Project Birs - The Legend of the Eurydice

The second day startet good. The weather was fine and I was really looking forward to this spectacular part of the project that I had right before me.
As the GoPro was lost, I replaced it with the new, glorious Runcam that I've ordered shortly before the project started and I fixed what was broken during the first day.

Then I took the train and went to Court where I've ended the first day. Almost immediately I put the boat into the water and started off.
The first part was still calm and mostly reachable. I thought of nothing bad and was certain to already have good video sequences. Then I took the boat out of the water to cross a big street and put it back in afterwards. From then on the misery had its way.
The hiking path that was marked right aside of the river trough all the valley was acutally right aside of the river but with a lot of hight difference whitch forced me to climb on steep terrain going up and down whenever the boat was in some kind of misery.
The first time such a misery occured was some few meters after I've put the boat back into the water. The hiking path led over a rocky wall whilst the river past almost underneath it. Therefore I could not see nor steer the boat and just saw from afar how it was thrown upside down by some obstacle in the water. I ran further till it was again possible to climb down and access the river. There I found a dam on which the boat was stuck.
I had to cross the knees deep water and find myself a long enough stick to get the boat back to shore. There I checked it, put everything pack in place and put it in the water shortly after the dam.
My approach to follow the river was shortly after interrupted by a bushy under wood that almost hung into the water. I had to climb halfway to the hiking path to be able to walk and lost sight of the Eurydice again. It was just every now and then that I saw her wild red appearing shimmering in the glittering water.
Not after long - the water was fast and turbulent - she turned upside down again. I climbed down but was to slow to reach her. Running to not lose sight of her I was wondering how I could ever manage all the twenty kilometers ahead of me.

Eventually I saw her turning herself up again. Thanks to a good weight management she preferred to sit in the water as she was meant to but still I saw her moving strangely. She even reacted slower to the commands of the radio control that I was still using whenever possible to make her cross white water as smoothly as possible.
I was now pushing myself trough bushes and plants alongside the waterside. I only saw the boat occasionally and was too busy finding my way to be able to steer her. Several times she got stuck and several times I had to go into the water or find a stick to put her back on track. My legs were already starting to hurt.
After another turn the river got wider and was calmer. It was still quite fast but with way less rocks sticking out of it and smoother over the steeper passages. Unfortunately the riverside was wilder and the bushes grew thicker so at a certain point I saw my boat disappearing around a turn while I was stuck in some thorny tendrils.
As I've freed myself I ran as fast as somehow possible but couldn't find the Eurydice any more. She seemed to have vanished in thin air. I crossed the river and to my anger found a way right on the other side of it. I ran back on this side to see the parts of the river that were too close before but still couldn't find her. Somewhat tired and exhausted I decided to move on and finish todays stage.

At around three o'clock I arrived in Delemont where I finished this hike. No Boat, tired and sad I took the train back home and went to bed.


One day later I went out to rescue the Eurydice. I took my drone with me and flew over the river from the last place on where I've seen her. Then I made my way down towards Moutier. The waters were wild and there were many places I could not see from the riverside nor from above as the trees and bushes were blocking my way.
I found three basins of water which I decided for myself could not be passed by the Eurydice in her actual status and so I narrowed down the search area accordingly. Still I had no luck and went home empty handed.

Some time later, when the water level was lower I went to that place again. This time without any electronics but with my bathing suit. As I arrived I went into the water and walked down all the way to the three basins I described before. Every depth was explored and at every turn I imagined whether or not the boat could have passed by itself after this time. Still I could not find the Eurydice. It seemed as if she was sunken to the ground and then down into another universe.

About a month later I finally managed to convince my girlfriend to walk down the "gorges de court" and to see this beautiful part of Jura. It took us about an hour and as we arrived at the place where I lost the Eurydice I looked down into the water and immediately wanted to go and see if I could find her. Fortunately my girlfriend was tired and wanted to finish the hike and take the train home. All the beauty of this valley could not impress her enough to stand for hours aside of a river while her maniac boyfriend was looking for a stupid boat. So we went on on the path and I only looked down occasionally as all of a sudden I saw her. Dirty and broken but still shining bright red was she lying high above the water where I would have never looked for her.
I don't know if somebody had found her and took her up or how she got there but I finally had her again.