biwako - a windy half-crossing

kishima > trips > Biwako half: Report

Kayaking Northern Biwako

Northern Biwako, October 2006
It was the second time I stood at the East side of Biwako and intended to cross it. 7 o'clock still had no wind going, by 8.30 a WNW wind was blowing strong enough to realize I had to forget it a second time for the same reason. Though, with a folding kayak I could get on the train start from the other side and go with the wind... Soon after setting off into the lake, the wind picked up further and there was no paddling back, so I always kept close to the shore - it was my first biger solo. After short I doubted this was the day to do it, another kayaker there reminded me, that a taifun was slowly approaching the South of Japan that day.

So I meant to circumnavigate Kaitsu-oosaki and head for Nagahara station, but behind Higashiyama the wind seemed to have stopped. What else could I do than aiming at least for the next long tip reaching far into the lake from the North. There still would have been another station after that one... It is necessary to say that my folding kayak does not have a rudder: In the course of it, disagreeing with the wind about the exact direction did become somewhat tiresome for my right arm. The waves on Biwako don't get terribly high, but I liked it when they became less steep towards the end. By then I was drifting fast along the nearby flat coast. Surely, continuing this drift at least until the point where the coastline turns East would have been faster and altogether less hard work than carrying the packed wet kayak back until my car in Nagahama. But the East coast is not a very scenic one for kayaking. Plus - and this is a rare thing: For this day I was satisfied with kayaking, dying for at least a different way to exhaust myself. Could I have know the only one taxi I missed, was the only one on the whole busy road that afternoon ? Well I had an appointment at the airport the evening, so I carried on until my car in Nagahama ... see a few pictures of this trip
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