Martins, a friend of Andrejs took us to the 2 days river trip on the Latvian Gauja river from Cesis to Sigulda (40 km distance). We went through many things in that trip - frequently changing Latvian weather, boat's flip over, non-working electronic devices. Except of Martins, there were 2 very friendly and fun Latvian girls, friends of Martins, who decided to come with. All of them spoke Russian so good that I would never believe they were Latvians if I wouldn't know. What amazes me a lot in Latvia is that I met so many Latvians who speak Russian much better than Russians themselves in Lithuania.
In the evening we set up a tent and fried sausages on fire. After a tiring trip, a nice relaxing dinner with a good wine was all we wanted before going to sleep. I took this picture from the place where we stayed overnight. I like it, it looks very peaceful.
The next day there was still 20 km left to go to arrive to Sigulda, our destination. After half an hour of rowing we suddenly crashed into the stones in the middle of the river which didn't seem to be so bad. We thought we'll shake the boat a little and it will start swimming. But it didn't. So Andrejs decided to hold the stone itself and try to raise the boat, which worked for the boat but not for us, because when boat started to swim Andrejs' hands were still holding the stone, and he somehow ended up in the water not only by himself but together with me and all the things that were with us in the boat. The boat was about to sink, so the rest of our stuff, but luckily we weren't so far away from the shore, and managed to rescue most of the things with the help of Martins, who, also luckily, was at this moment near. While collecting our bags from the water I saw my shoes together with socks swimming very fast with the stream, so all I could do was to say goodbye to them. It wasn't the worst! After being for some time in the water I think my phone will never be able to work again :( Same for Martins' photo camera :(
In the evening we set up a tent and fried sausages on fire. After a tiring trip, a nice relaxing dinner with a good wine was all we wanted before going to sleep. I took this picture from the place where we stayed overnight. I like it, it looks very peaceful.
The next day there was still 20 km left to go to arrive to Sigulda, our destination. After half an hour of rowing we suddenly crashed into the stones in the middle of the river which didn't seem to be so bad. We thought we'll shake the boat a little and it will start swimming. But it didn't. So Andrejs decided to hold the stone itself and try to raise the boat, which worked for the boat but not for us, because when boat started to swim Andrejs' hands were still holding the stone, and he somehow ended up in the water not only by himself but together with me and all the things that were with us in the boat. The boat was about to sink, so the rest of our stuff, but luckily we weren't so far away from the shore, and managed to rescue most of the things with the help of Martins, who, also luckily, was at this moment near. While collecting our bags from the water I saw my shoes together with socks swimming very fast with the stream, so all I could do was to say goodbye to them. It wasn't the worst! After being for some time in the water I think my phone will never be able to work again :( Same for Martins' photo camera :(
5 comments:
Cool, I also like boat trips and it wouldn't be a boat trip if everything went smooth - either you get drenched in the rain, sunburned, fallen into the water, damaged your stuff etc.
Yeah, and as I remember the stats then around 80% latvians speak russian and around 70% russians speak latvian.
have you been to any other rivers in Latvia?
Now I think I know the reason for all the boats to flip over (not only our boar flipped over but Martins' and girls' too). It's all because before starting the rowing we made a toast "Do dna!" ;)
Yeah, a while ago - Renda, Abava, Gauja (at Līgatne), Irbe. But I would suggest you Amata at spring - a bit more adrenaline :).
o, that's quite a collection of rivers!
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