Herentals Kayaking Experience

Herentals

The city of Herentals is located in the Flemish region of Antwerp and has a population of just under 30,000. Named after the Herentals tree, and home to a large Mondelez chocolate factory, the city is home to a number of beautiful historical buildings including the original Northern and Western gates of the old city.

In late May, I decided with my boyfriend, that I would like to go Kayaking on the Kleine Nette river for the day. We had the choice between canooing and kayaking, and having done both befor I knew I preferred the latter and so we booked a kayak with the De Hut organisation for the next day. They gave us a map showing all the drop off and pick up points that were available and as it is a slow flowing river it is possible to kayak both upstream and downstream. We chose however, to start at the furthest possible point up the river and kayak back down to our starting location. The woman with whom we booked was extremely helpful and verified with all the members of the team that this was possible in just a matter of minutes. It was relatively cheap at  26 euros for the kayak for the entire day and the shuttle and 2 euros for a watertight tub in which to keep our mobiles and to pack our lunch. One of my favourite things about this organisation is that life jackets are not compulsory as I find that these ofter hinder movement. They told us to be at the meeting point at 10 am the next morning and to wear clothes that we didn't mind getting a bit wet.

The next morning we awoke to glorious sunshine, packed our lunch and headed out. We arrived just before 10 to watch them attach the trailer carrying the boats to the car. All of the members of the team were exceptionally friendly and helpful and on the drive to our starting point our driver informed us of all the different activities that were available as well as some interesting facts about the river itself. He was extremely enthusiastic and passionate about his company and it was sweet to see.

When we had arrived at Retie, our driver unloaded the kayak and told us about some of the wildlife that we should look out for, then we climbed into our boat and we were off. For two extremely amateur kayakers, we were soon drifting along at a steady pace. And within a matter of minutes we were surrounded by silence except from the bubbling of the stream and the occasional bird song. It was beautiful, just the two of us in our kayak in the water, and no one else. What we did see was nature at its finest. We saw stunning white herons at the edge of water that stretched out their wings and flew away when we can close. We saw eagles overhead, circling above the fields around us on the hunt for mice and other small vermin. We saw beautiful little birds chasing each other from bank to bank skimming across the top of the water and casting reflections in the water. Most spectacular to me however were the numerous bright blue and green dragonflies that hovered in the air and on the reeds around us, glistening in the sunlight. They flew across the river and balanced gently on the leaves allowing us to take a better look at their magnificent colours.

After about 2 hours of kayaking at a very slow, but steady pace - kayaking is a lot more of an intense workout than it looks- we came across a little terrace not far from the river and near a landing platform so we scrambled out of the boat and headed up for a drink. Unfortunately I cannot remember the name of any of the bars we visited on our journey but all of them were pleasant and full of character and the staff were extremely friendly. We rationed our time at each stop and then climbed back into our boat to continue the journey downstream. We had packed sandwiches to eat on our voyage as, being students we try to save money where possible, and we ate these in a wide, secluded part of the rier as we let our boat slowly get carried along. Although this was fine and it was a beautiful setting for lunch, a couple of the tavernas that we stopped of at had tasty fresh lunches on the menu and I was jealous of the other customers who had ordered them. 

Four hours after we originally set of, we kayaked past Bobbejaanland and could hear people screaming on the rides as they rattled past. Although this broke the serene silence that we had experienced up until this point it was an interesting change of scenery and quite enjoyable to watch. Soon after we found another place to stop with another terrace and so we took yet another well earned break and sat in the sunshine. Until this point we had literally been in the middle of nowhere and now as we were drawing closer to the end of our journey, we began to see signs of civilisation.

Around 6 hours after we were dropped off, we arrived at our final destination and clambered out of our boat. The drop off was extremely easy, we just hauled the boat out of the water, thanked the team and drove home. This was a wonderful, peaceful eperience and perfect for anyone wanting to feel closer with nature. If we could do it again, and this seems likely considering what a fantastic time we had, I would choose to start maybe halfway down the river, and paddle upstream first before turning around and heading back to the beginning. I felt like we didn't challenge ourselves enough as having done little to no actual kayaking for about an hour before the end we still had enough energy to go to the gym after! On the other hand, we saw many tired couples arguing over who was being lazy, who was putting in more work, who was steering in the wrong direction and whose timing was worse. For me it did show that we can work together as a good team and that left alone in the middle of a river with noone but each other we are perfectly happy. For anyone with fair skin, I would recommend taking a sun hat and sun cream in summer as there is little protection from the sun. Also I would recommend taking large amounts of liquids on the boat with you as it is sometimes strenuous work and the gaps between the bars can be quite long!

Overall this was one of my favourite experiences of my Erasmus year. I enjoyed the kayaking and the novelty of being in a boat however most of all I loved being surrounded by nature and the silence. For a low price this was an all day experience that I would highly recommend. Herentals might not be on your Europe bucket list and I used to think that Belgium is possibly too cool for watersports however I was mistaken. 5 STAR EXPERIENCE