After 54 days paddling we have come across a lot of different people.
Three days ago we left the French-German border and began heading into Germany proper.
While our French had become passable, conveying our goal of canoeing the continent wasn’t always easy.
When someone really had a problem with us being on the water we had a couple of standard approaches.
When lock keepers were adamant that we should stay away from the lock, we avoided confrontation by walking around.
However, in France there were two occasions when our willingness to walk around the lock wasn’t enough for those who work on the canal.
In the first instance, after a confused conversation in French we were left with the clear message that the canal was forbidden.
Having been happily waved on by the majority of the French water authority employees, we were pretty surprised. But we duly pretended that our journey would be continued on foot. Then, once out of sight, our journey was duly continued in the canal.
The second instance was less trivial and featured prominently in last week’s blog.
The young man in charge of the industrial lock that guards entry to the Rhine was adamant that the Rhine wasn’t safe. We said ok, we’d walk until it was safe. He said the whole river was not safe. We said we’d walk the whole river.
The young man was not stupid and recognised that we weren’t going to let our long journey be stopped now.
So instead he made clear that we did not have his permission but did not try to stop us as we continued onto the Rhine upon which we happily canoed this past week.
However, the majority of people we meet are helpful and impressed by what we are attempting.
Cyclists, fishermen, caravanners, tourist boaters, container ships, port authorities and even both French and German police have all wished us good luck. A few have even provided us with that canoeing essential: a free beer.
While most are friendly, some have gone out of their way to help us.
We use a website called www.warmshowers.org to find people willing to put travellers up for the night. While the website was established for cyclists, so far three friendly hosts haves given us showers, beds, food and use of their computers.
Others have helped us merely after hearing our story.
This rest day the canoe is being stored at a friendly rowing club on the outside of Frankfurt. French tourist information offices normally did all they could to support our very specific camping needs.
Similarly, this week we were able to camp at and use the facilities of canoe clubs for free – something apparently common in Germany.
It’s quite difficult to summarise all of the individuals we have encountered over the 1300km canoed so far.
What’s more, I’ve no doubt we will be making a lot more friends and a few more enemies as we continue eastward.
TIBS News will have our latest in another exclusive weekly report, while more regular updates are available @CanoeingEurope on Twitter and at www.canoeingthecontinent.com.
