Blog - The Naked Kayaker

Rowing the Grand Canal de Versailles

11/13/2014

Paris! ... What is the first thing that just crossed your mind? I bet 5€ it wasn't kayaking. Well, I visited Paris last weekend with no intention of spending time on the water, and yet I somehow found myself floating in a rowboat in the Grand Canal in front of the Palace of Versailles.

Last weekend, Elizabeth, Sander van den CargoBroek, and I rented a tiny car and road-tripped to visit UMich friend Nicolas in Paris. We spent Saturday and Sunday making epic 10 hour walks across the city, stopping at Nicolas' swim meet, the Electronic Circus, le Pain Quotidien, Montmartre, Parc des Buttes-Chaumont, the Eiffel Tower, Le Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, Notre Dame, and many more, including a late night walk along the Seine.

On Monday, we left the city center to visit Versailles before heading back to the Netherlands (with a quick stop in Belgium for dinner)...

Ringing in the winter paddling season with the Windhappers

10/23/2014

The clubhouse, complete with a bar, showers, ping pong, and something that resembles shuffleboard.

Every year, the Windhappers Kayak/Canoe Club celebrates the end of summer paddling season and the beginning of winter paddling with a short paddle and campfire in a nearby park. The Windhappers Kanovereniging (windchasers kayak/canoe club) is a paddling club based in Den Haag (the Hague) in the Netherlands. Every Wednesday evening, members gather at the swanky clubhouse to either (1) practice kayak polo, (2) go for an evening paddle, or (3) loiter around the bar. Elizabeth and I visited a few weeks ago and participated in item #3. I asked at least 5 people how the club works, and how an experienced member can join and use the equipment. They seemed baffled by the fact that:

we are young females - most of the club seems to be seniors and 14 year old boys,
we're interested in multiple types of kayaking - most members seems to strongly affiliate with one category (sea kayaking, touring, whitewater, or polo),
I wanted to kayak now that it was "winter" (i.e. <70 degrees and not sunny every day),
and the usual "why do you speak Dutch if you're American" response.

Click below to read more about our first club impressions!

Lake Brienz (Brienzersee) in Interlaken, Switzerland

10/22/2014

Lake Brienz (Brienzersee in German) is one of two lakes that flank the city of Interlaken, Switzerland. Unlike the Lake Thun (the other lake), Lake Brienz is a vibrant turquoise blue color, likely caused by glacial sediments flowing into the lake. I rented a boat from Hightide Kayak School in Bönigen (next to Interlaken) and embarked on my longest solo paddle yet. As you can see from the photos below, the views and weather were fantastic!

Note: I'm trying out a new layout with this post, with all photos + captions up front and the detailed trip description later on. Let me know what you think!

A Stroll to the Oosterschelde Oyster Reefs

10/5/2014

This was the first field visit for the EMERGO project, a project by TU Delft and NIOZ (the Netherlands Institute of Sea Research) that I'll be working on during my time in the Netherlands. The overarching goal is to understand the morphological and ecological responses of tidal flats to different restoration measures. The project was sparked, in part, by the ongoing loss of intertidal habitats (tidal flats, oyster reefs, marshes, sea grasses) in the Oosterschelde. Between 1976 and 1986, a storm surge barrier was constructed across the mouth of the river. This barrier was the largest component of the 50 year Delta Works flood management project to protect the Netherlands from flooding after devastating floods in 1953. Stay tuned for a future post about this barrier - an epic bike trip is in the works that will involve biking across many of the storm surge barriers.

Anyways, the barrier reduced the tide range in the river (i.e. the tide does not go as high or as low as it used to). Since intertidal habitats depend on being dry and wet for a certain amount of time, this smaller tide range has lead to rapid shrinking and loss of tidal flat and marsh habitat. Many pilot projects are in the ground already to test ways to slow/stop this degradation, including artificial oyster reefs and tidal flat sand replenishments. The EMERGO project will look at how well these (and other) actions address the unraveling of intertidal habitats.

Let's visit some artificial and natural oyster reefs!

