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In the summer of 2008, me and some friends of my canoeclub went to Sweden to paddle over there in the Sea at the East side of Sweden. We went for a trip of a week, and just paddled until we found a nice island to put our tents at (camping in the wild is allowed in Sweden). We started and ended at the same place a camping site.
It was fun, but we didn’t make that much distance; only 15-20 km a day. So, we got up with the plan to make a canoe trip which would cover more distance. We thought of a trip at which we would have to make a certain amount of kilometers and already plan the trip in front instead of at the very moment.
This is how we came up with the idea to plan a trip at the Rhine. We became more specific and planned to paddle from Dusseldorf till Hoek van Holland, passing (the harbour of) Rotterdam. A distance of nearly 300 kilometers.

Arrived at Hoek van Holland we planned to paddle at the sea for two more days and go North, so we could get as close to Amersfoort as possible.
Another man at the canoe club heared about our plans and gave us a book about the Rhine. In this book the Rhine was described in much detail; so now we had a map to use. At first we thought we wouldn’t need one, because we would only have to follow the flow and remember just a few turns and we would easily come at Hoek van Holland.

Saturday, the ninth of August it was the day we left. We were in total with four people; Me, my sister Tjamke and two friends of us; Hans and Ria.
We only needed a fifth person to drive us to Dusseldorf. This turned out to be my father. The five of us left to Dusseldorf at Saturday afternoon. It was only a 2,5 hour drive so we arrived at 16.30 pm at Dusseldorf. Which gave us enough time to buy dinner (which we forgot to take out the fridge in Amersfoort) and some additional alcohol (when you are in Germany; you should drink German beer).
At Google earth our camping site seemed to be located directly to a yacht basin. Unfortunately you cannot see fences and steep slopes at Google Earth, so with a bit more difficulty we could enter the water at the yacht basin.

The next morning we started our trip and the Rhine adventure. At the Sunny Sunday at which we started there turned out to be a canoe tour from a local club.
So we were accompanied by a lot of other canoes. Later, this turned out to be the only day we saw other canoeists. Canoeing at the Rhine seemed to be not that popular.

We started late, so after a few kilometers we already took a break and had a nice swim in the Rhine, of which many would follow. We also found out that you could find a lot of those flat stones which bounce so nicely over the water (keilstenen) in a certain flood line at the shore. Playing with those rocks, making little boats end throwing stones at bottles turned out to be the entertainment of the whole trip.
After a break of two hours, we entered our boots again.

After having paddled for about 40 kilometres in total that day we found a nice camping site, pulled our kajaks out of the water and put our tents down. We cooked a nice meal, made a warm fire and drunk some beers cooled down by the Rhine. When you are sitting at your camp-site cooking dinner the advantage of making a kajak tour instead of backpacking turns out. (I also made a backpack-tour this summer) In your kajak you have way more storage space than in the biggest backpack there is available. And you do not have the carry all the stuff you take with you. You will not easily notice the difference between having 20 or 30 kilogrammes of luggage.
So our campsite was really comfortable with chairs for everyone, two tarps, three burners (not my idea), big pans and a lot of food and drinks. To give you an impression of the weight of the kajaks; we usually carried them with four people at the same time. We were never hungry and we knew we would pass enough cities and villages where we could buy new food.

Camping in the wild is not allowed in Germany or the Netherlands, but we thought it would be okay, cause we would be camping in remote areas. When you paddle at the Rhine, it is pretty crowded with a lot of boats passing and you will see a lot of industry and cities at the shores of the Rhine. But when you are between to big cities, you will be in the middle of the nature. By going ashore you won’t be buttered by the vessels at the Rhine anymore, they are held at some distance by the cribs. And you really feel in the middle of the nature.

