Rowed Trip by Colin Angus

Author:Colin Angus [Angus Colin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-37216-1
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
Published: 2009-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

5

IS IT A DOG? IS IT A BEAR?

AUSTRIA (Colin)

I STARED IN FEAR AT THE MECHANISM. Leave it to the Germans to create something so functional, so straightforward and yet so terrifying. The liability-fearing Canadian and American governments wouldn’t in a million years create such a device.

I was looking at a paddle-craft bypass sluice at a large hydroelectric dam on the Danube River. There was a six-metre difference between water levels, and the engineers had created a convenient one-way system to transit boats from the reservoir to the river below.

It works like this: You paddle away from the concrete structure to a chain dangling over the water. A forceful jerk of the chain (a bit like the ones on old-fashioned toilets) triggers a hydraulic mechanism that lowers a gate at the entrance to the sluice. The thunder of turbulent water fills the air, and the paddler is expected to commit himself to a 60-metre ride down the world’s wackiest waterslide.

At least that was how I thought it functioned. That’s what Julie told me the sign said. (There were no directions in English.) But perhaps it was simply an overflow chute to spill excess water when the river was high, and nosing one’s boat over the edge was a one-way ticket to oblivion. Maybe Julie had misread the sign (her technical German is a little more limited) or was extracting retribution for my efforts to convert her to spelunking. We had, after all, already decided that I would go first, since I was the dispensable member of our two-person team. Julie enthusiastically offered to cheer and take pictures as I flushed myself down the drain.

With sweat dribbling down my brow, I manoeuvred under the chain and tugged. Slowly, the giant steel door lowered and slick water disappeared over the edge. Like the view from the brink of a waterfall, there was no water to be seen, only the roar of disturbed liquid below.

My distinctly not-built-for-whitewater rowboat drifted to the edge before accelerating down the liquid roller coaster. The walls zipped by in a blur, and gravity rocketed me through the churning waters towards a rooster tail at the bottom. In thirty seconds it was over, and I was at the base of the dam, heart pounding, but unscathed.

Julie jogged down to the bottom, video camera still rolling. “You looked a little nervous up there. How was it?”

“Good. It was fun,” I said, feeling thoroughly exhilarated, “and a whole lot easier than portaging our mountain of gear.”

I still couldn’t believe the infrastructure the German government provides for its cyclists, rowers and paddlers. This sluice system must have cost millions to build, but it was a priority for the German people.

There is a series of hydroelectric dams on the Danube in both Germany and Austria. They are relatively small dams, and the reservoirs are contained with dikes along the banks, so the surrounding land is not inundated. Upstream of the dams, the current is slow, almost non-existent, while downstream it rockets, occasionally reaching 12 kilometres an hour.

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