Euro2012: Hiking and Waterfall Jumping

Today we spent the day touring Saint-Jeanette and then hiking and waterfall jumping.

Ang and Jeff had their date day and went and toured some wineries in the area.

We met Benoit this morning and he took us through the village telling us all about the area where he grew up. I find it so fascinating to hear about how the villages were constructed to protect the people from attack so long ago.

Here Benoit is showing Evan how to drink out of his back-pack that is holding his water. We had about a 3 hour hike up before any waterfall jumping so we wanted to make sure all equipment was in working order.

This was the village jail where they would put unruly townspeople. Mostly drunks and those causing public disturbances.

The last stop before we hit the trail was the chapel. We were told that the climbers would come here and pray for their safe return before they set out to climb the Baou De Saint-Jeanette.

With walking sticks in hand, we set out to explore this beautiful place. We climbed on very narrow trails, over boulders and even through caves. Benoit shared all kinds of stories with us ~ the kids even found "Pirate Brownies" in one of the caves.

After close to 3 hours we made it to the first of many jumps. The water was ridiculously cold but we just couldn't resist jumping in. This jump was about a metre high. Very small compared to what was to come.

We enjoyed another amazing lunch of meats, cheese, bread and wine prepared by Corinne and Benoit. We also ate the "Pirate Brownies" before we headed out to the next few jumps ~each one getting bigger than the last.

This jump was about 4 meters high. It took the kids a little longer to convince themselves to go, but they were awesome ~ they all jumped.

One of the final jumps we did was off of a rock about 8 metres above the water. I say "WE", but that's a lie. Benoit took the kids up and they all jumped, but Rod and I opted for the smaller more sane 4 meter one.