BKE 2 BOAT
On a tour of this kind, it helps to be overly optimistic: 1) The mosquitoes are gone. 2) After the heat, it has cooled down. 3) There will be additional water for the waterfalls tomorrow, and levels have been low anyway. The reality I try to suppress: It is shortly after midnight, I lie huddled in my sleeping bag, and water runs down my face as if I am paddling whitewater. The thunderstorm is now passing over us for the third time. Like a drunkard, it staggers from valley to valley, vomiting its effusions over us. Hours ago, we were happy to have found a roof. Now we dream of walls because the rain lashes horizontally, soaking us as we all pretend to sleep.
By bike, we’ve been pulling our kayaks on trailers for more than a week now. From the south of Germany, we pedaled to our home run in Lofer, Austria, enjoyed the famous Devil’s Canyon, and continued biking further past the Kaiser Mountains and up 2504 meters on the Großglockner. From there, we continued to Lienz in East Tyrol, paddled several stretches of the Isel River and the Defereggenbach, then biked over the Staller Sattel Pass to Merano in Southern Tyrol, Italy.
Including our bike, trailer, kayak, stove, and clothes, we each maneuvers around twice our body weight. Admittedly, it is
