Canoeing the petite Rhone

Yesterday, we went canoeing along the petite Rhone, in the Camargue, a largely natural area south of Arles.  It is a pretty quiet river.  Two French couples were also canoeing. We all piled into a van and were transported upstream to put in the canoes.  The section of the river that we paddled was about 12 kilometers in length.

Our journey was graced by a swan flying over us, several night herons flushing from the trees, great gray herons, egrets, ibises, a few sandpipers, and a brilliant blue and rust colored bird that I'm still trying to identify.  We heard lots of really great bird calls that sounded completely unfamiliar.  We heard a cuckoo calling across the river.

Luckily, the pull out spot was just before the only bridge across the river.  Otherwise, we might have missed it.

The French canoeists

A rare beach on the river