Travel and Lifestyle Writer with a focus on camping and the outdoors. The full blog from the Canoeing the Continent Expedition written by James Warner Smith and Nathan Wilkins, conveying their thoughts and information on their progress at the time.
The blog covers the entire duration of the canoe trip from the Atlantic to the Black Sea, including several major rivers such as the Loire, the Rhine, the Main and the River Danube, along with canoeing on the Black Sea. It was a great feeling to be done with the many locks for a while but the waves we met on the river reminded us that being back on the upstream was not going to be easy. The next morning we awoke to the patter of rain which quickly cleared as blue sky poked through.
With the previous day in mind we were pleased to find still and cool conditions as we pushed off from the bank and aimed for a good days paddling. There are few times in life where everything falls into place so perfectly, but after an hours paddling we stopped for a drink and found a km sign on the river bank.
We had already done 7km. On a river so still that lilly pads grew along the edges we were flying along and were moving far quicker than we imagined. Next thing we knew we were nearing where we'd expected to camp after a difficult upstream day.
Instead it was lunch time and we congratulated ourselves with a tart and chocolate meringue, eaten in the sun, before paddling off to make more distance. With weather conditions still ideal for canoeing we were both in good spirits when we hit the only lock of the day. We stopped to look at the map and decide how best to tackle the corrugated iron cliffs. But it was that day, that smooth, perfect day, and looking up from the map a boat appeared, a friendly German man leaning over the edge to offer us a lift.
