Wild River, Cool Dog

Countryside Column for 30 August

Wild River, Cool Dog

            After a long tiring day sleeping in the shade, Myrtle likes nothing better than an evening swim.

            Mostly we walk down from our village to the river that gives the local wines, Cotes de Thongue, their name.

            In summer it’s not much more than a trickle, but there’s a large hollow next to a popular barbecue spot that is full of water all year round. Here human bathers are banned but canine ones tolerated if no one is fishing. Myrtle rushes into the water, paddling vigorously in chase of sticks, and then delights in shaking herself over everyone nearby.

      Often we have the place to ourselves, but at weekends there are parties enjoying the shade of the dense trees that line the river as it flows slowly south to join the Hérault and enter the Mediterranean at Agde.

            A larger and more exciting local river, also much favoured by Myrtle, is the Orb which rises in the hills above Bédarieux and flows 145 kilometres past Béziers. The Orb is still largely sauvage or wild, which means there are rapids to provide thrills and spills for canoeists around Roquebrun and Cessenon.  One moment you are floating lazily downstream admiring the majestic countryside, the next you are fighting to keep your craft upright as it’s rushed over rocks in the white water sections. A photographer at the most hazardous points later offers overpriced prints of you and your companion coming a cropper.  I have several from over the years!

            A little further downstream is the wonderful river beach at Réals, reached by clambering down a long steep path. There, for perhaps a kilometre, the river widens and deepens so you (and the dog) can swim peacefully in the cool water - as long as you avoid youths flinging themselves off surrounding rocks. At one point, huge boulders restrict the flow and the brave or foolhardy can body-surf through the torrent.           

            The water level in the Orb is partly controlled from a reservoir in the hills. And so many French rivers have been altered by dams that there is now an entusiastic movment to protect wild rivers. A long protest actually persuaded the authorities to remove a damn on the Allier, a major tributary of the Loire, enabling salmon to spawn in its upper reaches after a gap of more than a century. It can all make the Medway seem a bit tame somehow.