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Weekend Adventure, Episode I
May. 13th, 2003 08:26 pmSaturday, 5:40 am, Lennep... Why on earth do we have to leave so early? Right, we want to make good use of the day and get to an appointed place at a reasonable time, but still. I mean, 4 hours to Kyllburg? That's in the Eifel mountains! 2 hours by car! Stupid German railway system. Still, here I am with my former sports teacher, 17 youths - some from my old class, more are still going to my school. And off we go.
We might use the time on the train for sleep, but of course we don't - the six of us, Malte, Sven, Tasja, Kristina, Michaela and me, haven't seen each other for quite some time, so we have to update each other about former classmates we haven't seen for a while either. And when we're finally up to date with the latest gossip, we are in Kyllburg. It's supposed to be a county capital, but it's still tiny. It also is only about 30 kilometres from Veldenz *sniff*.
Now we have to walk through the village, I mean, county capital, and find the river Kyll("She should be downhill somewhere." Indeed...). We do, and we also find Edmund, our guide from Belgium, along with my former English teacher, Mrs Pirags - Stefanie, now - who even wears the red t-shirt we gave her when we graduated. Go her. And there are two interns, Petra (who is a little... let's say, clumsy) and Edit (who is quite nice, although she's ill). Isn't it great to call the people by their first name you had to address respectfully only one year ago. They already started to unload the canoes; we start to sort out our backpacks and put the things we might need on the river, such as sunblocker, chewing gum, dry clothes for the *unlikely* case that we fall into the water, and the like, into plastic tons. We search partners for the canoes and drag them to the water (the canoes, not the partners). While Edmund brings his transporter and our backpacks to the place we're going to camp at, Stefanie uses the time to get to know all the gossip we exchanged on the train. A few girls, grade 10, bitch about the missing sanitary facilities and go for a walk searching for some. The worst one says upon her return return, moaning, "I never thought I'd be so happy to see an official campground". We immediately agree that we'll have to overturn her canoe later on. Unfortunately, we won't be able too: Since we're one too many for pairs, she'll be paddling in one boat with Edmund, whom we can't overturn. Still we will get at her.
When Edmund returns, we set off. He gives the classical "How to paddle a canoe"-speech and warns us that the river is quite shallow due to the drought (which has the advantage that we don't have to wear livevests) and the next bridge is dangerous anyway. Those who were along last year begin to giggle at these words: Last year Peter (my former sports teacher) and Liz (another teacher who is not with us this time) crashed into said bridge and sunk...
Off we go and pass the bridge unscathed. Some of the 12th graders brought stereos with them, so we soon listen to Herbert Grönemeyer and mixed charts and oldies respectively, depending whether whether we're paddling close to Sascha and Karo or Christian and Ferdi. Björn says it's like the Fellowship on the Anduin river, except they probably didn't listen to "Californication" or "Bochum". Actually, most of us manage to get to our picnic place without trouble, except for some grade eight girls who didn't quite understand how to steer. Malte and Sven leave their change places so one of them shares a canoe with one of the kids, and they get along. We others are a little relieved because Malte and Sven are known to start water fights and canoe crashes and turnovers when they're together...
After our picnic, it's getting more difficult. We have to get out often and drag the canoe over particularly shallow, stony parts, and there are two dams that have to be crossed carefully. Trees have been felled by the storm and block most of the river; one blocks it completely so every single canoe has to be carried across. Ferdi and Christian begin to collect everything they find interesting: An old football full of fish eggs, a plastic car, an old tire.
The next rapids finally bring with them the first turtleturn, Tasja and Kristina suddenly sit next to their sinking canoe while their tons swim ahead. Close behind them, two of the kids (who are united again) follow. We manage to save their tons, have a good laugh and laugh even more when Stefanie and Petra, too, turn turtle. Sven and Malte, as old DLRGers, hurry to the rescue, but it's not so bad. However, the kids won't go into one canoe together for the rest of the day.
