Looking up to the Jungfrau... pretty sweet mountain to be kayaking in the shadow of
Right now I'm hanging out in picturesque mountains of Switzerland. Work is over for another month and it is play time and what better place to start than crashing on Fraenzi's couch in the adventure tourist hot spot that is Interlaken. Balmers provided the entertainment by night and the days were filled with 'whatever' and that sometimes included kayaking on the Weisse Lutschine.
Oh my god it's thee Eden Sinclair... he's a pretty big deal around here!!
Eden and I managed to drag Stu away from his womanising long enough to go boating and through some inventive borrowing of gear we had enough kit and a crew to make it happen. First step... catch the train. It certainly is the first time that I have taken the train to go boating but they have them everywhere in this country so it makes sense... I guess. The train stops at Lauterbrunnen about 200m form our put in - a luge track!!
Eden making himself streamlined... maybe stupid fast wasn't fast enough for him!!
It is I... and dam I make this shit look good
Step two: put on. Doesn't sound so unusual... until you relies that the put-in is a water race complete with turns, low hanging branches, and even a small drop!! I took Eden's word for it that it was "sweet as bro" and heeded his advice that it would be unwise to roll - "just don't flip", cheers for the heads up. One question was nagging in the back of my mind though, "how do I steer" but apparently that is easy - "you just bounce off the walls"... glad I asked!!
Styling the boof -stomp... but hey I'm a pretty big deal around here
Step three: paddle the river. Finally some normality... by this stage I was half expecting to be told that we actually paddle this one up stream... fortunately the river was just good quality white water. Until the catch that is... you have to walk a section because it is illegal to paddle it. Well I guess I shouldn't have expected anything less on this trip!!
The level was kind and the stupid hole that I saw here two years ago was nothing but a playful pussy cat
Step five: paddle out. Yes I know I skipped step four but it was just some running, some good luck to get our boat shuttled for us, and some annoyance that a bunch of fisherman had prevented us paddling a sweet looking rapid. Moving on - the paddle out is just that a paddle out but it finishes 50m from Fraenzi's place so I can't complain. Another first for me, to paddle back to the house I'm staying at... like I said not your average trip but great fun all the same. The photos are from a few days later and they tell the same story... I have to apologise though as I have forgotten the name of the person who took the pictures, cheers for the effort though. Ka kite :-)
The rapids below the weir drop... not too shabby
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