Canoeing the Dordogne and Lot - a couple of questions

[DerekJ]

On the basis we are successful in our house hunting we would plan to be living within striking distance of both the rivers Dordogne and Lot.

I would plan to bring my kayaks across with me and would like to be able to take trips on both of these rivers. So, to the questions:

1. Does anyone know if any of the canoe hire companies will allow (for a fee) you to put your kayak on their trailer and let you travel with them to their start point? The reason for asking is that I'd like to avoid double journeys to start and finishing points with the car.

2. What are these rivers like to navigate off season? I'm quite happy to tackle reasonable rapids but don't want Grade V stuff.

3. Any recommended stretches of these rivers... I've previously done the Dordogne with hire canoes along what I guess are the standard stretches.

Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks

[Bob T]

No rapids on the Dordogne in this area. During the summer the river is covered with plastic canoes. A much quieter river is the Vezere, there are some hire companies, but no where near as many as the Dordogne.

[DerekJ]

Thanks Bob. Thanks for the Vezere tip. I guess there are quite a few rivers that I need to explore and find out the canoeing possibilities (sounds like a good excuse for a ride on the GS!).

I know what you mean about the mass of canoes during the main summer months. I'm presuming that the nature of these rivers is likely to change quite a bit with heavy rain/melting snow especially higher up.

The boat transportation thing is a bit of a pain though as really these are "one way" rivers, not out and back.

[Hoddy]

The problem with getting the commercial trailers to help is that they only operate in the tourist season when the river is busy.

I sometimes see people being dropped off by car at various points by someone who is obviously going to pick them up later, but I suppose that would be a drag if you both wanted to go on the river.

One of the advantages of the commercial companies is that they advise you which line of the river to take, which arch of the bridge to go under and so on.There are some places where canoeing is difficult. Downstream from Tremolat towards Lalinde is very shallow - there’s an ancient canal running alongside which historiically used to take the river traffic, but I’m not sure it’s navigable now. Some of the bits downstream from Montfort can be quite scary too, if you get in the wrong ‘lane’.

If you’ve seen it in the summer it’s tempting to think that the Dordogne is tame. It isn’t. This summer it never really got low. A young local man was drowned while fishing from a boat early this year. He didn’t have a life jacket though and I presume you would take sensible safety precautions.

Some of the companies have leaflets which cover long stretches of the river. I can recommend Dordogne Randonee at Cenac & St Julien.

Hoddy

[DerekJ]

Hoddy.   Thanks a lot for your reply.

I understand the point about the commercial operators, I guess I need to see what dates they actually operate.

For gentle day trips I'd like to do that with SWMBO so the difficulty of drop off/collect comes into play.

I'd also like to do a few more adventurous trips so I guess I could prevail on OH to drop me off, pick me up.

Before I undertook anything challenging I'd make sure I'd done a scout beforehand.  Kayak racing used to be my sport so I well understand and respect water (and yes, I'd wear a lifejacket).

I'll have a look at the companies you recommend... many thanks.