The weather in Luxembourg had been spectacular all week, I cant recall a single cloud for almost 5 days, The sky was that radiant blue that you dream of and the temperature was over 30 degrees every day (who says that summer in Northern Europe is s*% » ?) and I had been at work the entire time.
Desperate to get outside and enjoy some of the sun we had organised to hire some kayaks and paddle a 16km stretch of the river Sure ending in a beautiful little town called Echternach. It wasn’t going to be a hard paddle, however some un-forecast rain the night before ensured that some of the grade one rapids would be pushing grade two by the time we arrived.
We arrived mid morning, being from New Zealand, we had a fare idea about how this would work so came organised with some of the basics, the Italians we met there however didn’t. He arrived wearing a Prada business shirt, designer jeans and loafers (I have never used this word before but it really is the perfect description for the type of shoes he was wearing). His girlfriend, well I am not going to go into much detail – let’s just say that in true Italian style she looked stunning. It didn’t phase them though, I will happily admit they where the first onto the river.
The company who provided the kayaks did so in true Luxembourgish style making statements like: ‘we don’t need your credit cards as bond – where are you going to go?’ ‘Yes we provide life jackets and helmets . . . you can wear them if you like – they are for your safety’. Finally their idea of teaching you how to paddle a kayak consisted of ‘go with the current, and don’t go down the rapids sideways’. With that they pushed you into the middle of the river and away you went . . . ‘Oh and don’t forget always stay right’ came the shout – anyway I think that’s what he said he was speaking German after all.
Nicci and I had opted for the larger double canoe, many of the others (who had never been in a kayak before) jumped in singles. What a sight we where, the first rapids approaching at speed ensured plenty of swearing and shouts as each kayak rounded the bend. Collectively we broke all the rules as some went down the rapids sideways others deciding not to go at all and attempting to paddle against the current ended up doing the first white water of the trip backwards.
In between the mayhem of the rapids, it was a relaxing and enjoyable trip, we passed fishermen and camp sites. There was plenty of current ensuring that as long as you kept the kayak straight the river did most of the work for you. This was a hard learned lesson for many in our group. After about an hour or so, someone suggested we stop for a beer, so we pulled the boats up onto the river bank and wandered up into Germany (did I mention that the River Sure is the boarder for Germany and Luxembourg?) We found a little café overlooking the river and proceeded to carbo-load with pizza and beer.We continued down the river, moving somewhat slower now, until we came a cross an island dividing the way, while the left looked like so much more fun, we heeded the advice of the German and stayed right, a good choice because the rapids where longer stronger and it turned out the left was a dead end.
It was at the top of these rapids one of the group decided it was a good idea to stand on top of a rock in the middle of the river and empty his canoe that was half full of water, watching this guy ‘walking on water’ and emptying his canoe was hilarious, so funny I almost fell out of mine.
The length was perfect, it’s about 2.5hours paddle and when you have never canoed or kayaked before you quickly realise it uses muscles you didn’t know you had. As just as everybody was getting tired and starting to hurt we rounded a bend and in front of us was the town of Echternach, more importantly a truck waiting to collect our kayaks – perfect. We rolled out of the kayaks, wet and sunburned signs of a good day. We left the canoes on the river bank and swaggered into town leaving a trail of wet footprints in our wake, it didn’t matter we where intent on finding a beer.
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