This is "Onbekommerd"!

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

It's all relative!

We are still safely tied up in front of the Kesselschleuse, soon they'll offer us a permanent mooring, we think.
Around 3 this afternoon a guy in his 20's appeared next to the boat. He had a leaflet of the Ems-Jade canal in his hand and asked me (in Dutch) if I could show him on the map in his leaflet where he was. He was wearing gear suggesting he might be in a canoe, you see quite a few of those on the canal here. I pointed it out to him and asked him where he was heading. Amsterdam, was the reply. Now that was a surprise! So where have you come from, was the obvious next question. Finland, he says. Actually Tornio, which is at the Northernmost point of the Baltic, across the border from Haparanda in Sweden. It transpired he left there on 11 June, has been travelling 50 KM per day in his pedal power propelled kayak. It has a contraption with bicycle- like pedals which drive a propellor underneath the kayak. Now we have in the past thought about taking Onbekommmerd to Haparanda (because it's there....) and that would be a 3 year project, leaving the boat in winter storage near Stockholm on the way there and the way back. And this guy does it in just over two months in a kayak....

Here you see him going through the Kesselschleuse, on his way looking for an overnight camping place.








By the way, he has previously cycled around Australia and walked New Zealand South to North....

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