Most rivers in Holland go through towns ,villages or cities and there were
and still are some villages in the North and Southwest , where the only link is by ferry or pont.
The river we were on is a very old ,natural one originally used for transporting goods as early as the Roman occupation ,called the Old Ijssel ((pronounced ayzel) , which begins at Raesfeld in Germany and , because of the weirs the upper reaches we paddled are used almost exclusively by kayakers and canoeists.
The river later joins the newer stretch of the Ijssel heading north , part of which was dug under the Roman general Drusus around 12BC linking the Rhine (the river on the map running just south and parallel ) with whats now known as the Ijsselmeer (that large expanse of water in the centre of the country) and before that the Zuiderzee ,which up to 1932 before the building of a levy/causway linking the northern tips of a then cresent shaped Holland , was open sea , ..next stop Denmark!
This all being part of the sea defence plan against storm surge floods.
You can paddle just about anywhere here ,although i would`nt fancy one of the larger rivers at the moment , because of heavy barge traffic and currents and whirlpools, but this is really only limited to the Rhine an Waal
which have always been busy and there are many hundreds of km to choose from.
We live in a village in the east , about 3 km from the German border , so nice
and peaceful , but looking forward to a trip north to Friesland , lots
of big lakes linked by rivers .
The kayak pulled to the right hardly at all this time , although when we
checked the backbone position afterwards whilst packing up , the front end had slipped to the right a little which is probably why there was still
a slight tendency to slowly head for the reeds!
We are growing to love it a bit more every time we use it and being a tandem, has a high average speed too , just flies along with very little
effort once its most efficient hull speed is reached.
