Seekajaktour: Umrundung Irlands im Seekajak 2015

Questions asked
Some answers came up to questions I never asked myself but were asked by others when
we talked about our trip …
Sabbatical?
I was really lucky. It was rather easy to take a sabbatical in the company I am
working with, not like Mirco who had to give up his job and his flat to do the trip.
Nevertheless, the reactions of colleagues were a bit queer. They got this severe
pitiful look and after a pause gave the comment “… if you think you need it”.
Sabbatical seems to be a sort of disease which could be caused by midlife crisis or
burn out. Someone like me, who told them, that I would just like to experience
something different seemed to be not very convincing. Some even sort of expected I
would take the time to think things over and to search for meaning and sense in my
life. Perhaps they did not know that I even have difficulties finding my glasses and
house keys every morning. So for me looking for a sense in life while having a
sabbatical would have been absolutely ridiculous.
Being tough?
“Ye ahhre taff meen”, a landlady of a pub said to us, when she discovered what we
were doing. Of course being big boys we liked being called tough. But are we really
tough and did we really want to proof that we were tough on our trip? No. We just
tried to cope with the conditions we met.
Know what you need … on a trip
Talking about this subject many people would say ”well, we in our days have too
much things. If you want to be really independent and free you will need less and you
will be even more happy”. I am not sure whether this is really true for me. I am more
the double-glased type of character, enjoying central heating and the comfort and
security of a monthly salary.
What I know now is what I need on a trip: I hated packing my boat, and after a week I
was quite relieved when Ewen MacMahon helped me to send away a big bundle of
stuff. These things had annoyed me while packing every morning. I always moved
them from here to there without needing it. I felt so relieved when I “got rid of them”
and for the whole trip I never missed them.
© Christian Dingenotto 2015
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