From Noiraigue to Boudry along L’Areuse

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On Sunday, after Saturday’s via ferrata I went for a walk along the Areuse river. The hike started in Noiraigue and went along the Areuse river and two gorges. In reality it’s one gorge but there are two parts to the gorge seperated by a long flat bit that is more friendly to people who are slightly, or quite afraid of heights.

This experience wa organised via GoSocial rather than Meetup.com or other sites. Initiaully I was sceptical of such an activity because there are over 50 people signed up, and only 25 spots so I expected not to be able to go. Luckily people signed out and a spot cleared for me the evening before the hike.

The list is interesting. It has 25 spots, for those that are already confirmed, and you cut and paste the list, adding your name to the waiting list. As people remove themselves so you are automatically moved down the list and eventually promoted to “participating”.

The key thing that I liked about this group is that the hike didn’t end as soon as the hike ended. In fact it continued for hours afterwards and some people even went up to the Creux Du Van to see the sunset. If I had known how much longer the activity would last I would have stayed longer but I’ll explore that later.

## Car Park

I checked the travel time by train, and by car, and saw that with the car I would save 50 minutes so I took the car and parked it at Boudry train station. I then hung around there waiting for a train. Eventually I realised that to connect Boudry and Noiraigue you had to change train. I thought I was going to be half an hour late to the walk. I then found that the train station I wanted to use was 20 minutes away, on foot, so I walked up. Within 15 minutes I had covered the distance. From that station trains are every half hour, rather than every hour.

## Familiar First Part

The first part of the hike was familiar because it is the hike I have done along that gorge when I hiked the Creux De Van, at the start of this year’s group hiking season. Photos were taken at iconic spots along the way. These were the stone bridge, the Expo 02 bridge, the Baume De Four and one or two other locations.
[The Route](https://www.komoot.com/tour/1778678181?share_token=aUmlkgM8wIpoNtX58kqjOaX2yPZ2MUX3iS4ZMrpk8ZtLQfMDEM&ref=)

## The Snack Point

When I do group hikes people always want to stop for a drink or a snack, and then another snack. I like to hike without stopping, and have a good meal in the evening. The main snack point was by the river where it was flat and convenient. My snacks were consumed quickly and then I was ready to continue.

## The More Exposed Segment

The part to avoid is the [Gorge Sauvage](https://www.komoot.com/highlight/1904045) as it is called on Komoot because although it looks nice it takes you high above the river and there are bits that are exposed. If you slip and fall you could potentially fall into the gorge. It requires good shoes and surefootedness.

Within this part of the gorge you see ill-equipped people, symobolising that you are getting back to “civilisation”. It’s at this point that the group split in two. One group walked back to the train station and the other went on to the castle, and eventually the lake. My first goal was to go and pick up the car from the train station but instead I drove people from Boudry Gare to Noiraigue. I considered driving down to the lake and waiting for the group to re-emerge but chose to take the motorway home. One reason for this is that I didn’t know how much longer the group would stay by the lake.

If I had known that they would spend hours by the lake I might have made the effort to go down to the lake. With shade I might have stayed for a while before returning home.

## Too Much Sun

In Leukerbad I spent hours in the sun because there was no shade, so Sunday when I sat in the morning sun I felt that I had overdone it. On Saturday after the Charmey VF the group spent hours in the sun and I wanted to be in the shade. I suspect that Sunday I would have spent many more hours in the sun, if I had gone to the lake, so returning home was probably the right decision anyway.

## Too Well Equipped

During this hike I was asked, “Why would you do such an easy hike?” because I was equipped for a serious hike, rather than what we did. The short answer is “because I didn’t really know what to expect from the path” but also because I didn’t know the level of the hiking group. It’s better to be too well equipped and appear absurd, than too little equipped.

The paradox is that I only had a cycling rain coat, two water bottles, hiking shoes, and batons, but with the small bag that I use for all of my local walks.

## And Finally

I went on this hike because I was curious to try GoSocial and it’s better to do something comfortable, before doing something ambitious. Now that I know what to expect I can push the boundaries further next time. I enjoyed the group and I like that they hung around at the end of the activity rather than rushing home. We will see how soon I do the next GoSocial activity.