Day 7: Current Situation

Regensburg to Straubling (55km)

Before you are able to read this post, you must first visit here and vote for Maria, it only takes a few minutes and once done, you’ll be able to read this post in full 🙂

Thank you for voting. If you didn’t vote, then you may have noticed that not voting has on no way affected your ability to read this post, however, I expect and hope that you will now feel a deep unwavering sense of shame, a feeling that will stay with you far longer than voting would’ve taken. If you are reading this after the competition has finished, then I will absolve you of your shame, although I am left flabbergasted that it has taken so long for you to come across this blog. The only possible explanation I can think off is that you have been purposefully avoiding it, should this be the case, then I return to my initial desire that shame should consume you for the foreseeable future.

I had left the kayak safely in the Regensburg boat club last night, tied up, locked up, with a gang of hired militia to look after it. Today is Sunday, which means that everything on mainland Europe is closed. I hadn’t managed to get to the supermarket last night, so I forced to settle on the meagre rations that were available from the campsite shop. I picked up some bread, some biscuits and a tin of ham like substance that even after consuming it, I am still not sure if it was for human consumption.

Regensburg turned out to be a far larger place than I realised, the campsite was on the outskirts of town which gave the impression that this was just another small town in Germany. It wasn’t until today, when kayaking through the centre, that I realised how big it actually was. Being a weekend (and a nice sunny day), the river and its banks were bustling with people and boats. Continuing from yesterday, the water was powering down the river at an unstoppable rate (it turned out to be stoppable about 10km later). The combination of the fast current, the multiple bridges and the plethora of large tourist boats meant that for the first time on the trip, I was kayaking through waves. Fortunately, my 20 minutes of practise off the beaches of Aberdour had prepared me perfectly, I manoeuvred through the city and avoided the embarrassment of being toppled in front of the Regensburg onlookers, baying for blood.

Unfortunately, the current that had hurtled me through Regensburg began to peter out. I still don’t really understand what creates the different levels of current. I know it can be to do with the width and depth of the river, I’m also desperately aware that the locks slow the flow considerably. However, on this occasion, there were no locks for a while and to the naked eye, the rivers dimensions remained unchanged. I continued to ponder whilst the kilometres continued to pass. I then meandered passed the Walhalla monument, an impressive structure on top of a hill that now celebrates illustrious people from the German speaking world.

At this stage, I am also glad at the sight of a lock, it usually brings an end to several kilometres of stagnant water, with at least 10km of fast paced water usually following. I had gone through a stretch where my mood was low, the water was barely moving and as a result, neither was I. I was buoyed a little bit by some water skiers, but even they quickly became an annoyance due to the erratic waves that they created. I eventually reached a lock and was glad to be there. The locks are now much bigger, they are operated by officials and usage needs to be pre-organised via telephone. It seems that from now on, I will have two options; option 1 is to exit the water, pull the kayak round the lock and back into the water on the other side. Option 2 is to wait for a large boat and sneak into the lock with them. I wasn’t sure if option 2 was strictly allowed (and there was no sign of any large boats imminently arriving), so I went with option 1. I concluded from the sign that there should be a trolley to help you transport your vehicle from one side to the other. As I was translating this, a German couple arrived, my German is now good enough that I was able to understand that they were doing a three day tour down the Danube back home to Passau (that’s a spoof of course, they spoke English, my German is still non-existent). I was sitting eating my cat food sandwiches when they arrived, so they went off to find the trolleys. It turned out that there were no trolleys, I would be forced to use my own one. This wasn’t a disaster, mine is perfectly sufficient and the energy gained from my feline treat, was more than enough to get the kayak to the other side of the lock.

The aim for the day was Straubling, I was edging closer and at around 6pm, I arrived. The river was still quite high today and the effects were clearly evident when entering Straubling, as the river had burst out and overflowed, completely eliminating a section of the bike path, leaving touring cyclists bewildered. It reminded me very much of playing rollercoaster tycoon, when you build a path and don’t finish it, the characters then wonder up the path, get to the end, shrug their shoulders and return from whence they came. I also had similar experiences in Kenya.

I again left the kayak in a boat club, again tightly tied to a pole and wondered towards the campsite. I headed into town to find something to eat and quickly came to a small fast foody type place. It was a popular place, where one would go up to or near the counter, shout out what they wanted and then go and sit down. Then a few minutes later, the rotund chef/waitress would bark out which item was ready, the offending customer would then return to the counter to collect their item and hand over their dosh, an effective system.

Quite a long day without much current, although I think my perception of a ‘good’ current has been inflated somewhat from yesterday, probably something that I will have to change. Only a couple of days left in Germany, fortunately I am fully aware that Schnitzel continues to be a staple food in Austria.