Paddling On The Donau River

Paddling on the biggest and longest river of Europe, that’s a great experience!

While we were in the city of Straubing – Bavaria for the last holidays, my father-in-law proposed us to take benefit of a very sunny afternoon to explore the river Donau by paddling on it. I never made such kind of activities before and was very excited to discover this prestigious river on a canoe. I took my Diana+ with me and hoped that nothing would happen and that my camera will remain dry…

We went to the Canoe-club of Straubing, directly on the Donau river. The river is kind of impressing at this place, very large and the stream seems very powerful. The advice we get is to stay as much as possible in the middle of the river and just follow the streaming by correcting a bit the trajectory if necessary.

Well, we put the canoes in the water and very quickly you feel that the river takes you away in some direction, even if you don’t want to go there! To reach the middle of the river is a bit tough at the beginning, but after some efforts, we made it there. And then, although you don’t think so when you’re outside the water, it’s very quiet and peaceful, the streaming is not as strong in the middle and you can really relax and enjoy the trip. As we were 3 canoes, we managed to get these closely together and form a kind of triangle, apparently the best way to go down the river peacefully. There are also some little side-rivers coming in the Donau, and it’s very exciting to leave the main river with some energic paddling to follow the way in the little one.

Spending the afternoon on the river, listening to the birds and the water, enjoying the sun….. that’s simply great!! And you have a very different point of view of the places you’re going through. I could easily make 2 rolls with my Diana+… :)

After almost 3 hours we reached our final point were someone was waiting for us with a mini-bus to take us home. Coming out of the canoe makes a very strange sensation, you feel the solid ground again and I already had the regret that it was finished… but I’ll make it again for sure!! :)))

geschrieben von vicuna am 2009-05-30 in #Orte #nature #river #sport #water #canoe #stream #relaxing #location #paddling #donau