{"id":36758,"date":"2025-08-06T00:00:43","date_gmt":"2025-08-06T07:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/?p=36758"},"modified":"2025-07-22T16:24:04","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T23:24:04","slug":"france-to-the-black-sea-a-study-abroad-by-canoe-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/community.nrs.com\/duct-tape\/2025\/08\/06\/france-to-the-black-sea-a-study-abroad-by-canoe-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"France to the Black Sea: A Study Abroad by Canoe – Part Three"},"content":{"rendered":"

This spring, from March to May 2025, Dartmouth College students Sumant Sharma and Ben Shaman undertook a roughly 86-day, 2,700-mile canoe journey across Europe. This is Part Three of their journey.<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

And now, the Black Sea glimmers before\u2026 wait, that\u2019s not it.<\/span><\/p>\n

I write to you from the confines of my tent, two days out from Belgrade, 1,100 kilometers short of our intended final destination. Yeah, we \u201cfailed.\u201d Too many random delays, half-day thunderstorms and an overly ambitious (see: downright impossible) itinerary. We reached Belgrade five days too late to make finishing at the Black Sea feasible. Pushing to the sea would lead to conflicts with summer jobs, and even going for the extra week meant getting from rural Bulgaria to a major airport would have been a genuine challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a funny feeling to have preached about the escape from reality this trip offers only to be dragged back home by the life we intended to rise above. The thoughts of old habits and routines seep into conversation, with Ben and I planning work schedules, choosing fall classes and thinking about graduate school. Now that the end of the trip is upon us, we are beginning to fall right back in to the mold of typical college students. \u201cWe\u2019ll just have to cope,\u201d we tell ourselves as we plan for this childish daydream of paddling to end. But is this really the end?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll find time in our summer work schedules to meet. He\u2019ll teach me whitewater canoeing, I\u2019ll teach him whitewater kayaking, and both of us will inevitably swim on our first laps. We\u2019ll drag friends onto trips in the fall, ensuring them we have the gear and know-how to take care of them. And we\u2019ll surely get the bug for another adventure. Ben wants to return and finish out the remaining 700 or so miles, get the FKT down the Connecticut River and check out the Gaspe Peninsula, whereas I\u2019ve set my eyes on other places of the world I can access through paddling like El Chaco, Ecuador, the Amazon River or the unrun rivers of Kyrgyzstan.<\/span><\/p>\n

This trip was never about conquering a route. It\u2019s a starting point for the rest of our lives, telling us what we can do if we really want it.<\/span><\/p>\n

And boy, did we do a lot. We made it through portage-ridden canals, portage-ridden upstream paddling (for 240 miles), more portages (this is a recurring theme if you haven\u2019t caught on), four capital cities and over 1,600 miles of waterways. If we had started just on the Danube, we would\u2019ve been done almost a month ago! Wow, my hand hurts from all the back-patting. And portaging. Yes, I know you know.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before this, I (Sumant) had never been to Europe and I wanted to experience the whole nine yards. And I did. It is impossible to cram everything I felt and saw into this piece so I\u2019ll say this much: the people make the place.<\/span><\/p>\n