Back on the water

It is while since we got the boats out, but when the opportunity arises.

Warning, this post contains 5 videos, so you may want a broadband connection.

Last night, as we wandered around in Dora, looking for a place to spend the night we happened upon a riverside area, where a multitude of cars were parked. Ideal for us. What we saw next really intrigued us. Screams came from the river. We went to explore. A large weir,

but down one side, a small channel. And cascading down the channel, were canoe being hurled into a maelstrom of water at the bottom. This looks really good fun.

Further up river a continuous stream of boats waited their turn. ‘Would you like to have a go?’ I asked Susana. ‘Not really’, but I think she misunderstands, she thinks I mean now, at 18.00 in the evening, it is too late to set up the canoes just for going down the weir, but I mean the whole river tomorrow.

When I explain she sounds quite excited. Every so often a large minibus arrives, pulling an empty trailer. Canoes are hoisted onto it and they drive off. These must be the canoe hire operators.

The next one that arrives we go over, but he speaks no English so we have to be a little patient.

The next one does and he explains the deal. It is about €32 to rent the canoes for the day and take you back to your car

‘What if we had our own?’,

‘If you drove to my storage area I could take you to the start and then you could phone me at the end and I could take you back to Dora.’

‘The phone could be a bit of a problem, could you pick us up from here, take us to the start and we could paddle back to Dora? and is it easy?‘

‘Absolutely, it will be €16 for both of you. It is very easy. I will pick you up at nine tomorrow morning.’

Brilliant, all set then. We return to watching the canoes.

They just keep on coming. It seems that this is a really popular weekend activity. Maybe he should have worn a shirt, that is gonna sting tomorrow!

It is great fun watching them, these idiots decide to go down backwards!

As they hit the water at the bottom it gets quite messy and we see the odd capsize as the occupants are ejected into the water.

It does look fun though.

These guys spend twenty minutes trying to haul their raft out of the water, maybe downstream would have been easier.

We return to Dora and settle in.

First we prepare all the stuff for tomorrow. Getting the kayaks and paddles out from the lockers underneath Dora. Finding the lifejackets and the shoes we wear. Once it is all collected and stored in the front cab we start preparing our meal. From the riverside we still here the shouts and screams as the canoes enter the chute. As it gets later they get fewer but even as it gets dark people are still plunging down the slide…..Nutters.

The next morning he picks us up as planned and takes us to the start of the paddle.

What greats us is incredible. Hundreds of cars, hundreds of canoes, hundreds of people, many camping out. All, it seems, ready to embark on their own ‘Deliverance’ adventure down a Czech river. We can hear the banjos playing.

It only takes a few minutes to inflate the kayaks, put everything inside and we are ready for the off.

We check out our route, which will be about 16 kilometres in total.

And will pass over 5 weirs.

But we are not intimidated, there is a real party atmosphere going on around here, many have already started to hit the beer.

I am really glad we are doing this at the weekend. Normally we like the lonely, only one on the mountain type feel, this is much more ‘on in it together’ type feel.

Some are already on the water. Time to launch our two.

We are just so impressed by the number of people that are doing this. The river is not unlike the Wye valley back in the UK, but this is the Wye on steroids!

There are hundreds of boats all around us, mainly two person canoes and rafts with up to six people on board. Mainly inflatables. We are the only kayaks on the river. We always like to be different!

We approach the first of the weirs, but there is a bit of a log-jam. A queue has built up, some are fairly apprehensive about the drop.

All goes well for us, but as we hit the wave at the bottom, both our vessels fill with cold river water. We will have to pull over to empty them out, but the banks are full of others all doing the same thing!

Ah but you don’t get to see that one, for some reason the camera wasn’t on!

We head down some gentle rapids.

 

 

Ah this is the life, all very pleasant. We are near the next weir. I follow Susana down the steep slope of water. At the bottom, two waves which we successfully pull ourselves through.

At the next weir it all goes a bit wrong for me!

The channel is really narrow, notice how Susana has to lift the paddle above her head.

It becomes really difficult to steer, and as I reach the bottom I get ejected to the left hand side, aiming directly for the wall.

I hit the wall, but manage to stay in the kayak, but it bends the front of the boat, but luckily does rupture any of the air chambers. For now Barca will have a bit of a wonky nose!

 

 

The next weir is much wider and we both manage it easily, we are now heading through town with lots of spectators. We then get some quite bubbly fast flowing water adds to the fun as we head out of town.  A raft up ahead of us has become lodged on a rock, and is spinning precariously around in the current. We pull on past them!

 

 

These are a few photos we took the next day from the town, watching others attempt the weirs, it gives you a very different perspective.

 

 

 

 

 

The paddling is more gentle now, with just the odd bit of fast flowing river. We pull over to a field so I can mend Barca’s poor nose, which entails deflating her, removing the piece of profiled aluminium, bending it back into the proper shape and then re-inflating. It seems no harm has been done. These are quite robust little kayaks. After a few more faster bits, once again with a straight nose we then pull over to have some lunch and a nice cold beer. The party atmosphere continues down the banks of the river, many are stopping for barbeques others drag beers behind their boats, trying to keep them cool.

 

 

We must be close to the end now. We pass a couple of enterprising souls who have set up Mojito stands by the side of the river! And then we see Dora, we are close to the final weir. I go down first, and as I hit the bottom wave the boat fills completely with water. I quickly empty her out, drag her up the bank and return to video Susana coming down. I had wanted to video her from several angles. This would have meant her doing the weir several times and she just wasn’t having any of it. I ask you, temperamental actresses!

Her trip down is full of elegance and she pull right at the bottom, missing the wave completely!

 

 

 

It is still quite early, which gives us time to let all the kit dry out, as we relax in Dora after all our efforts. We pack everything up and head into town for a meal.

Starter is a cabbage salad.

A lovely bottle of local white.

I have fillet of pork with cheese and ham stuffing.

Susana has trout. A lovely way to end a fantastic day. We would never have known about the rafting had we not happened upon that little overnight stop. Well we might have found out about it tomorrow, but would we have then stuck around another day? We are so glad we did.

As we walk back through town the castle looks absolutely fabulous against that deep blue twilight sky. We will return to that tomorrow.

GDR