Remember those last summer days

After a very wet and not so cold december and january, I found a bit of spare time to look back on our last paddle trip under a blue sky. It was the end of summer, a busy time for most people. because everybody is getting ready for old man winter, quickly making some leftover repairs to the house, trimming the hedges, harvesting the last vegetables out of the rapidly diminishing garden. But like the busy and responsible ants we worked (not that) hard all summer long so now we can enjoy a bit of indian summer.

And what better way than doing this on a hot and beautiful october day. The perfect day to test drive our newest catch, the blue tandem eagle.

So of we went, in search of some tourist highlights. Obviously the most attractive site is were four channels intersect. One of them being the channel Bocholt-Herentals. But every lock in this channel is a piece of art, dating back to the 1920's. The channel itself played a big role in worldwar two as it was the starting point of operation market garden.

Along the channel Dessel - Schoten there are quite a few silent sentinels, grizly reminders of a period when these channels were very important as defense lines. But on a sunny day like today, it's easier to forget those troubled times and enjoy this beautiful channel. It is very shallow and the topspeed of other boats is limited at 9 kph/5.6 mph. This makes it an extremely relaxing place to paddle because we are the fastest boats out here. The greatest part of it being autumn is that all the insects are gone, especially the horsefly is a native around these channels and packs a mean bite. In the summertime it's sometimes safer to paddle in the bigger channel Dessel - Kwaadmechelen were these flies stay away. In this they are like vampires, they don't like direct sunlight. If you get lucky there are a few boats of the Skiclub Mol making the waters choppy and fun to play around in.

Always special is the entrance to Lake Channel. A mighty big hole in the channel wall which opens out into one of the biggest lakes of Belgium thats free to enjoy for everyone. As it is a frequent playground for bigger yachts and speedboats, it's better to keep to the sides. Sometimes we get lucky and it's possible to catch a bit of tailsurf from these bigger boats. A lot of fun when seated in the playful Scorpio, but surprising enough is that the broad eagle is also playful in the waves, easy to turn whilst all the time being as stable as a house. You would think that a broad kayak like that would be a lot harder to turn. In fact, it is so easy to turn or to keep on a straight line that the first thing I did when we got back was removing the rudder from the boat. The second thing was securing the all weather tarp and start dreaming of next year and all the great times we will have in the sun in 2018.