Rafting Aare to Bern - July
Having rented the raft a long time in advance, we were delighted that the weather and flow in the Aare were perfect for a day gently drifting from Uttigen to Bern with Kathy & family, and Diana and Luis.
We met up at Uttigen, and after the usual faff of collecting or inflating boats, packing the equipment and getting into the river we were well underway in beautiful sunshine. There was a really good flow in the river - plenty enough to be interesting, but not too intimidating. We made our way steadily downstream, sometimes together, and sometimes a little separated, as we didn't want to attach the boats together, as we sometimes do with the packraft.
There was a slight challenge just before lunchtime - some of the party were in the water and we decided they would try to swim to the channel, rather than getting back in the boats. This was a bad plan, and those in the water ended up getting dragged across shallow rapids, which wasn't a great experience. However, we recovered everyone with only a few bumps and scrapes and with sense of humours mostly intact. An excellent picnic lunch helped restore the good mood, and we set off again, all in boats this time!
We continued to drift downstream where there were more opportunities for swimming in appropriately deep water. It is a great advantage to know the river a little, so we were in good stead from the previous trips. The boat return point was earlier than I had originally anticipated, being at the Eichholz campsite, so we continued swimming to Marzili bad. Arriving safely but a little separated, we decamped to the park for a celebratory drink and snack to round off an excellent - if slightly eventful - day.
Overall it was about 19km (owing to the early drop-off of the boat), and took about 4 hours 15, all in. The flow in the river was 135 m³/s.