Rowed Trip [Hardcover]

 

 

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In the realm of adventure travelling, participants have to come up with more and more peculiar trips to attract attention or to make a statement. I recently attended a talk by one adventurer who ran across the Sahara Dessert (7,000 kms in 110 days) to draw attention to the region's water crisis. The idea of having two showers in nearly four months was not appealing to me, but how about a nice holiday to visit the family?

A young Canadian couple, Colin and Julie Angus, decided to do just that. His relatives live on the windswept islands off the coast of Scotland, while her mother is from Germany and father from Syria. Linking these places together would not normally be all that difficult but this is not a normal couple. Colin was, among other adventures, the first person to circumnavigate the world on human power alone, and Julie was the first woman to row the Atlantic, so just getting on a plane and do some short flights was not going to work. Instead they realized that to a large extent you can make your way across Europe by boat by using open waterways, rivers and canals. But the difficulty is in the portages necessary to get from one canal to another. The answer, of course, is riding bicycles and towing the boats. This, obviously, presents some logistical challenges as to how to haul the boats and what you do with the bicycles and trailers once you reach your canal.

Colin and Julie are clearly the kind of people who relish these kind of challenges. They came up with special lightweight trailers that could be easily dismantled, and of course finding a folding bike is not too difficult. Although they do not refer much to the bicycles, which are clearly tools secondary to the boats, the photographs indicate that they used Montague folding bicycles, which are well-designed full-sized mountain-type bicycles, sturdy'and pretty heavy. They soon came to realize that there were no boats on the market that would meet their requirements for seaworthiness, speed and storage of the bicycles and trailers onboard so having no experience in boatbuilding they built a pair of rowboats. Named for two minerals produced by Commerce Resources, a key sponsor, Tantalum and Niobium looked like broadened sea kayaks and were built with the stitch-and-glue technique used for making wooden sea kayaks. The Anguses spent only a year in preparation for the trip all told.

Leaving Scotland on a cold windy day on March 9, 2008, they begin by towing the boats and would continue to do so until reaching suitable water five days later. I, for one, would have liked to have been present when the bikes and trailers were folded up and the whole circus transformed into two decked rowboats. Or when they landed somewhere and did the process in reverse. As well, the two boats could be joined up to form a catamaran with a deck where their tent could be erected if there were no camping spots to be easily found.

The book is highly entertaining as Colin and Julie alternate in the telling of the story. From intransigent and useless Scottish lockkeepers, to the enchanting Oxford Canal, to floating overnight near the Hammersmith Bridge on the Thames in the heart of London, you will find the couple excellent company. Their route took them across the English Channel and after suffering through the industrial canals of northern France (and having one of their custom-built boat trailers stolen, of all things) they reach Alsace and Germany, where paddlecraft are actually catered-to by having their own access through locks. But the real heart of the story is their cruise along the mighty Danube, which is not blue in the least, but as they head into Eastern Europe becomes polluted and dangerous. From orderly Germany and Austria, they find points east more difficult. Although they write that Serbia was one of their favourite spots on the trip, it is regretted that they do not explain why this is since the countries around them, particularly Romania, sound pretty awful. In fact, the nastiest part of the trip, besides the places where they run into bad weather that actually sounds quite risky, is when they reach Romania's frightening so-called (with good reason) Death Canal. This is more of an obstacle than a highway for them but eventually they reach the Black Sea.

Leaving their boats for shipment back to Vancouver via Turkey, they cycled the final portion of the trip, arriving at their final destination, Aleppo in Syria, on September 18, 2008. They had journeyed a total of 7150 kms, probably using their bicycles more than they had expected.

The expedition was followed on-line by schoolchildren, who asked questions and made suggestions about the trip. There is interesting social commentary, along with a fair amount of history, in the account, alongside stories of the struggles involved in moving onwards. The book includes appendices with distances covered, tips on kayaking or canoeing in the countries the Anguses visited, and even a chapter on how to build a rowboat in your backyard.

Julie and Colin Angus are now undertaking a 21 city tour to promote the book and I will see them speak in Ottawa on November 19. Their final stop will be in Washington, DC, where they will speak at the National Geographic Society, the organization that named them 'Adventurers of the Year' in 2006.

Travelling by rowboat and bicycle--crazy as it sounds it clearly worked!

Colin and Julie Angus have written an incredible report of their ephic trip with a lot of information about the people and their social interplay.With lots of thoughtfulness and understanding of the various countries they encountered With historical background information it forms more than an overall guide to the countries through which they so laboriously bicycled and rowed. All through the book shines their love for each other and the strong family ties to their different heritage This book should be read by thousands with the hope that readers grasp the real meaning behind Colin and Julie's effort:respect for the planet we inhabit,respect for the fragility and balance of nature.
I look forward to another Angus adventure.
Helmut Becker

Not many of us get to live out our dreams in ways that test our abilities to cope with and overcome life's many little challenges. This travelogue, written by a highly intelligent and experienced Canadian couple, Colin and Julie Angus, is one such example of a trip of a lifetime that accomplishes all it set out to do plus a lot more of the unexpected. About two years ago, the Anguses got the idea of travelling from his ancestral Scotland to her native Syria by navigating the intricate canal and river systems of Europe. "Rowed Trip" is a detailed and vivid record of their extended journey across an historic landscape that yielded opportunities to learn more about cultural nuances, explore the wonders of the geographic realm, meet up with friends and family, and above all else overcome life's little problems. I was especially inspired by this couple's ability to switch tack whenever they encountered a serious bump in their travels: cantankerous locksmen, thieves, language barriers, wild animals, and unfavourable camping conditions. What the reader can expect from this very easy-to-follow ramble across a continent is three-fold: insights into the life of small communities; an accurate commentary on the varying cultures that make up the Indo-European family; and an education on how to paddle and bike the waterways of Europe. This truly is a modern adventure that has the potential to arouse our spirits in anticipation of what lies beyond the next bend in one of many rivers while at the same time forcing us to be alert to ever-present dangers. I recommend this book to anyone who likes this kind of wide-open adventure, either vicariously or in person.

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