Kajak
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When we bought a small weekend home in close proximity of the Wamp, it all started for me. After the renovations and switching jobs there suddenly was a lot of spare time. Time I started spending more and more on that little river and its tributaries. As it happens to be, this river joined another one, which, after approximately 37 miles (60km) runs right past my old stomping grounds, the place I grew up, Rumst.
So an idea was taking shape, we would heroically paddle from my new hometown to my old one in one day. Considering we never paddled more then 6 to 18 miles (10-30km) in a day, a (small) challenge. After a lot of planning and some careful tryouts, where we never quite made the full trip, the idea got shelved.
Until this winter, a long, cold winter with lots of winter ailments that I won't go into here. On a rainy, windswept night, next to a bottle of rum and some exquisite Belgian chocolates, I pitched the idea of making the great trek, as it was called then, in the summertime. Making a beautiful day out of it, relaxing in the sun with a small bbq next to the water at noon and basking in the warmth of a glorious summerday. Making it sound as if it was just a walk in the parc.
So we dismissed that idea because it sounded suddenly too small minded and there wouldn't be enough time to truly capture the feeling of total freedom. Instead, we upgraded the trek into the journey and made from the original 37 miles the full 100 miles (160km) al the way to the sea, just like the rain we heard pattering against the windows.
So in a nutshell, that is the reason you can see the map up there. The summer of 2017 it's really happened so we made a lot of plans. One of them is this packlist which we are still finetuning.
We bought extra gear to accommodate ourselves with the luxury we are used to in our daily lives and making the trip in a truly relaxed state of mind and body. These you can find on the gear and stuff pages,
So an idea was taking shape, we would heroically paddle from my new hometown to my old one in one day. Considering we never paddled more then 6 to 18 miles (10-30km) in a day, a (small) challenge. After a lot of planning and some careful tryouts, where we never quite made the full trip, the idea got shelved.
Until this winter, a long, cold winter with lots of winter ailments that I won't go into here. On a rainy, windswept night, next to a bottle of rum and some exquisite Belgian chocolates, I pitched the idea of making the great trek, as it was called then, in the summertime. Making a beautiful day out of it, relaxing in the sun with a small bbq next to the water at noon and basking in the warmth of a glorious summerday. Making it sound as if it was just a walk in the parc.
So we dismissed that idea because it sounded suddenly too small minded and there wouldn't be enough time to truly capture the feeling of total freedom. Instead, we upgraded the trek into the journey and made from the original 37 miles the full 100 miles (160km) al the way to the sea, just like the rain we heard pattering against the windows.
So in a nutshell, that is the reason you can see the map up there. The summer of 2017 it's really happened so we made a lot of plans. One of them is this packlist which we are still finetuning.
We bought extra gear to accommodate ourselves with the luxury we are used to in our daily lives and making the trip in a truly relaxed state of mind and body. These you can find on the gear and stuff pages,
It has been done!
Yes, it took us longer than expected, but in the end we prevailed! Due to certain circumstances we had to abandon our first attempt, but we made it the second time around. Not quite the full 100 miles, but the full route from our front door to the North sea propelled only by our hands and feet. The full report will be in the blog, july 2017 and june 2018, Happy reading to you all!
