River Hazards

Wire Fences and other river obstacles

   I almost get caught on a "fence jam" last week, while paddling the relaxing part of river Mornos, a couple of minutes before the take out.
Some "criminal" shepherd had fixed a wire fence across the river; probably back in the summer, to pen in his herd. It seems we were the first paddlers to run the river this season, as we didn't find any human flesh or gore-tex tissue on the thorny wires. Thankfully Giannis was able to catch the last eddy and helped Mary and me out. We obviously cut the fence off – a good thing that Konidis carried a "Leather man" tool with him - but this happening should be a reminder to all of us paddling in Greece.

   River running isn't something that you see everyday here – as a matter of fact, some rivers are paddled only in spring and not more than a couple of times each year – so local people usually act like they are on their own there – which is very close to the truth, as most of the times no one actually see us paddling. It looks like a local shepherd had fixed the wire fence across the river, back in the summer when the flow was low, as an extension to the fence along the bank, where he used to pen in his herd. He should normally remove the fence in the winter, when the flow gets bigger, but he didn't. Well I don't think that he had ever realized that he was setting a possible death trap out there.

   We were just in a relaxing, almost flat part of the river, 5 min before the end and we were not paying that much attention. But river isn't over till it's over. Is it? Be careful out there. At all times!