Kayaking!

Last year summer, we went for kayaking in Lesse, the most famous kayaking route in Belgium. Few snaps are available here. We've covered around 21kms in 5 hours.

For all of us, that was the first experience with kayak & so it was just fun. One pair couldn't control the kayak even a bit. After a short struggle, they decided not to fight against nature. Meaning, if their kayak turns against the stream, they started rowing backwards instead of trying to straighten it! In first 30mins, they couldn't cross even 100 mtrs. Ultimately we had to separate them & form new pairs for continuing with the trip.

In some places, the water was very rough & few kayaks even toppled. My mobile phone was totally wet. After drying that, it started working perfectly (except one keypad bulb, which glows always). East or west, Nokia the best!

Why all of a sudden this story? Because, we went for another kayaking trip. This time to a hill station called Coo. Last year also we went to the same place, but for different reason: fun park, cable car, etc..

This time we had female participation also! So, we've chosen more easier & shorter route. This one was about 9kms long. Guess what? We've taken almost the same time, 5hrs, for covering this too!

Even with almost no flow of water, few people managed to topple their kayak! Within 20mins of starting, one guy fell into water & lost his paddle. So, all of us had to wait till he went back & got a new one. Very bad start :(

In some places, it was very shallow. So, we had to get down & pull the boat till we reach place with enough depth. Water was at freezing cold, around 5deg. So, we couldn't stand long in the water too.

This time also one guy's cell phone got wet. He asked another guy to keep it safe & threw that towards him, since getting down from kayak is not that easy! You know what happened? Yes, you've guessed it right. It fell down into the water. We had to search for around 10mins to find that (remember, the water temperature was around 5 :( ). One more stress testing for Nokia handset. After drying, everything was working perfectly. Including all bulbs in the keypad! But, alas, only two things were not working! 1. Antenna: Phone was not identifying any network, 2. Speaker: No sound! So, ultimately that phone deserves a place nothing better than a garbage bin. Very bad nokia!

After everything was over, we came back to the starting place & were about to catch train in 20 mins. On the way to station, we realized one very minor thing. The bag containing all the valuable things (4 wallets, 3 mobile phones, few belgium residence cards, etc.) is missing!!! By that time the kayaking office was also closed. So, we searched for the guy in the counter & found him in a nearby restaurant. Ironically, he didn't know english. Thankfully one more guy understood our english & explained that to him. Then we rushed to the kayaking office with him & found the bag there. Again running all the way back to the station & reached there just 2mins before train arrival time. So, we thought the trip ended with a nail biting finish. But, you know what, the train came 30mins late :(

Anyhow, the trip was very nice. It was a relief from a regular monotonous life. Planning to have more such trips in this summer.