The water obviously far too cold at the moment but I vaguely recall hearing that is possible to get in the Aare somewhere near Thun and float down to Bern whilst avoiding drowning.

I am looking to organise this for some mates later on in the summer. Has anyone done this or know how to organise such a venture?

train to Thun, find the Aare in middle of town & jump in ... alternative is to hire a raft in Thun & float down, stopping off for BBQ on the way, there are plenty of places. Its circa 24kms so sitting in tractor inner will be pretty chilly ...

http://www.alpincenter.ch

http://www.swissadventures.ch/en/boat_en.html

Last year I bought an inflatable kayak from InterDiscount for 99 chuffs & used this two or three times .....

That sounds like 100chf very well spent.

I love Switzerland in summer...

me too, thought it would be the winters, but the variety of stuff to do in summer is great ....

I did this a few years ago in a raft, it was really good fun. Do take some warm clothes for at the end though as after all that time in the water you can be rather cold by the end even on a hot day.

Did this some years ago,,without rubber tyres, t'was great!! The flow kept everyone up....

I didn't even Drown!!!!

arent there some weirs or dangerous parts along the way??

i was in bern at the weekend visiting friends and the aare looks awfully fast flowing at the moment. we talked about swimming and they said that if you use something like a rubber ring you have to be somewhat careful not to get too hot sitting on it and then falling in because there is a small risk that the temperature change can cause shock.

krlock3

Remove the word "small". There is a risk full stop. The bigger the temp difference the bigger the risk.

It is called cold shock and sends the body, including breathing, into spasms.

Dont need to elaborate here on the consequences in water. All the other advice above is pretty sound. I will be doing it in a kayak this summer.

I saw this advertised in a brochure we got from the Post.