Baltica Project-Day 6

Rafting on the Vistula river can be both boring and exciting at once, depending on how you look at it. The most important factor on the water are people. On such a small raft (3x6m) it would be impossible to stand checky behaviour of people you don't really know or like. Our team is composed of a bunch of friends, from different communities, having different passions but one thing in common: love for outdoor activities and fun. 7 people all together: Ania, Irena, Kasia, Marianna, Zula, Andrzej and Kacper. We share responsibilities, without any traditional divisions: boys help with cooking, girls wash the dishes and row (the boys row also), and after the first day we built up a steer and then it became so much easier to control our way.

The level of water in the river was very low on the first two sunny days. After that it was raining cats and dogs for the next 48 hours so all our stuff, including sleeping bags, one of the tents, waterproof jackets were soaked. Day by day we were increasing our skills of communication and cooperation as a team.

Having a kayak next to the raft helped us avoid sandbanks and branches protruding from the water. Well, unfortunately you need to make a mistake to be able to learn from it. On the second day we spent nearly 2 hours evacuating the most heavy equipment from the raft an pulling it through very shallow water. Hard work it was, but lots of laughter and cool memories too.

We were impressed by how the locals treated us on the way. On the third day of rain, when we could simple wring one of the tents, we stopped at the village of Szczucin. Not only the police came to take
care of us, brought us some warm tea (we have a gas stove on the deck), but also they let us hang our wet wet clothes in a nearby building.

And now, after all these adventures, after loosing 1 cell-phone, 2 pairs of short trousers, swimming in the Vistula river (surprisingly warm and clean water!), observing rare wildlife (foxes, birds and roes), after a trip to a swimming-pool where the whole group showered 😉 we finally reached the city of Sandomierz. Beautiful landscapes surrounded us for the whole way and living in the wilderness (no telephone signal, no Internet, rare civilisation) taught us a lot during the last 5 days. We covered nearly 180km on water, through sun
and rain!

Time to change the crew on the raft, time for another stage of the adventure.