Messing About in Boats, Part 2

I finally managed to persuade Irena to take a day off and to go somewhere more interesting than IKEA. She had been somewhat less than enthusiastic when I told her that I had bought the Itiwit kayak, but she was a bit more positive when we arrived at Lake Iskar. The lake is just south of Sofia's dreadful ring road and really it is a reservoir. Sofiots flock there at the weekends to go fishing, picnicking and they even get out onto the water.

The Itwit inflatable kayak really is well-designed and it takes about six or seven minutes to get it ready for the water. (No, this blog is definitely NOT sponsored by Itiwit or Decathlon, just in case you were wondering!) The double-action pump works really well and you do not need any special knowledge or expertise. How you get from the land into the kayak is a bit awkward and you might just have to resign yourself to getting a bit wet and / or muddy.

The bad news about paddling is that if you keep changing sides, first on the right and then on the left, you will have a never-ending flow of water down your paddle and onto your hands, arms and everything else. Therefore paddling on just one side of the kayak at a time will, in theory, reduce the rate at which you get wet.

Out on the lake, you get a wonderful feeling of serenity and peace. Even if you both paddle with all of your strength, you cannot go fast and often it is pleasant just to float along, looking at the lake, the trees, the hills and the sky. A couple of cormorants and a two other boats were out on the lake, but otherwise we had it all to ourselves.

  
Some more good news? Yes, our freight has indeed arrived in Bulgaria and it will be delivered to our house in Kalotina. But when? The other little problem is that we do not have enough storage space for all of our bits and pieces from China, although some of them will be going to Veliko Tarnovo.