Our 6 boats and jarads bag on the roof, 5 people in the car and boot chokka full on our way to Prague


The weir beside the course in course, its in flood and is probably runable

8/7/06

It was an interesting trip to Prague. 6 slalom boats on the roof as well as Jarad’s bag, 5 people in the car and bags jammed to the roof (check out the picture).

We arrived in Prague to find the river flooded and the slalom course was backed up to half way. The smell of sewage coming off the river hit us as soon as we stepped out of the car. In Prague when the river is high, the entire cities sewer system overflows straight into the river leaving the water a dark brown colour with lots of nasty bugs and rubbish in it. Even when the river isn’t flooded its bad enough.

The water has receded each day giving us some new eddies, holes and waves to paddle on. Quite a few teams have turned up for this national training week including the French, German, Italian, Japanese, Australian, British, Russian, Slovakian, Czech and Croatian teams.

Prague is just like I remember. A very dirty city with incredible old buildings, lots of really hot girls, heaps of tourists (especially Germans), dirty river, lots of homeless people, very unfriendly locals and extremely hot days.

We have been drinking coke before and after our training sessions as it is meant to help keep the bugs away as well as drinking bottled water. but this did not stop Sarah and I from getting sick. I had one night of vomiting which put me out of training for the day, but now im back to it with excess energy.

ONLY 25 DAYS TO GO NOW UNTIL THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS.

Go the all blacks, we looked up the results on the internet today and it looks like they dominated.