The french family robinson in petite amazonia

"It all began in Hendaye at the Decathlon Watersports Centre, where we were met by Jérôme, who works for the kayak & stand-up paddle brand Itiwit.

He gave us a tour of the Design & Prototyping Centre of all of Decathlon's water-based sports.

It was really informative to find out how this great French sports brand's products are invented.

At the end of the tour, we collected three big backpacks containing the three Itiwit3 inflatable kayaks, six double paddles, three pumps, six buoyancy aids and two dry bags that will allow us to travel over 90 kilometres of the Leyre and the Eyre.

We will have to give feedback on the positive and negative points of these kayaks so that they can make them even better. It is very interesting for us to have this chance to participate in the test, we will need to be able to make constructive comments.

We leave Pouloye on a section of river 5-6 m wide, perfectly in the shade! Let's not forget that the weather forecast says that there will be a heat wave all week. It will suit us just fine to be under these branches that sometimes force us to duck to pass under them. The little ones are having fun counting these overgrown obstacles and we are enjoying having to slalom to get through.

The only landmark that links us to civilization when we are on the Leyre is the bridges. We will go under two more of them this afternoon before we get to Testarrouman municipal quay in Pissos. Under the bridges, there are often "mini" rapids that give our young kayakers a buzz.

The crews have been changed for the afternoon. We balance the boats better: a big and a medium paddler in each kayak. The strongest at the rear to propel and steer and the medium-sized one at the front to help propel.

We have less than half an hour of paddling left after the Bern bridge. The children speed up and jump out onto the beach in front of the campsite. It's time to cool down now; we'll think about putting the tent up later. Everyone bathes in the slightly rust-coloured water, caused by "garluche", a kind of sandstone rich in iron. The Leyre is a "true river", since its source is only 10 km upstream of Commensacq.

We had a nice evening at Pissos pizzeria; our journalists took the whole family out for dinner. Thank you very much!

We set off at 9am. It takes us just half an hour to load our things back into the kayaks, put the buoyancy aids on and get on the water.

9:30, we can feel the difference in temperature. On the Leyre, there is a difference of about 5°C from the announced temperatures. The water temperature should be around 16°C at the moment. We have been told that we are lucky because it is usually cooler.

We get to the confluence of the Grande Leyre and the Petite Leyre just after we set off. The river changes name, we now find ourselves on the Eyre, which is wider and straighter. Navigation becomes easier but we still do not dare to put on the skegs. We are still scraping against tree trunks.

After three hours of paddling, we stop on a tiny beach that may well never have been set foot on before. Swim, sarnie, fruit... we laugh and play and then it is time to leave by arm power alone. Blisters appear on the hands of some of the paddlers.

One hour later, we get to Belin Beliet. Life is good!

Nicolas from Lou Canoë helps us lift out the boats. He even offers to take all of our gear up to the campsite.

I find that the outdoor instructors, leaders and providers along the Leyre are generally very nice. We have the feeling that before their work, there is this passion for this river. They do not give off the impression that it belongs to them but on the contrary that the river accepts to have them there.

We get up early this morning because we still have 20 km to go. But despite us getting up at 6:30, we don't leave until 8am. It must be said that the inertia of the group can really be felt with the fatigue. You have to make the most of being on the water in the morning to try to see the animals in the cool morning air.

The first 10 kilometres to Mios are like the 70 km we have just done, beautiful and wild.

After a 10:30 snack on Mios beach, we notice that the banks of the river are more populated and that rubbish is accumulating at the edges of the last few kilometres of the Eyre.

5 km after Mios, there is the so-called "sandpit", a part of the river where the water is not very deep, between 5 and 10 cm, where we ate sat in the kayaks, which we kept in place with a system of paddles stuck in the sand .

Our trip could have ended at Teich, given that the river splits into two. But as we wanted to go around the island of Malprat, we preferred to follow the advice and get to Biganos. Unfortunately, we had to cancel our trip around the island because the wind was blowing too hard and as we have small arms in the team, we do not want to overexert our youngest crew members.

After deflating our boats, we celebrate our arrival with a nice canned cassoulet, happy with our 90 km on the Leyre!