A glorious return...

A beautiful winter day, cold, grey but dry after a few days of heavy rains. The perfect day to get re-acquainted with the Nete, sort of our alma mater. Just a short dash downstream today, to the Ark of Noë, not the real ark, but a very nice watering hole on the banks of the Nete and also home of the annual pumpkin regatta.

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We embarked at the Kastelse Kayak Klub, at first a bit ill at ease in our trusted ships, it's been too long ago. But soon the swift flowing water of the Nete had us moving along at a nice pace. We zipped under the bridge of the old road from Kasterlee to Geel. The small, but surprisingly fun rapid that is created here, is always a nice challenge on the way back. Today there is a lot of water so it is a bit easier to travers. If the water level is low, there just isn't enough room for your paddle for a good powerful stroke, but not today.

The nice thing about a river is that the landscape is always changing, the river is always knibbling at his banks, widening bends, creating sandbanks or simply eroding the soil under the trees until they tumble and fall. Sometimes blocking the stream but eventually water will always find a way and so do we.

A few downed trees make the paddle a tat more adventurous. Nothing fancy, but every tiny slalom you can make or small increase in the flow of the river you feel under your kayak is a welcome diversion. We zip down to the ark and back. Before we know it, we are back at the 'rapid' under the old road. We dig down deep and come up with an extra burst of speed. Still reveling about our skills, prowess and power we are passing the kayak klub again. The small rapid has aroused our hunger for more. This time we are heading to the fish 'stairs' next to the barrage. A spot were you can try and increase your balancing skills in swift flowing water. Nothing fancy, but a nice spot to have some fun.

The circumstances are perfect, the waterlevel is just high enough to pass the different steps of the fish stairs, which consist of small boulders piled to form low walls. In the middle of the wall is a gap to let the fish, or in this case, the Scorpio through. Normally the waterlevel is too high to pass under the bridge or too low to get over the walls. This time, everything works out perfectly and after a demanding bit of paddling I reach the top of the stairs. Woohoo! I did it! Where are the flower girls?

Not that it needs saying, but of course we have done this wonderful feat with the utmost respect for the infrastructure and without damaging the fish stairs.