserve and despite my fears (e.g. I’ve never abseiled before – but I trusted James implicitly), I secured this opportunity to join a group going down the river one Saturday in June.
Based in Gibraltar, the adventure activities can take place pretty much anywhere, but mainly in Spain. The group I joined, completed the beginner’s route at Rio Guadalmina, close to Benahavis.
We met at the Gibraltar-Spain border and set off towards Benahavis at 08:00am. We stopped for breakfast on the way and began to mingle. The group consisted of Keith and Lorraine, with their two children, aged nine and twelve; James’ nephew Daniel with his friend Denzil, myself and James. So, three generations really, with myself as abuelo. Lol.
We parked close to what would be the end of our journey downriver, on a site that holds the Sunday Market there (no parking on Sundays!). Here, we were kitted out and given our first instructions. We were provided with complete wet-suits, harness’ and helmets. We were shown how to attach the carabiner required for abseiling and what the emergency procedures were, should there be an accident.
We began then by walking up the road a short way and crossing the river via a wooden footbridge. This took us across country for a short way, before we clambered up and into an ancient aqueduct. This would now lead us directly to the start of our canyoning experience.
James chooses to use this particular route because it is shaded and the water is particularly cooling – which is of great benefit when kitted out in full wet-suits and helmet, in the blazing summer sun of southern Spain. Along the way he told us something of the history of the aqueduct (now used mainly for watering the golf courses down closer to Marbella) and about some of the flora we were encountering. [Link to video]
We eventually came to a fairly tall rock on our left and climbed out of the aqueduct and up on to the rock. This is where it got really scary for me. By the time I had got to the top, James was already over the top of it, fastening safety ropes etc. to the rock itself.
This would be our first abseil. Seeing him there, on a slight ledge just over the pointed top of the rock and looking over the precipitous drop into the river (the drop was much, much deeper than the height we’d climbed from the aqueduct) made me feel ill. I was terrified. There really was no way I would be able to accomplish this!
However, I didn’t fancy trying to climb back down to the aqueduct and didn’t want to wimp out at this first obstacle. Only Daniel had done anything like this before, so he went first to demonstrate what James was telling us. He made it look so easy! Therefore, I let nearly everyone else go before me, so that I could watch their various techniques and listen to James more closely (and repeatedly). I came to realise that the tools being used, as well as the science behind them (levers, pulleys etc.) were to be trusted and that my only real fear was climbing up and then slightly down, to where James waited with the safety ropes and equipment. Link to video
I’d already enough spent time looking down and thinking ‘oh heck’ (or words to that effect), so I didn’t do that, I simply lowered myself to the (tiny!) platform of rock and looked inland as James fastened me up and gave me my instructions. I’d seen that an angle of around 45o would be the correct stance and then James told confirmed that by saying:
– “it’s pretty much the same angle you would be in if sat on a public toilet, where there wasn’t a lock on the door…” –
So, I was ‘off’ with a laugh and felt really quite confident now. Feeding the rope from one hand to another seemed to come naturally, as the rope took all of my weight and the way it had been fastened by James allowed it to become a brake too.
With a few small mis-steps and splash at the end I was down! Link to video (same as the one above)
If they read this, I must thank everyone in the team again, for the confidence they gave me by being so brave themselves. Thank you all.
We then did a variety of jumps, high and low, as we meandered down the river. Even the high jumps did not look bad from water level, but sometimes, once you were up on the ledge, they looked enormous. I only wimped out on one, mainly because the way up looked difficult (via a pull rope) but also because everyone looked terrified when they got up onto the ledge.
We had one final abseil close to the end, much smaller than the previous and, again after Daniel, I was first to go. Abseiling? Sorted!
I think that it has been a good job that I’ve been able to top up my fitness by completing a number of walks [see other blog] and scoots over the two weeks prior to the canyoning, because I was completely drained that night and I ached all over the day after. I developed cramp in the hamstrings of both legs towards then end of our trip and overnight they made me wince. However, I wouldn’t have missed the day for anything.
Thank you everyone for your help.
Picture Credit
Aqueduct: By Tanja Freibott [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)%5D, from Wikimedia Commons
Saturday Walks 