To start of this blogpost, it was a grand week spent in Slovenia with a number of friends and acquaintances (whom have now become friends). Most of my time was spent paddling on the Soča and the Koritnica, almost all sections have been paddled (except for the extremely dangerous sections and a few other stretches of the river). I'd like to give you that this is a very short summary of the whole trip, working on some larger posts that give a bit more detail.
Personally I had one rest day where I had planned to go paddling, so hiked up a mountain with two others ... after snow was encountered we turned back ;-).
Though to get back on the topic, Slovenia, paddling and photos...In advance I had a few goals to actually paddle some nice stretches of white water and also create a number of grand photos. Oh yeah, also to have a great time. All these three goals have been reached in this 10 day stretch of vacation.
Arrival was in the morning of April 30th, after having driven through the night in my sturdy car ... quite a long time even with four drivers taking over the wheel after some period. A large coffee did taste pretty good in a German Autohof somewhere in South Germany during this night. The rest of the day was spent chillin' on the Soča in not all too good weather, but rain doesn't hurt anyone on the water.
As this was my first time in my second-hand Wavesport Z it took a bit of time to get used to the kayak, but felt really good and way better than my previous Bliss Stick Flip-stick as river runner.
Ivette in her Pyranha Inazone 230 on the Soča
From monday on the weather turned for the better during the day, though at night still quite cold. Even discovered one early morning that the tent had actually frozen stiff, must mean that it was quite chilly. In the evenings a fire kept us going and with these low temps the distance between person and fire was not all too far.
Camp by night
The day before last I was finally able to actually work on my photography goal that I had also planned, was just too tired to actually paddle the Trnovo slalom course the correct way and get all the required eddies. So took my DSLR and ran from spot to spot along the course itself, with some of my friends as willing volunteer for photos (who wouldn't want some spectacular images of him/herself on white water :p ). In the photo below
Arend-Jan is taking a nice line through a small hole in the first section of the course.
Arend-Jan on the Trnovo slalom course
More posts of this trip will be published in the next few weeks, though for so far more photos can be enjoyed on
my Flickr-page.
