Events in this story took place on Sunday the 11th of August, 2019. We paddled from a Protected Landscape Area called the Danube Floodplains in Slovakia to Gönyű, our first town in Hungary. In the Danube Floodplains, we’d freecamped for the first time on this trip. The total distance we paddled to Gönyű was 26.6 kilometers. Waking Up at Our Freecamping Site My alarm rang at 5:00, a few minutes before dawn. Slowly, we awoke and wrangled ourselves out of our sleeping bags. The storm had stopped a few hours earlier and we finally reached a deep state of sleep. IContinue reading
freecamping
Kayak Trip Day 36: Čunovo to the Danube Floodplains – Freecamping
Evens occurred on Saturday the 10th of August, 2019. We paddled our buoyant Zucchini from the Čunovo Dam to somewhere in the Danube Floodplains protected landscape area in the Slovak-Hungarian border region. We paddled 36 kilometers that day. At night, we freecamped next to the river for the first time on this trip. Leaving Čunovo for the Danube Floodplains We only stayed one night in Čunovo. For the morning, we managed to arrange breakfast at 7:30. The guy who had cheffed up dinner so enthusiastically the night before were not so fond of our early breakfast time; we had to beg forContinue reading
Kitesurfing South America: 3 Obscure Spots
Ever considered going kitesurfing in South America? If not, it’s time to reconsider! Many South American countries are full of river dams. Where there’s a dam, there’s an artificial lake. Where there’s an artificial lake, there’s oftentimes real strong winds. Many of these kitesurfing lakes are rather obscure for the kite community, yet are famous locally for their reliable, strong winds and tiny waves. Watch out, some of these locations aren’t for beginners. All of them do have schools that offer classes but ask yourself if you want to tackle these beasts when just starting out. Perhaps you’ll be sittingContinue reading
71 Reasons to Visit South America in 2017
Whether you’re a hitchhiker, a digital nomad, or a holidaymaker, South America is absolutely phenomenal. Let’s not hold off on that long-desired trip to the southern hemisphere any longer! Without further ado, here’s your randomly ordered justification to go ahead and get south the coming year: 1. Firstly, pick up fifty shades of Spanish! As a result of colonialism, South America is quite homogeneous language-wise, with Spanish and Portuguese being the most spoken. Or mix ’em up and you get “Portuñol“. Learn just enough Portuguese to make your trip to Brazil easy-peasy with Duolingo or Memrise. So instead you want toContinue reading
Springtime in Uruguay! (Laguna Merín)
My 90 days are almost up, but dude, I’ve had a good time in Uruguay! What’s all this excitement about? Probably the not knowing what to expect and the fact that this hemisphere of the earth would slowly, but surely warm up in the course of a few months come spring. Near the end of my stay I can finally say: Toss your coat and take off your long pants, because springtime has FINALLY come to Uruguay! Uruguay Trip Summary I did a little tour of the country as you can see from my route map. It gave me the time to explore theContinue reading
It’s a Vlog! Hitchhiking Southern Chile
I had been playing around with this idea for a while now but here it is… my first vlog! Some fans had shown their interest before in me making a video of a day in the life of a hitchhiker, but I never really went for it until now. It took some nerves to use that ‘recording’ button for the first time with my face in it, but what’s really the difference from taking a photo? That’s just beside my complete lack of video editing skills until I tried with the help of Windows Movie Maker and what Youtube provides,Continue reading
Blackberries: Autumn is the New Summer
It’s the season of the free blackberries in the south of Chile! These kinds of bushes surrounded nearly all my hitchhiking spots. Somehow, nobody else eats them. I wonder why, as it’s tasty, healthy and most importantly completely free. A bush like this in a public area in Europe would have been looted the minute the blackberries turn ripe. Perhaps this hassle-free food is nature’s way to compensate for the freezing nights I’ve spent in my tent around Puerto Montt and the Llanquihue lake. Autumn has definitely arrived in the southern hemisphere and yet the days have been blessed withContinue reading
Earthquake Memorial in Chanco, Chile
After receiving an invitation from a Spanish blog reader living and working in Chile, I decided to make a little detour from my route southward. I hitchhiked to Maria in Chanco. She’s an architecture student, but currently, she put her studies on hold. That’s because she’s busy reconstructing buildings damaged by the 2010 earthquake. I happened to visit Chanco exactly six years after, also on the 27th of February. The team of artists made a remembrance mural with natural colors found in the earth surrounding the village. Some of the mixes (adobe) contained some straw or hay to make theContinue reading
Camping Stove Cooking at the Chilean Coast (Paposo)
Who’s up for a cup of mint tea on the beach in Paposo? After a long search, I finally found a cheap camping stove with a fairly universal fuel system. A shop in the Zona Franca of Iquique (Zofri) that also sells children’s toys and Christmas decorations (!?) and other completely random objects had this beauty of a camping stove. It has some kind of metal skirt that’s its wind protection and hugs my pot completely. And it has a sparker that makes it very easy and safe to turn on. If you can’t tell yet: I’m so fucking happy!Continue reading