As you know, not all countries are the same. For me, each country is like a fingerprint, always different. Now you can change the culture or the landscape, you will never find two identical countries. And one of the many changes you can find is the river. I had never kayaked beyond the borders of Spain or nearby countries like France. But a few days ago I took a big step. Not only a step in the world of kayaking, it was a step in my life. A few days ago I left the borders of a continent from which I had never left, Europe. I had never made a fly as long as I did recently. Nothing more or nothing less than traveling to Canada. That was the beginning of a great adventure. An adventure that would take many years to complete. An adventure in which I will travel will make many trips to countries around the world, but this was only the beginning. On this adventure, I will travel to Canada to paddle probably with some of the next figures of this sport, and learn from some that were before. But what I was going, i never had left Europe, but if he had visited a large part of the countries of the old continent. So the change I noticed when I arrived on Canadian soil was brutal. The change I notice especially in the river, which is where I am spending most of the time. A river in a country like Spain next to a river like the Ottawa River, is like putting a mouse next to an elephant. My first impression paddling in the Ottawa River was to think that it was in a lake, since the Ottawa River has easily the same width as a great part of the lakes of Spain. Millions and millions of liters of water passed daily through those long kilometers. That was something that in Spain would be unthinkable. But it was not only the width of the river, but many more things were different. For example the waves. In Spain you usually find waves that cross almost half the river, and maximum two waves one next to the other. In Canada no. Here you can find many but many waves in the same height of the river, since the river is wider and will allow more space for more waves to be created. Also the wave type changes. In Canada, having more water you usually find more waves than hole, and in Spain the other way around. Many and many more things changed, such as the time when you eat dinner. In Spain, dinner is usually between 8:00 and 10:30. In Canada this changes completely. In Canada it is usually dined between 5:00 and 7:00. For not only dinner, in general all meals change time. But going back to the subject of kayaking, what impressed me the most about reaming in this river, is that I was not rowing in the big river. If the Ottawa River were a tree, I was rowing on a branch. In short, that river that seemed giant was not a small part of the river really. I also heard that to cross the big river they used boats with engines. But as I said, this is just the beginning of a great adventure that I still have to travel.
:)
ReplyDelete