René's old blog

René's old blog

Whatever I feel like posting, whenever

This site goes back some twenty-five years, so it is bound to be full of stale links and irrelevant information. It is, at best, updated irregularly.

  • Its been a busy week. I’ve had a group of ten Danes here in Venice for the part week, with an assistant guide from our partner kajakhotellet in Denmark. Its been a great week. We’ve done some fantastic paddles, in…

  • The Danish press has reported on a narwhal massacre in Greenland recently, where 42 narwhals have been killed, for their tusks and a limited amount of flesh. The rest of the whale were left to rot on the shore. The…

  • Today I’ve had my baptism at Voga alla Veneta. I went with Enzo, who has a small garden near the Camping San Nicolò where I stay, to the Circolo Canottieri Diadoro to try to row a bit with him. I…

  • Tomorrow will be the basis of another anniversary. I have just made an appointment to have my first lesson of Voga alla Veneta, or rowing Venetian style, tomorrow.

  • Today is my two years anniversary with sea kayaking. I did my first sea kayaking course at Kajakhotellet in Copenhagen, Denmark, on August 19th and 20th, 2006. Since then I have paddled almost 2500 km, circumnavigated the Mediterranean island of…

  • I’m back in Venice now, in the camping getting the last things ready before a group of Danes arrives on Sunday for a week of magic Venetian paddling. I was lucky enough to find myself a vacant window seat on…

  • When Berlusconi became prime minister recently, he chose a new backdrop for press conferences. His choice fell on a 18th century painting by the Venetian artist Gianbattista Tiepolo called “Truth unveiled by Time”. It is an allegory showing Time, in…

  • I clearly haven’t been following the news properly in the last few years, if I could overlook the return of my all time favourite comics character, Opus. The strip runs in Salon.com, among others.

  • We took our beagle Jamil paddling one day in Venice, just to try it. He sat in the rear hatch of my Rockpool Menai 18, with his own little canine PFD on. There are a few photos below. Beagles aren’t…

  • Tim Shuff has an editorial titled “Apologies to Everyone I’ve Ever Left in my Wake” in the summer 2008 issue of Adventure Kayak magazine, where he discusses the problem of mock waiting when paddling, based in part on my account…

  • Our visit on Elba is over, and we’re on our way home to Venice now. I went for a short paddle yesterday, at Cavoli on the south coast of Elba, in the largest of my new kayaks for Venice Kayak.…

  • We’re on the island of Elba now. Venice Kayak had three kayaks from Sea Kayak Design delivered there quite some time ago, with the intent of picking them up there some time ago, but nothing went as planned and we…