Canoeing on Christmas Day
I spent Easter in a kinda lock down far away from my family: It makes me so happy to remember the awesome and adventurous past year piling one microadventure on the other: Like on Christmas Day.
What are those Microadventures? As this is the First Microadventure I am writing about am just quickly explaining what is meant by that. When you think about an Adventure it’s usually those big things like flying into the wilderness of northern Sweden or climbing a mountain in the Himalaya. But to be honest if just those are adventures how many chances do we get in life to live one? And this is me talking as privileged white German with a University degree. What about the rest of the world that can’t just leave stuff behind and fly wherever? Or what about now in times like these where even the rich few percent are not free to take off wherever we want? The answer is that no matter how small an adventure might be… it still is an adventure. I remember when we were kids and we were soooo exited about building a camp in my grandmothers garden and sleeping in the tent instead of the usual beds of the guest room. What an adventure. When did we loose the awe for the small adventures?
I decided that it doesn’t matter when I lost the awe in small adventures: I am taking it back. Alastair Humphrey was the main author to describe the term: “A microadventure is an adventure that is short, simple, local, cheap – yet still fun, exciting, challenging, refreshing and rewarding.”
So we go on small adventures. My family is just as stoked about this new way of thinking adventure as I am and so especially my sister and I spent 2020 on it! It startet with new years eve 2019 spent in a Kayak on the lake next to home. We went on runs to places we haven’t been before, we went swimming in the lakes and sea way before it was warm enough, we slept in hammocks on a hill and had picnics in the dark to see a blood moon rise. We started Projects where we organized micro adventures for people from our town and took Teenagers kayaking for a week some of whom had never done it yet alone slept in a tent. And the list goes on….
The year’s final adventure - we made a new tradition. While we paddled through swarms of majestic swans we decided that this is a new family tradition: Every year on Christmas there has to be a a little bit of canoeing on the schedule. Can you just make traditions up like that? Well we decided YEAH SURE. Especially when its something that beautiful.
Canoeing in winter. I grew up in a rural area in the north of Germany where you can find plenty of lakes. Canoeing on one of the many lakes is nothing special as maybe not many many people are doing it but it is common especially among tourist during their summer holidays. My father tought us how to paddle a kayak when we were still small and with our old big Canoe hanging on our backyards wall we are constantly reminded of past adventures and now also our new tradition. on the morning of December 25th (we were still full from the Christmas eve dinner) we took down this green and white canoe , cleaned it, loaded it on the mini-van of our father and drove the 5 kilometer to the lake. We were dressed in many layers and had the big puffy safety vests on. The gloves saved our hands from freezing on the paddle. We carried the canoe to the beach and entered. Me, my sister and my husband make a great adventurous team. We paddled around the islands and saw an incredible amount of water birds. A kingfisher dashed into the freezing water to catch something it saw under the surface and we were stunned by the shiny turquoise feathers. After paddling around the small island we saw incredible amounts of swans and geese resting on the lake. We paddled on to the soundtrack we produced while pushing the small boat through the small wrinkles of water and the call of the cranes on the fields nearby. In a tree on the so called “love island” we spotted a pair of osprey. From the shore we would have never gotten that close. Side note: Usually in the canadier style canoes you don’t get wet… unless your sister constantly looses paddle control and splashes around with freezing water. Well since this is a tradition now I can take my revenge next year ;). Moving on through geese and wind was super tiring and we were happy to take a short break on a jetty with some hot tea from our thermos. With warm bellies and very cold legs and hands we paddled back to our car, loaded the green-white old canoe back onto the car and warmed up at home with some hot spiced wine — Christmas style.
I am looking forward to many more Microadventures with my family and alone and hope to share many of them with you.
I hope this can encourage you to take the chance to take out on adventures yourself and just go for it, do the jump or step outside and don’t let anybody stop you from your chance of “awe” and fun. Let me know about the adventures you take to we can inspire each other :) !