Day 34: Battered or Fried?

Novo Selo to Vidin (43km)

The owner of the hotel had told me last night that he would pick me up this morning and take me back to the river. I had foolishly told him that 7am would be a good time, forgetting that I was now on Eastern European time, moving one hour ahead of previous. This meant that I was on the river before the sun had even risen from its slumbers. After a tough week, I had set myself the modest target of 43km to reach the relatively large town of Vidin. It was a hot day and I was feeling a bit sluggish. I had woken at 3am (to watch American football) and had started the day without any food. I stopped briefly for some breakfast, which lifted my mood slightly and I made good progress down the river.

It was a beautiful day on the river, completely unrecognizable from the wind swept waters of the previous few days. Not far from Vidin, I transitioned into a long period of floating down the river. I was on course to arrive extremely early and decided a period of relaxation was well deserved.

I arrived into Vidin just after midday and pulled the kayak onto the bank. I was feeling quite weak. The lack of sleep, the lack of nutrition, the tough past week and a now regrettable period of floating in the midday sun had all combined, making even getting the kayak out of the water a real struggle. I headed to a restaurant, where the extremely slow service and mediocre food did little to improve my condition. I checked into a hotel, had a nap and then made the executive decision to stay here for the day tomorrow. It’s been a week or so since I had a day off and quite a tough week it’s been. Vidin is a decent size, so will be good to relax and stock up for the days ahead. Plus, there is an abundance of good sport to watch tomorrow, can’t let a little kayaking get in the way of that. This last week has been a mixture of being battered by winds and fried by the late summer sun, it’s difficult to decide which I prefer, I think I’ll go with neither 🙂