[pe2-image src=”http://lh5.ggpht.com/-0gS42Egnrdo/UuHGgmkdL3I/AAAAAAAAZQo/xLz0OtqEKUk/s144-c-o/DSC08338.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection3Stage17GuyanaSurinameFrGuianeGeorgetownToCayenne#5972272844281556850″ caption=”Arriving at night on the wooden ramp in Paramaribo, just a little worn out…” type=”image” alt=”DSC08338.jpg” ]

Back to civilisation again!

Pos: here
Loc: Paramaribo
Acc: Pieter and Nancy’s house
Dist: 63,3 km
Start: 7:00 End: 19:50

This second hammock night was a slight bit better, or was I eventually overtired from the previous two bad nights? At least it didn’t rain, I had a bit less gear inside and was not scared to touch the bottom with my body firmly covered in fleece. Once the tide went down and my butt kicks stopped, there was no wind, and it was rather too warm, so that I stripped off my windbreaker pants and jacket. I also brought ear plugs against the humming bug noise which was worse in no wind. I had more trouble peeing without spilling, probably due to balance problems after little sleep and food, but thought for what’s it worth, I will be able to wash everything next day, even the hammock, the sleeping pad and my blankets and clothes.

[pe2-image src=”http://lh5.ggpht.com/-T8NPxSiITQk/UuHGf548vrI/AAAAAAAAZQo/LgV3SxL_v3k/s144-c-o/DSC08297.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection3Stage17GuyanaSurinameFrGuianeGeorgetownToCayenne#5972272832287915698″ caption=”Paddling picture from the escort boat into the river” type=”image” alt=”DSC08297.jpg” ]

Getting out this morning was a dive into a cloud of bugs, the tiny ones mostly, which crawl under your head net and seem to be resistant against spray on hands. Horrible! I was up with first light, two hours before high tide, time to get going anyway to have a slight bit of more or less solid ground left. I packed in a hurry and disgust of the bugs under my head net,kind of threw everything into the hatches, shoved my kayak out into a dead calm morning and paddled as fast as possible to blow off the black layer of tiny bugs everywhere. I did not change back into my wet clothes this morning, as I’d be in civilisation tonight! It took a while until the bugs got less, it needed a small breeze to blow them away. I was hoping they didn’t make it back to shore and would all been drowning…

[pe2-image src=”http://lh3.ggpht.com/-WBLLK4t-4BQ/UuHGf_iax2I/AAAAAAAAZQo/5lvqdslOxQs/s144-c-o/DSC08294.jpg” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection3Stage17GuyanaSurinameFrGuianeGeorgetownToCayenne#5972272833804027746″ caption=”Paddling picture from the escort boat into the river” type=”image” alt=”DSC08294.jpg” ]

The next hours the area had quite deep water in front of the forest, no chance to run dry at low tide. I was hoping this must be similar at my expected landing spot, but surely when I was approaching, it became low tide and shallow as hell. Maybe I should have checked it out better? A fishing boat positioning wooden stakes with a net in the shallow was probably wondering where I wanted to go…

I called Peter to make sure my pick up with Cees was organized, but my last night’s sat phone message didn’t go through and he had to start over organising again. Great to have Peter on the other end to be able to organise things for me, as via sat phone the connection is sometimes so bad a new contact would be hard pressed to understand what I needed.

Once I was at my expected landing spot around 5 pm, I was actually kind of too early one hour after low tide, I assumed waiting here would be stupid, not being sure to be able to land reasonably at all. I had to change plans again, and decided to paddle another 25 km into the Paramaribo river. For that action it was not too early, just right with the running up tide until 10 pm! I just had to add another 25 km, who cares… well, I knew it would be very easy now with the tide streaming upriver. Eventually I could paddle 6-7 km/ h, when did I do that last time?

It worked out perfectly, once I turned around the corner to paddle into the real river, a small boat with Cees and other paddlers came up to me to guide me in. Thanks! As it would turn dark at 7 pm, and I estimated to land not before 8 pm, this was just very much welcome! But I rejected the friendly offer to be taken on board or to be towed in, with this friendly tidal current I was simply enjoying my speed in the sheltered river area!

Night fell, I put up my green light on my back and red headlamp. My escort boat behind me played with a variation of flashing lights and strong spot lights, not always to my pleasure as I couldn’t see much and adjust my eyes to the darkness. In dusk, I chased up a huge fat animal on the shallow bank, running under water upfront my kayak into the deeper area. What the hell was that? A manatee is not that fast… I learned later those were river dolphins! One of those river dolphin sight seeing tour boats came also in in darkness, joined us with some applause and shot a lot of flash photography from the various cameras at me. Well… all meant nicely.

Fortunately my “Paramaribo” way point was further into the river than we were eventually actually supposed to be landing at already 8 pm just before the last turn into the city. It was a wooden launching ramp with the entry between four vertical piles. Didn’t I need more informations to land safely, more visible checking first? Remember Georgetown… I just wanted to turn in and was happy to have finished this slog, when a blinding thought flashed through my mind. “Watch the current!!!” I fortunately only hit slightly with my stern one of the piles on turning 90 degrees and running up quickly the wooden ramp where helpful hands were grabbing my bow. Thank goodness! Not another stuck in the current accident…

I am very sorry if I was not really talkative to my expectant crowd this night, as I was really worn out and I seriously needed a shower and a bed, maybe also some solid bites to eat. Cees put me in touch with my hosting family, Pieter and Nancy with their two small kids 4-year old Ashley and 6-year old Jessie. I was allowed to stay in their pink princess room, , sleeping on a pink “Royal Princess” sheet and am surrounded by pink girlie utensils. Cute!

Thanks a lot to the Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany, Cees Dilweg, to organize my reception, and thanks a lot to Pieter and Nancy giving me a home after the wilderness! The shower never felt that great again…