September 2025 — Ardeche Campout

Written by Oscar Burgess (Life Scout; Senior Patrol Leader)

On 13-14 September 2025, we had our traditional kayaking activity: The Ardèche Weekend! 

We camped at Huttopia, in St Martin d’Ardèche, FR which is right next to the kayak centre. On our arrival, we had our packed dinners, put our tents up, and went to sleep. In the morning, we got up, got dressed, had breakfast prepared by the patrol grubmasters. Then, we packed our bags with everything we needed for the day and headed off to the kayaking centre. Once there, the boss of the centre, Cyril, gave us some technique instruction and we headed out to the starting point by bus. There, we unloaded the kayaks and set off down the river. 

We had two guides with us to help us through the many rapids that were on the river. It was good fun capsizing!

We occasionally stopped off on the shore to admire the beautiful suroundings, have lunch, and have a dip in the water. Some of us also saw some big fish! At the end of our day, we had kayaked 24km along the river and it was great to end our amazing day with pizzas at the campsite! 

The following day, after having slept very well, some of us went to visit the Aven d’Orgnac for a guided tour in this prehistoric set of caves. It was amazing seeing all the prehistoric structures, and there was a museum too which was also facinating!  After that, we headed home to Geneva, after an amazing weekend.