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Some travel days can be frustrating, tiring, even boring…. but we endure these inconveniences because in return we are rewarded with magical days such as these.

It starts with a road journey from our northern California base in Napa Valley. This is quintessential wine country, where the valleys and rolling hills are adorned with endless rows of lush green vines. We follow this idyllic scene up to Santa Rosa and further north on to Sonoma Valley.

A few delays and wrong turns are encountered along the way. It quickly becomes apparent that while the signage and directions to Napa are clear, moving away from this wine heartland, it gets a little vague. Well, even the most perfect travel day has its hiccups!

Our patience is rewarded, for on arriving at the Russian River, just outside of the town of Healdsburg, we are greeted with a warm welcome by the crew at SOAR Russian River Adventures. Our host, Larry Laba. has been providing guided and self-guided kayak trips down the Russian River for over six years using the soft inflatable SOAR kayaks. While far from being an expert kayaker, the fact that Larry is the designer and builder of the SOAR Kayaks gives great credence to his optimistic comments that our river experience will be both safe and fun.

Once we are kitted out with dry bags and safety vests, it’s down to the Veterans Memorial beach dam, a sooth and easy launching spot to start our Russian Rriver adventure. Here we are put into hands of river man Chris for our instructions. We opt to take the self-guided trip and Chris gives clear, straightforward instructions on the marked sections on the river to paddle “hard right” or “hard left” to avoid the snags. With the river flowing steadily at a comfortable knee depth, a few departures from the kayak to walk around the snags makes this a novice friendly kayak adventure.

The trip of eight miles is designed to take a comfortable three hours. However, this is not an experience you want to rush. We are encouraged to take our time, enjoy plenty of “float breaks”, stop for picnic break or two and take in the river’s incredible wildlife. With promises from Chris and Larry to see us in “four or five hours”, we set out to do exactly this!

As we paddle and float along, the snowy Egrets, tall and majestic birds, watch us curiously from the mud flats along the bank. The stillness of the river is intermittently broken with the gentle “plop, plop” sound of the western pond turtles as they drop from the overhanging brushes into the water. Looking skywards as we progress downriver, the Osprey, their wings spread wide, soar and swoop overhead. Closer to the water, the dragonflies dance across the rivers surface while a family of ducks quietly sail along in line.

It is therefore not surprising that our three-hour kayak stretched to over five glorious, relaxing hours. One family group of fellow kayakers are last seen enjoying a leisurely picnic stop, while another group are spotted revisiting their childhood courtesy of a strategically placed swing rope. From the laughter and smiles on their faces, it could be awhile before we see them back at SOAR homebase.

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