Day 11: Kayaking by numbers

Ashcach to Wallsee (60km)

I’ve found it to be a great sense of relief when returning to find the kayak that I’ve left at the river the night before is still there. It was a chilly morning and as a result I had packed up nice and quickly and was down at the river ready for another day. Again I had two potential destinations for the day, Au on der Donau or Wallsee.

There was very little current due to an upcoming lock and going in the early hours was quite slow. I then reached the lock and due to there being no ships approaching, exited and headed for the other side. Again there were trolleys there waiting which help carry the load far better than my own trolley, making the whole process much simpler. I wheeled the kayak round the lock and started looking for a place to get back into the river. For miles, it looked like it was steep rocky banks that were completely unsuitable for re-entry. I continued on, I must’ve walked for about 2km before finally coming to the end of the path. To my right was a steep gradient leading down the Danube, to my left was a paved track that I could see led down to a body of water that fed into the Danube. I went left. Later in the day, I would find out that I should’ve entered this body of water immediately after exiting the Danube and kayaked the 2km downstream and back into the Danube. As it was, having carried the kayak for 2km, I was a bit ticked off when I finally regained the mighty river.

I stopped to have lunch shortly after passing through Linz, although the weather wasn’t great, so I didn’t stop for long. I was meandering along, a mixture of paddling and checking my phone, when a group of three kayakers paddled up behind me. I began chatting to Stefan, it turned out that he, Josef and Otto were on a three day trip starting in Linz and ending in Mautern. They were a great source of knowledge, they had all met on the Tour International Danubien (TID), an annual tour that goes from Ingolstadt in Germany all the way to the Black Sea. It is an organised tour, where people can do certain sections or the entire route. Stefan spoke the best English, Josef had some English and Otto very little. It very much reminded me of that scene from Inglorious Basterds, “I speak the best Italian, he speaks the second best and he speaks the third best”, “I don’t speak any Italian” replies the third guy, “like I said, third best”

They were all seasoned kayakers, with far better technique than mine. I was finding it a bit of a struggle to keep up with them, but was enjoying the company, so I powered on. We stopped in Au for a beer and then continued onto Wallsee for some more beer. I was starting to struggle mentally in the day when I met the guys, I was pretty much resigned to staying in Au tonight, but paddling with them provided a great pick me up and the 15km from Au to Wallsee passed quite quickly. They had arranged to stay in the boat club at Wallsee and very kindly offered to let me join them. The boat club was ideal, although it wasn’t huge, so Josef and Otto slept on the floor, Stefan in the shed with the boats and I quickly throw up the tent and camped on the lawn. It’s great to have some company on the river, I will be kayaking with them again tomorrow, if I can keep up….