Experience the nature in a different way

In times of rushing, be available all the time and supreme technology, sometimes it is necessary to calm down a bit and disconnect (most of the day) your day from day life and go into the wild. Some people go hiking, others on a bike trip. But there is also some other way to enjoy the nature - water hiking.

 

Water hiking includes the sport kayaking but more or less in a more slower down way. You just go with your preferable boat to a river, paddle form time to time and look around to experience the nature from a different angle - from the river. My friends and I do this for one week since some years in a row now. Mostly on well-known, bigger rivers like the Mosel or this year the Saale.

 

The trip begins with the obligatory planning, where to start and where to go. It is not necessary to plan every day, like where to sleep, but it could simplify things. So next is to buy rations for the trip and pack them in a car alongside with the equipment and other necessary things. So this year everybody had their own big boat, mostly a RZ85 manufactured by Pouch. This is an old folding boat from East Germany. You could say "It is old but gold" ;). And then the trip can begin. We start in the morning before the sun rises, so we can go for a little day trip on the first day already. The next days are all about sitting in the boat, paddling, talking with each other while being in the boats and discover the nature alongside the river. Simply said: to enjoy live and slow down a bit.

 

In the evenings we arrive at the final destination after a long demanding but pleasent day on the river. We cook togeather and arrange our sleeping place for the night. After all we cap the evening nicely in a cosy atmosphere next to the river before we finally fall asleep in our sleeping bags in our tent.

 

If you want to disover nature and wild life from the different angle, just try water hiking. You don't need to start with a folding boat, for beginners it could be easier to just rent a canoe and go kayaking on a more calmy river to try it.

 

 

Christian Thiel

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