Lithuanian Lake SUP
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| Busy day on Lake Aisetas |
Lithuania is one of the three Baltic
states, when driving there cross Europe and turn left when you get Warsaw making sure to avoid
the boarder with Belarus and Kaliningrad. I’m sure that they are lovely to
visit but require all sorts of visas so it’s quicker and easier to head
straight to Lithuania. Of course it would be much easier to fly which is how I'd recommend getting there for any visit, paddling or not!
The country is flatish, not Norfolk flat but it’s low lying, open rolling
countryside that’s heavily forested with some significant rivers and thousands
of lakes. And that’s the focus of this
entry, lakes.
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| Off to explore Lake Požerė |
First up, Požerė in Taurages in the west of
the country. This was almost my first stop after getting to
Kvedarna in the West of
Lithuania and I was glad to be out of the van after 1,500 miles. Just glad to be on the water, any water! I didn’t really expect anything special from
my first lake paddle so after inflating both boards and leaving the other one
with some friends it was a bit of a surprise to find myself paddling in a
pretty lake with no one else around on a warm August afternoon. With a pike for
company. Something that I bet I’ll never
see again so close. Sadly with no camera. My career with the BBC natural
history unit is yet to start.
I got a quick loop in around the top end of
the lake then returned to the others so they could have a go and ended up
having a fun hour or so messing about on boards. The perfect antidote to the
drive.
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| G and me at Lake Požerė |
My second lake was somewhere I’d been
before. After driving from Kverdarna to Vilnius to stay with friends we had a
short drive to
Trakai
for a paddle around the castle.
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| Paddling around Trakai castle |
Trakai isn’t like a castle might be in the UK,
it’s been heavily restored after falling into disuse in the 17th century. The restoration started in 1888 and continued through the German occupation in WWI and under the soviet occupation after WWII. Because of this long restoration it might give English Heritage a heart attack as it’s a mix of the old,
the nearly as old and the new on the top. But that adds to it's charm.
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| Trakai Castle |
It’s also in the middle of a series
of lakes that are well used in summer, happily it was overcast with stiff breeze and a threat of
rain later so the place was quiet when we got there.
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| Reed bed windbreak |
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| Choppy at times |
A mixed 6km paddle of flat water, choppy water, downwind and headwind with some inventive use of a reed bed as an anchor while waiting for my guides with an
excellent pasty stop near the end, although over there they call them
Kibinas.
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| Everyone speeds up for the kibinas van |
Enough of a paddle to get a feel for the place and to get a view of the castle I’d not seen when I first visited years ago.
The third lake paddle was a little more remote. Which
is good. Lake Aisetas was the destination in Utena County which is in the north
east of the country.
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| Pristine shoreline |
This is a ribbon lake and I was off to explore with a loop
that took me out and back for a total distance of 8 km. I thought that was most
of the lake until I got home and looked on Google for this blog… the lake is
approximately 15km long so I’d barely got ¼ of the way up it from my starting
point!
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| Property envy |
Sort of Scandinavian in feel, I guess. Lots of trees to the waters edge
and another great paddle with a variety of wildlife including various grebes,
black throated divers, egret, swan and various raptors above with pike, perch, rudd
and European crayfish below.
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| European Crayfish, harder to catch than you'd think |
I ended the day playing on my hosts F-one boards, wide at 33 inches with a lot of volume for a 10'6" board and very stable.
