Canoeing the Vltava

We had a huge weekend last weekend. Straight from school on Friday I had to take N and her friend Claire to Brevnov monestery to meet up with M and his colleagues for a weekend canoeing in Cesky Krumlov (near the Austrian border).

On Friday night we were camped out and had an open fire, where we were shown the finer art of fat frankfurt (they called them sausages) cooking over the campfire. You have to tear a branch off a willow tree, sharpen the end, put it in the fire for a while then put a frunkfurt on the end and cook. Like how we cook marshmallows - the Czechs all laughed at that idea.

The Vltava flows quite strongly and has weirs along the way which have ramps off to one side that you can use if brave enough. We braved a few but with young kids, didn't brave them all and had to carry the canoes around the weirs. One of our party flipped over at the end of a ramp and had to get stitches in her leg. There were a lot of small rapids along the way which added to the fun.

We reached our destination, a campsite just before Cesky Krumlov, after a whole day of paddling. Exhausted we walked a few kilometres into the town centre, took in the sites and had a well deserved dinner(in an ex-underground stable). The girls were so tired we took a taxi back to the campsite.

The next day we paddled for another 5 hours, through the picturesque town(which had 4 weirs)and the peaceful countryside. Along the way were numerous pubs, ice cream venders and camp sites...and more weirs.