Perseverance

Jan asked me if I could assist him on the "Rondje Bommelerwaard" trip for Peddelpraat. This trip used to be advertised as a training-run for the (now defunct because of 'red tape') 140 km GRIMA (Great River Marathon) down the river Rhine from the German Border to Rotterdam.

Apparently his enthusiastic promotion in the club magazine for this 70 km long-distance trip on inland waters did not entice many. At 07:15 we set off with four...

For me this would be the first trip for a long time with these 'kilometer eaters'. Jan (with a buddy) regularly paddles 'weekend trips' in one day; i.e. around Texel. How would I cope, not having been 'tested' for a long time on these kind of distances and sustained paddling speeds.

After a busy indoor week with lots of issues to solve and lots of time behind the computer would I be in any shape to do this today? After half an hour I already knew that I made the right decision. I cannot remember going on a paddle and regretting it, whatever 'mental exhaustion' I would be in.

The first half of the trip is on the Bergsche Maas against a weak river current. The second half of the trip is with the current on the faster flowing river Waal. The trip statistics and GPS track shows that this trip is only 65 km! So that much smaller distance ;-) should attract more paddlers next year!

The trip took us a bit over 10:15 hours of which 8:15 hours paddling time. On this gorgeous day I think we were a bit lazy with three breaks totaling two hours. At 17:30 we were back. At least I feel comfortable (and pleasantly tired now) to join these guys and gal on another long distance trip.

P.S. The historic vessel on the picture that we encountered was named "De Volharding". A better motto than "Perseverance" one cannot find for long(er) distance paddling.