Blog – Canoeing the Continent 2013

The full blog from the 2013 Canoeing the Continent Expedition written by James Warner Smith and Nathan Wilkins, conveying their thoughts and information on their progress at the time. The blog covers the entire duration of the canoe trip from the Atlantic to the Black Sea, including several major rivers such as the Loire, the Rhine, the Main and the River Danube, along with canoeing on the Black Sea.

A few days of training under our belt: Paddling the GrandUnion Canal, portaging around the locks and making good miles. And some upstream paddling on the River Leam, hard work. It’s been good to get going and feeling like the whole plan is all possible. We have been hitting the target mileage we hope to hit when we’re paddling across Europe and that’s what really matters. We’ve been through heavy rain and got burnt in the sun already and have only really been paddling for four days. Nathan’s gone from day 1, “So seriously, talk me though it. Do I just use the paddle like a spade, yeh?” to powering along on the difficult upstream. We’ve managed portaging the heavy canoe around a lot of locks on the Grand Union and got efficient at getting the boat in and out of the water.

Today we covered 16.5 miles. Nathan pooed in a field, I nearly pooed at all the swans we had to pass, and Nathan practiced man-over-board drills by popping out of the boat for a paddle in the River Leam. All after chatting to two local newspaper reporters about how great we were getting on, how prepared we are, e.t.c. But it’s all good. And we are actually making serious progress. We responded quickly to Nathan swimming in all his clothes and have learnt a few lessons generally over the past few days. Training is all good. 3 weeks left of university: we drink, party and canoe.