This weekend I did a whistlestop tour of the River Canche, in the Pas-de-Calais department of Northern France.  Only an hour south of Calais, the River Canche is almost certainly my closest white water river in terms of driving miles.

I first heard about this river towards the end of last year, when my local canoe shop was organising a trip over the New Year holidays.  I wanted to go, but we were committed to other things on the dates.  So I’ve been itching to go and have a look at it.

If you’ve been following my paddling exploits on this blog, you’ll realise that I have spent time working in the Ardeche in the South of France.  I also spent six months working in Normandie, and I never heard of this river at the time.  I didn’t even think there was any white water in Northern France.  Afterall, it’s flat.

The Ferry cost £45 return on Sea France, 15ft open canoe on the roof included.  Cheaper than a night down the pub.  I’ve since noticed norfolkline.com do £19 each way Dover to Dunkirk, which is 20 minutes drive closer to the Canche and cheaper.  So there will be a regular thing happening here.

If you would like a good river guide for the Canche, then Kent Canoes have an excellent river guide.  I used this to plan the trip and work out the get in and get out places.  We didn’t do the complete two day trip that they have planed.  We simply did Day 2 of that trip.  Day one sounded a bit tame and I wanted to see the white water in a day.

I caught an 8am ferry from Dover to Calais and drove down to meet up with friends working in an outdoor centre located 20 minutes away from the Canche that we would be paddling with.  We then drove to the Canche and dropped a car off at the get out point so we could shuttle back to the car at the get in.  This took a bit of nosing around to find the right places as we had driven from a different direction to the guide we were following.  But we soon worked it out and hit the water.

The day started off bright, sunny and hot, but true to Northern France weather, the day was punctuated with a few light showers meaning the anoraks had to come out.

I really enjoyed the paddle.  It was great spending time time with Davy and Lindzy and a lovely paddle of around 6 miles, meaning we were never under pressure of time to cover distance.  Simply to enjoy the paddle.

On the whole, the Canche is a very safe environment to experience white water.  The rapids do not contain any obstacles as such, just bouncy waves.  No rocks, walls or caves to avoid.  A stones throw from south east England, the Canche should be a staple for every southern paddler and a great learning venue for white water skills, open boat or kayak.

There are three decent grade 2 play waves on the section that we paddled and a couple of weirs that are shootable.   The play wave on the slalom course is a classic grade 2, fed by two sluice gates.  We played here for about half an hour.  Unfortunately all the video footage of this is over exposed.  You’ll have to take my word for it that we were popping cartwheels in trad boats

One thing that did keep the senses heightened was a couple of fallen trees that we encountered that were completely blocking the river.

I can imagine that with a lot of rain and a high river level, this could potentially be an accident waiting to happen, but at these water levels, it added to the fun.  It also appeared as though some of the houses backing onto the river had very basic home-made sewage systems going from the house direct into the river.  There was also a sighting of a floater.  So the jury is out on the water quality, although it didn’t stink and look stagnant, and the river flow and current was fast, even on the flat sections, making paddling easy.

I had a chat with a couple of the guys from the canoe kayak club located on the slalom course and they said that the water is always maintained at the level we saw, as it is regulated and so always has a decent level of water with guranteed play waves.  Just so pleased to find a decent play wave within an hour and a half drive from home.  The fact this is in northern France, and a great excuse to see Davy, is the added spank on the bum.