Aftermore rapids and more trees and a dead bat hanging tied by its legs to a silk thread dangling down from a spider's web (we shortly wonder whether we shouldn't free the poor thing, but it seems quite dead really, and we can't just rob the poor spider, can we), we are close enough to our campground to start colecting firewood. Edmund shows us how much each canoe should carry. It's quite a lot, so we scavenge the flotsam at the riverside between the rocks. The rocks are white and full of holes and cracks and invite us to climb them. So do the logs and boughs, so we hang on to the rocks and walk over the logs. Turns out the rocks are reliable but the logs aren't. They carry you for a while but then they break. Before I notive how, my shins are scratched and in the water amid splintered wood. And most of the branches are wet anyway. But we get enough, so we, that is Björn and me, set off to follow the others who have already gone ahead. Trying to get back into the canoe, I step on another unreliable log and am surrounded by icy, murky water. Figures that the only place in this river that is still deeper than one and a half metre is the one where I fall in. Somehow I manage to get back in, soaked and cold, but it's still sunny. Only all others are out of sight, until we get to the next dam. We can't see where to best cross it, so we steer closer to Tasja who is washing her t-shirt in the river and call to her. She doesn't hear us, so we come closer... suddenly we're drifting towards the millworks. Edmund is panicking, and when an expert panicks, it's hard not to panick as well. He's cursing in French and German and tries to tell us how to get out of there. We finally do by dragging along the wall on the bank (I'm on my knees now, my fingers clenched into the wall, very embarassing, this), cross the dam and join the others. Edmund apologizes and explains that most people who get in closer contact with a mill's works didn't get a second chance to repeat their mistake. We already guessed that much. *deep breath* Björn mutters something about that such a thing would not have happened on the river Anduin.
Now we unload Edmund's car, try to get into dry clothes, and then follows Edmund's fabulous "How to make sure your tent keeps standing" speech. After we've all put up our tents according to his advice, we start preparing supper. I'm in the salad group. Unfortunately, Edmung forgot the cutting plates and most sharp knives on his last trip to Luxembourg, so we have to work with pocket knives ("A German boy always has a Swiss knife at hand") on our own plates. And it's getting cold. The sun is setting, we're tired and the food takes quite a while when you cook it over a fire, no matter how much dry wood we've all collected. While we wait, we tend to our scratches, bruises and sunburns.
After supper - extremely delicious - salad, curry rice with chicken, veggies and mango chutney, mousse au chocolat - we get a big fire going and assemble around it. Edmund lifts the alcohol ban that existed during the paddling (so Malte had to drink his self-made ouzo from camouflaged Isofruit-bottles) and gives out wine and Belgian beer. We sit and talk about lesbian parties in Cologne, University, stupid teachers (those present are, of course, exceptions), computer games and the Silmarillion (the 12th graders are all slightly geeky) until we are too tired and stumble to our tents, after visiting the very primitive toiled that made Kathrin - the really annoying grade ten girl - believe she was dead and in hell or something similar. The sleeping-bags are warm and comfy whereas it's really cold outside away from the campfire, and we fall asleep immediately...
To be continued...
- - -
( Wochenendabenteuer, Episode I )
- - -
We might use the time on the train for sleep, but of course we don't - the six of us, Malte, Sven, Tasja, Kristina, Michaela and me, haven't seen each other for quite some time, so we have to update each other about former classmates we haven't seen for a while either. And when we're finally up to date with the latest gossip, we are in Kyllburg. It's supposed to be a county capital, but it's still tiny. It also is only about 30 kilometres from Veldenz *sniff*.
Now we have to walk through the village, I mean, county capital, and find the river Kyll("She should be downhill somewhere." Indeed...). We do, and we also find Edmund, our guide from Belgium, along with my former English teacher, Mrs Pirags - Stefanie, now - who even wears the red t-shirt we gave her when we graduated. Go her. And there are two interns, Petra (who is a little... let's say, clumsy) and Edit (who is quite nice, although she's ill). Isn't it great to call the people by their first name you had to address respectfully only one year ago. They already started to unload the canoes; we start to sort out our backpacks and put the things we might need on the river, such as sunblocker, chewing gum, dry clothes for the *unlikely* case that we fall into the water, and the like, into plastic tons. We search partners for the canoes and drag them to the water (the canoes, not the partners). While Edmund brings his transporter and our backpacks to the place we're going to camp at, Stefanie uses the time to get to know all the gossip we exchanged on the train. A few girls, grade 10, bitch about the missing sanitary facilities and go for a walk searching for some. The worst one says upon her return return, moaning, "I never thought I'd be so happy to see an official campground". We immediately agree that we'll have to overturn her canoe later on. Unfortunately, we won't be able too: Since we're one too many for pairs, she'll be paddling in one boat with Edmund, whom we can't overturn. Still we will get at her.
When Edmund returns, we set off. He gives the classical "How to paddle a canoe"-speech and warns us that the river is quite shallow due to the drought (which has the advantage that we don't have to wear livevests) and the next bridge is dangerous anyway. Those who were along last year begin to giggle at these words: Last year Peter (my former sports teacher) and Liz (another teacher who is not with us this time) crashed into said bridge and sunk...
