Hi Alv
Just wanted to tell you about a recent two-day paddle up the Gudenaa River in the middle of Jutland, Denmark.
Denmark has an enormous amount of coastline in proportion to the land area, but few rivers. The Gudenaa, not even rated as a river in Denmark, starts at Tørring and runs into the Randersfjord. On the way, passes through the picturesque Danish lake district around Ry and then Silkeborg.
I was accompanied by old friend Gunner. He is 62 and I’m 53, and although reasonably fit for our ages, neither of us does any paddling (regrettably) apart from the occasional outing during the summer. This was my first paddle in over a year and consequently the assembly time for the puffin 11 was up from 15 to the 25 minutes it always takes the first time!
We were going to stay at one of the several camp sites on the way but in purpose-built cabins which abound in Scandinavia and are usually very clean, comfortable and well equipped – and not very expensive. The river is very shallow and has many bends, at least in the first few kilometres from the source. A permit is need to paddle, this is as far as I understand to limit the number of people using it and thus help protect the fragile flora and wildlife around it. Most paddlers rent canoes from companies which have the permits, but there is an annual lottery when one can apply for a permit only, which is what we did. We did, however, have an arrangement with one of the camp site owners that he would collect us at the end of each day by car, leaving our boat at the nearest camp site, so that we could stay at his site. Not realising that there were several accommodation possibilities on the way for non-tenting people, we could have done this differently, but I mention it because here comes the interesting part:
In view of this collection arrangement, our host needed to calculate where we would end up on day one, and the time it would take so that we would get there at the right time to be on his collection trip (he was collecting us while fetching rented canoes of his where the hirers had finished their trip). Anyway, two hours after we set off we had reached the destination and had to call him on a cell phone to tell him we would be going much further than he had calculated. He was quite astonished that we had got so far. We also passed the few canoes which were on the river and left them well behind very quickly.
On a few occasions, we were very close to grounding the kayak, but we never had to get out. Somehow, spotting the shallow parts, we managed to keep afloat and avoid any scraping by lifting ourselves up slightly on the side rails and taking our weight off the bottom of the boat. Apart from three places where we had to walk round power which block the river, we didn’t have to leave the boat once.
When I got back and spoke to colleagues who have made this trip, the common response was that it was a great trip but irritating that you have to get out to often to drag the boat across shallow parts. They were astonished when I assured them we didn’t have to do this. I realised this was one of the reasons why two moderately fit but inexperienced paddlers with a combined age of 115 should have travelled so quickly that the camp site owner was talking about getting us interviewed by the local newspaper!
I can’t speak for the possible limitations of the Pakboat design on other water surfaces but clearly the weight and design of the puffin ll made it the fastest and most manoeuvrable of vessels on a river like the Gudenaa, and certainly enhanced the pleasure of the trip. When we planned the trip, taking my puffin was just an option – seemed like we might as well, and save the rental charge for one of the hire boats. But what we didn’t realise was that we were also choosing to use what was the best possible type of boat for such a trip, certainly better than the boats on hire.
I’d never recommend this trip for a serious paddler – it’s much too tame I’m sure – but for us, it was a delightful experience and made us more aware of the qualities of the Pakboat design.
Hope your Norway trip went well this year – one of these days we’ll go for it, especially if you have some good treatment for myg bites!
Regards
Ian