Corsica 2013 fb

Back to the Birthplace...

The long road to Corsica

Text and photos by Darin McQuoid

Where is Corsica? We all seem to have heard of this place, but few know exactly where it is.

Twenty years ago, the Mediterranean French island was the place to be seen—and to paddle, as the birthplace of creekboating. Somehow it fell off the map for North American paddlers.

Not for Rok Sribar, who grew up in Slovenia and frequented the island during his early years, but had not returned in some time due to a 20-odd-year residence in the States. Water levels are notoriously hard to predict, but thanks to the interconnectivity of the modern world, this spring we heard tales of record snow in the mountains, while rivers at home in California remained inexplicably dry. The choice was obvious.

First, a little detour. It’s impossible to fly kayaks from the U.S. to Corsica, so we flew into Munich, Germany, and borrowed boats from the kind people at Prijon Kayaks.

From there it’s a quick afternoon drive through Austria to Slovenia where we spent two days wandering around Bovec, the setting of Hemmingway’s ‘A Farewell to Arms.’

High in the Julian Alps, the SoÄ?a River flows through a majestic setting and gives us multiple sections to warm up on and get used to the kayaks. Local cuisine, wine and scenery are a joy.

Too soon we have to depart for our date with a ferry, and cross Italy during the night to sleep at the dock.

From the ferry we saw blankets of white covering lofty peaks rising 8,000 feet above the azure Mediterranean. Rivers on the “ile de beaute� are often short, which allowed us to slip into a comfortable rhythm: breakfast in a cafe; a quick paddle down classic whitewater; lunch in an unspoiled mountain town that seemed to have changed little through the centuries; then an afternoon high-water run on a second river, and dinner at a campsite or equally scenic town that we were passing through.

Knocking off new runs every day, our time in Corsica ended too soon and left me wondering how this magical place didn’t always stay high on the todo list of kayakers in our hemisphere.

“Corsica’s water levels are notoriously hard to predict. I’ve been there 10 times now, when it’s been both too high and low. But flows were almost optimal this year.”

— Rok Sribar

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It was cool to be where creekboating all started.

Everything we were running, people were running in fiberglass kayaks more than two decades ago.

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... and looking back at where our journey started in Slovenia