Off we go and pass the bridge unscathed. Some of the 12th graders brought stereos with them, so we soon listen to Herbert Grönemeyer and mixed charts and oldies respectively, depending whether whether we're paddling close to Sascha and Karo or Christian and Ferdi. Björn says it's like the Fellowship on the Anduin river, except they probably didn't listen to "Californication" or "Bochum". Actually, most of us manage to get to our picnic place without trouble, except for some grade eight girls who didn't quite understand how to steer. Malte and Sven leave their change places so one of them shares a canoe with one of the kids, and they get along. We others are a little relieved because Malte and Sven are known to start water fights and canoe crashes and turnovers when they're together...
After our picnic, it's getting more difficult. We have to get out often and drag the canoe over particularly shallow, stony parts, and there are two dams that have to be crossed carefully. Trees have been felled by the storm and block most of the river; one blocks it completely so every single canoe has to be carried across. Ferdi and Christian begin to collect everything they find interesting: An old football full of fish eggs, a plastic car, an old tire.
The next rapids finally bring with them the first turtleturn, Tasja and Kristina suddenly sit next to their sinking canoe while their tons swim ahead. Close behind them, two of the kids (who are united again) follow. We manage to save their tons, have a good laugh and laugh even more when Stefanie and Petra, too, turn turtle. Sven and Malte, as old DLRGers, hurry to the rescue, but it's not so bad. However, the kids won't go into one canoe together for the rest of the day.
Aftermore rapids and more trees and a dead bat hanging tied by its legs to a silk thread dangling down from a spider's web (we shortly wonder whether we shouldn't free the poor thing, but it seems quite dead really, and we can't just rob the poor spider, can we), we are close enough to our campground to start colecting firewood. Edmund shows us how much each canoe should carry. It's quite a lot, so we scavenge the flotsam at the riverside between the rocks. The rocks are white and full of holes and cracks and invite us to climb them. So do the logs and boughs, so we hang on to the rocks and walk over the logs. Turns out the rocks are reliable but the logs aren't. They carry you for a while but then they break. Before I notive how, my shins are scratched and in the water amid splintered wood. And most of the branches are wet anyway. But we get enough, so we, that is Björn and me, set off to follow the others who have already gone ahead. Trying to get back into the canoe, I step on another unreliable log and am surrounded by icy, murky water. Figures that the only place in this river that is still deeper than one and a half metre is the one where I fall in. Somehow I manage to get back in, soaked and cold, but it's still sunny. Only all others are out of sight, until we get to the next dam. We can't see where to best cross it, so we steer closer to Tasja who is washing her t-shirt in the river and call to her. She doesn't hear us, so we come closer... suddenly we're drifting towards the millworks. Edmund is panicking, and when an expert panicks, it's hard not to panick as well. He's cursing in French and German and tries to tell us how to get out of there. We finally do by dragging along the wall on the bank (I'm on my knees now, my fingers clenched into the wall, very embarassing, this), cross the dam and join the others. Edmund apologizes and explains that most people who get in closer contact with a mill's works didn't get a second chance to repeat their mistake. We already guessed that much. *deep breath* Björn mutters something about that such a thing would not have happened on the river Anduin.
Now we unload Edmund's car, try to get into dry clothes, and then follows Edmund's fabulous "How to make sure your tent keeps standing" speech. After we've all put up our tents according to his advice, we start preparing supper. I'm in the salad group. Unfortunately, Edmung forgot the cutting plates and most sharp knives on his last trip to Luxembourg, so we have to work with pocket knives ("A German boy always has a Swiss knife at hand") on our own plates. And it's getting cold. The sun is setting, we're tired and the food takes quite a while when you cook it over a fire, no matter how much dry wood we've all collected. While we wait, we tend to our scratches, bruises and sunburns.
After supper - extremely delicious - salad, curry rice with chicken, veggies and mango chutney, mousse au chocolat - we get a big fire going and assemble around it. Edmund lifts the alcohol ban that existed during the paddling (so Malte had to drink his self-made ouzo from camouflaged Isofruit-bottles) and gives out wine and Belgian beer. We sit and talk about lesbian parties in Cologne, University, stupid teachers (those present are, of course, exceptions), computer games and the Silmarillion (the 12th graders are all slightly geeky) until we are too tired and stumble to our tents, after visiting the very primitive toiled that made Kathrin - the really annoying grade ten girl - believe she was dead and in hell or something similar. The sleeping-bags are warm and comfy whereas it's really cold outside away from the campfire, and we fall asleep immediately...
To be continued...
- - -
( Wochenendabenteuer, Episode I )
- - -
