And so after 68 days on tour, we have passed another milestone: our 14 days on our Main river are up.
Aside from the puns, finishing this river is a pretty big thing for the expedition. The Main river was our last upstream river and not one that is famous for being canoeable.
Our first couple of hours were a shock to the system.
A slow progress, especially as we had been flying downstream on the Rhine, every paddle stroke was hard work with few meters gained. Then we hit the first lock and, apart from one testy morning detour last week, we have been faced with only a slow upstream current to bosh ever since.
With steady water, identical locks and distance markers every 200m we have become more and more efficient: paddle by paddle, lock by lock, day by day. Frankfurt, Aschaffenburg, Wertheim, Lohr, karlstadt, Würzburg, Kitzingen and finally Bamburg; we have visited and chilled with the same regularity as the cruise liners whom we share the water with.
These cruise liners squeeze up the river Main for good reason. Since leaving the commerce of Frankfurt, we have been enveloped by vineyards and touristy towns. Just in case this wasn’t enough, it’s been the perfect weather to canoe all day and have an afternoon ice cream break.
The last couple of weeks have also seen wild-camping – on the river bank and without a formal campsite – become the norm. It is testament to the Main’s green banks that we have camped undisturbed so easily.
We joined the river Main at its confluence with the Rhine in Mainz and we leave it in Bamburg for the Main-Donau canal. While the canal should be slightly easier than upstream river, as usual we’re mentally prepared for the worse.
Whereas the locks of the Main we’re well signposted with canoeist routes, the areas for sport boats on the Main-Dinau are ominously missing from our map. As Englishmen the other possible missing ingredient could only be the weather: after two and a bit months with four days rain I get the feeling that it’ll be getting wet soon.
Nonetheless, no-matter how awkward or how wet, the Main-Donau should be over by next week. From therein it really will be the ‘main event’: we finally join the river Danube to stay with her from
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