As you might have noticed, if you read the newspapers or watched the telly, the Maritime Alps region suffered very badly from flooding during the last part of 1994. Whole villages got washed downstream, bridges disappeared..... as you can guess, all bets are off for the description of these rivers. I have been told that the flooding also got the Verdon cachement and about 1000 cumex were chugging down the gorge at one point. It's a fair bet that things will be quite different now.
Get in at the D2202 bridge below Entraunes and get out below the road bridge in Guillaumes. A couple of good grade IV sections, better with some water.
This is a beautiful paddle with a fantastic gorge. We drove up and got in at a bridge about 1km below Guillaumes where the D2202 crosses over the river. You can certainly get in higher than this, but we had fairly low water and the region upstream looked like a poor paddle. Below here, the river is quite easy with only occasional obstructions to negotiate. As you pass under a really high bridge at the entrance to the gorge, look out for the bungie jumpers! The gorge below here is quite spectacular and in parts is almost perfectly vertical. The get out at the next bridge after the gorge, or about 1km further down at some gravel beds where there is a nice bivi spot which is quite popular with Germans. This is reached by turning down to the river just north of Daluis.
Get in at the N202 road bridge about 2 km below Annot, then get out at the N202 bridge below the confluence with the Var. Needs a heap of rain.
Hop on at St Etienne from the D2205 and go on down to the Pont Rouge below Bourguet ant grade IV. Below this bridge is a grade V rapid and the remaining 8 km down to Isola contains two more sections of up to grade V. Get out before the barrage at Isola.
Supposedly you can do:
A fascinating place. The Verdon is dammed up by Castellane and the barrage here controls the water flow into the river. You need to find out if they are releasing before you bother going down there really. To get to Castellane is about 3 hours from Barcellonete. It might be quicker from Embrun as the roads that way are better. However, it seems that there is a release every year on the first weekend in July. The local EDF and the paddlers organise a sort of event. This is probably a good time to try the gorge. There's a good campsite by the main road in La Palud.
The easiest and normal get in is at the confluence of the Verdon and the Jabron about 13km down the D952 from Castellane. There is a small bridge over the river to a picnic area which makes a fine bivi spot (Pont de Carajuan). From here to the Couloir Samson is about 4km grade III with 2 falls of grade IV. The first by the road 200m from the Pont de Carajuan and the other right at the end by the Couloir Sampson. Both are easily spotted and portaged if need be.
After the Couloir Sampson begins the gorge proper. 22km grade IV with a small number of harder falls. The main difficulty with this river (at least at the 21cumex we had) is the severity of any mistakes. The water is constantly going through sumps some of which are quite hard to avoid. In a few places the river is completely blocked and in two places you actually enter a cavern. The other problem to be addressed is the length. The gorge took us 10 hours including a couple of swims, one of which probably used up an hour...so take lunch!
The main difficulties are: