Seekajaktour: Umrundung Irlands im Seekajak 2015

Switching from …
although my command of English leaves at lot to desire, I chose the word “switch” instead of
“change” with care. For me with my double glased-background, really changing things, even
my life with my sabbatical or my trip, was never intended. And still, I do not intend to do this.
What I found interesting and still find interesting is switching from one mode, let´s call it the
“standard business executive”, to a mode you could characterize as the “paddler´s and
nomad´s mode”. Not changing but switching is what I enjoyed. It is for me like walking
through a door from one world to another. It is like enjoying each ones specific advantages
without neither preferring nor comparing the one style of living to the other:
Switching … from “next” to “now”
That was one of the hard bits. Something I had to learn. As written before I am
usually focused on timing and future planning when doing projects or achieving
goals. Having this attitude while paddling was of no use at all. The weather and the
sea taught me a lesson: I was no use to look ahead, as the conditions made long
term plans impossible. So I had to learn to concentrate on the wave, the situation
now, instead of thinking of the next day or the week after next. Thinking of the next
headland was the maximum of looking ahead we could do.
Switching … from I want to “I can”
Being a late developer concerning paddling I was never sure if I was good enough to
paddle the stuff I would like to. I know now I can paddle everything what I want to
paddle, because I do not want to paddle everything. So the fame for racing round
Australia, paddling South America or perhaps the rest of the Milky-Way will still be
left to Freya Hofmeister. I will be content paddling in Ireland and a bit beyond.
Switching … from Resident to nomad
Making the experience of nomadic life was one of the main purposes of my trip. How
would it feel not knowing where we were going to be the next day? Would the tent
feel like home? What would I need or not? How would it feel moving on every day?
The answer is simple: great. But not forever, for a limited time and then switching
back to the other normal life of enjoying an electric water kettle, a real bed and the
other little pleasures of the “double-glazed world”.
© Christian Dingenotto 2015
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