Bobby Gilbert Adventures

From the 30th June to 2nd of July we found a great campsite near Kobarid in the beautiful Soča valley (location of Hemingway’s A Farewell To Arms). We did a bit of cycling, a lot of time relaxing in hammock, enjoyed cooking and drinking a few beers. But most fun was spending time cooling down and playing in the river.

I asked at the campsite if there was a way down to the river below. “Yes, but you can’t swim there, it is too fast, you have to go downstream”. We went down and dipped our toes in.

I reckoned it would be possible to dive in a bit upstream and if you went feet first, to fend of submerged rocks, and swam very hard, you could get back into a quiet eddy a bit further down. “Go on then” said Sally wrongly assuming that my declared general reticence to swim meant is was all talk. But this wasn’t swimming, this was adventure! See video at bottom of this post – the out-takes and preparation bit at the end. Sally thought it was total madness but then agreed to join me if I did it again. Crazy woman!

We studied the rather more exciting rapids further down the river. “What we really need is an old tractor inner tube”, declared Sally, “then we could really go for it. Shame there’s nowhere to buy one”.

The following day we were wandering around the huge supermarket in Kobarid. It really had everything. Then we spotted the inflatable rings. “This is not a flotation device, this is a toy” it said on the package. Well they looked like flotation devices to us.

And so was born “Honest Bob’s Budget White Water Rafting – We never knowingly lose a client” to the tune of a seven Euro investment.

We “rafted” the gorge down to the shallows below. Then the following day Sally did a recce upstream and we incorporated about a mile of rapids to the surprise of canoeists and sunbathers. So much fun. Six months later my leg has just about stopped hurting from the bolder I hit. How we laughed.