At the end of April we left St Ives, Cambridgeshire, on our
travels abroad for a week. Our destination was to be Germany
for a short break in the Eifel region and followed by a few days
near Edersee for the 2016 Kringelfieber Canoe event.
the start of Kringelfieber, which would officially start on the
Thursday evening with workshops taking place on the Friday
and Saturday, culminating with a display of Canadian and
American Freestyle Canoeing on the Saturday evening.
The Kringelfieber Canoe meet is probably now the largest
annual freestyle canoe meeting in Europe. Kringelfieber
started out as a small gathering of friends – like-minded
souls, united by passion and drawn together when Jörg
Wagner helped them all become ACA Freestyle Instructors.
That was back in 2005. Today it attracts around 100 people,
not only the adept but also many newcomers to freestyle
paddling. As for the name, ‘Kringelfieber’ roughly translates
as ‘squiggle fever’- a reflection of the infectious nature of
moving with grace and style.
A Teutonic Tour
Kringelfeiber 2016
I loaded my 1950s wood/canvas Chestnut onto the roof of
the car, packed the camping gear, stove and clothes and at
4am on the Sunday we set off for the Channel Tunnel and
then onto the Eifel. It snowed and snowed, but we had a
good time walking and sightseeing. It was un-seasonally cold
for the spring and the late snows caught everyone out.
By Nick Dennis
On the Wednesday morning we left our centrally heated
accommodation in the Eifel and headed northeast to set up
our tent at Camping Park Teichmann in Edersee in advance of
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www.britishcanoeing.org.uk
Canoe Focus Autumn 2016
This year we arrived at the site a day early, so that we could
get a good camping spot and get set up ahead of the event.
We arrived on Wednesday afternoon in a thick snowstorm;
fortunately, it didn't stay long and we were soon able to get
camp set in the dry.
We were ridiculed last year for having such a
large tent which was christened ‘The English
Dance Hall’. So this year we came prepared
to blend in with our Bell Tent, awning and
frontier stove.
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