René Seindal

There aren’t many reptile species in the lagoon of Venice. The lucertole are all over,there are snakes on some islands, and apparently one species of pond turtle, though I’ve never seen one of the those.

Yesterday, however, I saw what looked like a different kind of turtle.

We were paddling across the Canale delle Navi, between the Arsenale, Murano and le Vignole, which is a place with a lot of traffic, when I spotted something different in the water. It didn’t move but it had a too weird shape to ignore, so I returned back into the canal to find it again.

It looked barely alive when I picked it up, it hardly moved, but I took it to a more sheltered and shallower place and let it go, and it started swimming again.

I have no idea which species it is. The size matches the European pond turtle, but I have never seen one of those with spines on the back like the one has.

I’ve been sitting on some updates for the Paddling Planet site for a while, but now they’re all in.

The new ones are:

• Kayak Noise
• Marc Charron’s Blog
• My kayak Adventures
• Kollbergs Kajakblogg
• The Seven Settlements

I’m sorry for the belated updates, but the Venetian waters have been more severely underpaddled that I had anticipated

One day as I was paddling through some of the smaller canals in the sestiere S.Marco, close to the Fenice, I spotted this little sign in a window directly on the canal:

The sign reads: “Pied a terre of 50 mq, completely restored with high quality details”.

Even though I was looking for a place to live at the time, it probably wasn’t just that pied a terre I was looking for

Pied a terre or pied dans l’eau ?

The spot is on the Rio de Verona on a little used stretch between the Fenice and the Rio Malatin / Rio  Sant’Angelo.

At high tide the water in the canals at Murano is clean enough for the local children to swin and play in the water. The kids were jumping from the bridge in front of the medieval church SS. Marie e Donato.

There’s a place at Riva degli Schiavoni in Venice, in the Bacino S. Marco, which is used for mooring shiny luxus yachts – some of which are very shiny.

S.Marco reflected in the side of a yacht

Myself and two others with S.Giorgio Maggiore in the background, reflected in the same yatch.