EMERGO project team: Bram, Lodewijk, Tom, and Oliver

My first impression of tidal flats in the Oosterschelde (Eastern Scheldt), a major river in South Holland, was the ease with which you could walk across them. In San Francisco Bay, where the tidal flats are muddy (rather than sandy), each step sank deep into the mud. The crossing to the oyster restoration site for monthly monitoring was always an exhausting adventure. Tuesday's visit to the tidal flats of the Oosterschelde brought back fond memories of tromping through the mud in California.

How can oyster reefs help restore the Oosterschelde?

Maeslantkering: Testing a Storm Surge Barrier

10/1/2014

Animation of the Maeslantkering in action (Source)

Once a year, Rijkswaterstaat does a test closing of the Maeslantkering, a massive storm surge barrier on the waterway that connects Rotterdam to the ocean (the Nieuwe Waterweg/the Scheur). Check out the structure in Google Maps. Rijkswaterstaat is the government agency that oversees flood protection in the Netherlands by building and maintaining the complex and highly managed system of rivers, lakes, coastlines, pumps, and flood protection structures. This is necessary because more than 25% of the country is below sea level (protected by dikes). This was one of the last projects within the 50-year Delta Works, a massive flood infrastructure project triggered by the devastating 1953 floods that killed almost 2000 people.

Rotte River: 20 km Bike, 20 km Kayak, 20 km Bike

9/22/2014

Obligatory windmill photo.

A couple months ago, while searching for Dutch kayaking info, I discovered Johan's Kano Route website, which describes kayaking routes in the Netherlands and a few in other countries. I clicked around for the routes within biking distance of Delft, and there are quite a few. He always lists the nearest kayak rental shops, which is helpful for a car-less boat-less person like me. Elizabeth and I decided to embark on the Rotterdam route (which only takes you to the center of Rotterdam if you paddle ~16 miles).

Leie River in Gent, Belgium: from Pastures to Centrum

8/30/2014

Downtown Gent, a historic city in northwest Belgium. The second building from the left is the oldest building in the city.

Bridget, Stijn, and I met up in Gent for a one-way paddle from outside the city to the city center, where we partook in typical Belgian activities like beer-drinking and french fry-munching. We paddled under ancient bridges, circumnavigated a moat around a castle, and broke into a canal house after Bridget jumped into the canal to save her phone... Read on :)

Finally in Belgium: Antwerpen!

8/25/2014

Dark skies over Delft

Another guest post by Bridget! Nena's comments in [italics].

We woke up early to pack (again) and walk to the train (again) [Oh Bridget, stop whining]. This time the destination was Belgium, where we are currently spending a week with Nena’s extended family! After groggily getting out of bed and showering, we braced ourselves for rain and headed to the station. Halfway to the station it began thundering, and we increased our pace to reach cover before the downpour [mostly successfully]. I commented, "It's no wonder Europeans wrote such depressing novels, with such weather!" and Nena reminded me that I had already made a similar remark three times. Whoops.

Windmills at Kinderdijk

8/25/2014

Guest blog post by Bridget! My comments in [italics], as usual :)

On Friday we woke up early to do my favorite activity – looking at windmills! We decided to go to Kinderdijk, a UNESCO World Heritage site, where a complex of windmills were built to prevent the flood-prone region from flooding. I don't want to bore you with all the history here [THIS IS NOT BORING! People have lived in this region for a long time, and until the 13th century it was dewatered (by humans) using gravity. Since it is naturally a peat bog, dewatering led to decomposition of the peat (when peat is exposed to oxygen it breaks down and releases carbon into the atmosphere), which makes the ground sink over time. Now lower, the region flooded more often. The inhabitants built levees and water storage ponds, where they could store flood water. The 19 windmills at Kinderdijk (built in the mid 1700s) served to pump water from low-lying areas into these storage ponds. Today, the windmills have long been replaced by electrical pump stations and the mills remain for tourist enjoyment.] If you are interested to learn more, you can find a good description on this website: www.kinderdijk.com...

De Zandmotor, Herring, and the Girl with the Pearl Earring

8/23/2014

Last Wednesday was a day of all-things-Dutch. Again, no kayaking. But there is kayaking on the horizon, so stay tuned!

Bridget and I made a day trip to the Zandmotor - a massive beach nourishment project on the South Holland coastline. Very exciting for a coastal engineering nerd like me.

But if that's not exciting enough for you, we also recreated a famous painting: The Girl with the Pearl Earring. Maybe you've heard of it? :)