The trip went well, every time when we left a great camping site we thought we would never find such a nice one again and every time the camping sites where as good as the last one ore even better. During the trip we learned how to spot the nice camping sites at the map. When we arrived at Rees we decided we had to do some shopping, mainly because we wanted to have some fresh bread. We entered the city with our wooden shoes, did the shopping and also drunk a cup of coffee. Than we only paddled for a few kilometers and made our campsite near Emmerich. We made a big campfire and at half past twelve in the night we saw a little boot, holding still at our campsite. We wondered what that boat was doing there at that time. We were sure that it wanted something from us. But what……? Flash! A Flashlight went on and we were blinded by the light.
The spotlight moved through our whole campsite; resting at our tents and at our kajaks, and then moving back to us a couple of times. Than the boat moved to a crib and we saw two persons leaving the boat, coming towards us. If it would be the police we would be fined, if it wouldn’t be the police… We were in the middle of the nature, nobody could hear us. We did really hope this was the police.
The two men approached us, one stood still and laid his hand on his gun-case. The other walked to us and than…… Polizei Emmerich. They told us they received a phone call about a campfire. They also told us also that we were in a nature reserve and that it certainly wasn’t allowed to make a campfire over there.
We said that we didn’t know (wir haben es nicht gewusst) we were in a nature reservate. We had to show our passports and they wrote down our names. We asked what they were going to do with our names. They answered that for this time it was okay, they couldn’t send us away anyway because canoeing at the Rhine at night is very dangerous, but if they found us camping at the Rhine again we would be fined.
Next demand of them was to put out our campfire and leave the site before tomorrow morning 12 a.m. We got the feeling that the police was just doing their job and actually really liked what we where doing. They were at least showing interest in the trip we were making. After this we needed a drink, laughed about what happened to us an went to sleep at 2 a.m.
The next morning we left at 11 a.m and entered the Netherlands after a few kilometers. We were glad to be in the Netherlands again, because now we probably had a second chance with camping in the wild. Warned by the police and knowing that in the Netherlands there is more civilization around the Rhine we camped more out of the sight now. Which caused us sometimes searching for a good campsite for about 2 hours.
When the Rhine splitted we took the Waal instead of the Nederrhine, because of the stronger flow, ending us up at Dodewaard, famous for its former nuclear power plant. Dodewaard is located at only 15 kilometers from Wageningen, so Marjan; my girlfriend visited us at our camping site; so she could get a real impression of how ‘tough’ our tour was.
We had a nice swim ate pancakes for lunch and went for some shopping to eat wraps for dinner and do some extra shopping for that evening, because my father and mother would also come by. This all ended in making a big campfire, having much food (my mother thought we would have a minimum of food with us, so she also brought a lot of food) and drinking some nice beers.
Next day we discovered we ate too much, the sun was really nice and we liked swimming more than canoeing and didn’t want to leave Marjan behind.
We found a rubber boat for Marjan, but it had to much holes; so we couldn’t repair it. At 4 p.m we waved Marjan goodbye and went on with our trip.

We had a few other nice camping spots and the last day we camped just a few kilometers before Rotterdam.  The last night we weren’t afraid anymore of being fined by the police for camping in the wild. Because if we would we would at least have a nice story.
The fine is something like 80 euro’s per person, this comes to about 10 euro’s a night for camping. Which we thought was a reasonable price for the nice camping spots with all their good facilities we had (big places, close to the water, quiet). Luckily we didn’t get fined and the next morning we stepped in our canoes for the last time. We entered Rotterdam by de Nieuwe Waterweg, looked at civilization and all the really big boats (we felt really tiny) and ate a ‘broodje kroket’ at a local restaurant.

At the Maeslantkering in Rotterdam a boat seemed to be waiting for us; we had our second meeting with the police; the port authority. They were wondering what we were doing in their port, if we wanted to enter the sea and if it was allowed to canoe their. We told them it was allowed to paddle their (it really is) and that we were looking for a suitable place to get out our kayaks. The port authority didn’t trust the big waves and big boats approaching us, so they decided to escort us to a safe haven. Which gave a real funny sight; like a mother duck with her babies.
Arrived at the haven we got out of our kayaks and the escorting boat anchored next to us. Dropping its captain ashore and approaching us.
We expected to get a little talk about danger and illegal trespassing of the haven, but this wasn’t the case. The supervisor told us he had never seen a canoe before in the Port of Rotterdam. (Of course we were proud to be the first ones). And wanted to know if this was some kind of sponsoring action.
We explained that it was just a holiday trip and he was really interested in our story, wishing us all the good. After we unpacked our canoes and had a nice dinner we were picked up by the father of Hans; bringing us back to Amersfoort and ending the trip.
What will the challenge be next year?