One of the many activities one can do whilst enjoying the beautiful summer months in the Dordogne, is kayaking or canoeing.For the princely sum of no more than €12, you can hire a lovely colourful kayak or canoe, for one to four people, and glide down the gorgeous Dordogne River, pretending to be a Viking coming to look for troglodyte communities to raid, or a medieval prince coming to visit a beautiful princess, or an athlete training for the Iron Man Marathon -- or just exactly who you really are -- a visiting tourist enjoying the incredible beauty of the Perigord!
The activity here is developed to a fine art. From Bergerac to Sarlat there are dozens of places where one can hire a kayak or canoe for any length of time -- from one hour to one day. It is in fact hard to choose which spot to go to as every stretch of the Dordogne River is so beautiful and has such a variety of things to see along the river banks. Chateaux perching on hills, little hamlets glued to sides of cliffs, pre-historic caves carved out of the lime stone, trees, fish, birds, bridges, flowers --- and an impression of the river - from the river - that is so completely different than from the road or river bank.
The most pleasant surprise to me was the crystal clarity and cleanliness of the river itself. Even in areas where the river is up to a few metres deep, one can see in the most minute detail every little pebble and plant and creature at the bottom of the river bed.
And believe me, that is important, for every now and then you need to pull out the oar, take a rest and catch your breath! Even though the hiring companies make it as easy for you as is possible -- either by driving you and your vessel upstream so that you can start from as many hours away as you wish, or fetching you downstream from wherever you have arrived and you therefore only have to paddle down stream -- it still is hard work! I think if one could choose the day more carefully than I did, it would be useful -- as the day I went canoeing with friends, there was a strong breeze coming upstream, which meant that we had to paddle for all our worth just to keep moving against the breeze and not go back one metre for every metre that we had paddled forward!
The trip we were told should take us two and half hours, ended up taking almost four hours – and I can assure you, we were rowing as hard and fast as was possible!But – there is no need to have to work that hard!
I would suggest that for your very first trip – as mine was for me -- you choose the stretch of water that you want to do carefully;
**– choose a stretch where the river flows a little faster
**- choose a calm day with as little breeze as possible (and remember that a mild breeze on land is a strong breeze in the deep valley of the river – which very much seems to turn into a wind tunnel!) – and if you have no choice and there is a breeze, then make sure at least that it is not a westerly breeze!
**- choose the shortest possible stretch in the area where you want to go. For your second and subsequent outings, you can lengthen the stretches.
**- choose an area where there are sites that you want to see from the river. If trees and birds do not interest you, choose a stretch where there are more villages and buildings.
– All of the river is beautiful – you will not be disappointed with whichever stretch you choose!
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