Segre Olympic rafting Park in La Seu D’Urgell

Segre Olympic rafting Park. La Seu D’Urgell, CataloniaSpainPyrenees

The Rafting Parc, is located 200 metres from the old city of La Seu d’Urgell, provides active tourism lovers with the chance to enjoy sporting activities. The rafting, canoeing, open-kayak and hydrospeed activities take place in an unparalleled setting and can be enjoyed with full safety guarantees. All services are available all year round.

In 1982, heavy rains led to disastrous flooding in La Seu D’Urgell, which demonstrated  the need to intervene in the bed of the river Segre and to reconstruct the river close to the city. This fact coincided with the decision taken by the International Olympic Committee in 1988 to make La Seu D’Urgell the place for the white water canoeing event as part of the Olympic Games in Barcelona. The design of the Segre Olympic park,  centered around a new canal which is fed from Segre river, was inaugurated in October 1990.  In 1992 it hosted the white water slalom trials of the XXV Olympic Games. The work was extremely useful as it allowed for the sympathetic development of a area close to the city and established a major sports facility in a region.

The competition whitewater course is 300 m long, with a 6.5 m drop, making a 2.2% slope of 114 ft/mile or 22 m/km. The natural flow of the Segre River is diverted through the course by a diversion dam upstream. In low flow conditions, four 300-kilowatt recirculation pumps can add up to 12 m³/s to the course flow, in order to increase it to the course maximum of 17.5 m³/s. When the course is not being used, or when the natural flow exceeds 17.5 m³/s, the pumps are reversed and run in turbine mode to generate electricity for the town.

La Seu d’Urgell is situated 10 km to the south from Andorran border. From Andorra you can get to La Seu d’Urgell by Montmantell bus every day. Look here for details

Read more: Interesting places in the Pyrenees and around with Jane Cautch ...