Secret Spot
We had a plan: Thirty kilometres of stand-up paddling, three days, one Mega-SUP (one of the largest inflatable Stand Up Paddle Boards in Europe), and a Tentsile Tree Tent! Just the two of us, with all of our camping equipment and the wonderful Mecklenburg Lake District (Eastern Germany). What an adventure!
Last year I booked some Mega-SUP short trips with Nature-Guides, but this time we were on our own. And never before had we been in a Tree Tent. So all in all, we were very excited!
We started our journey in a small town near Lake Wustrow. Here we had some introductions about how to use the SUP board, navigation and using the water ways. After dinner, we eagerly went to bed, excited about what was to come.
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Next morning, Six o’clock. We went down to the lake side to pump up the Mega SUP. According to the guy from Nature-Guides we had to fill up this giant with 1600 litres of air. First step done – however, we were now quite exhausted and we still had to paddle thirty kilometres! After storing all our stuff in waterproof bags, we then set out on our amazing adventure.
The first two hundred metres lead along pure wilderness. We were surrounded by water lilies, plants and old trees. Suddenly we reached the open lake, and there it was, our personal monster - Wind. This section turned out to be really tough going, but through teamwork we managed to cross the lake and ended up in a beautiful, more tranquil branch of the canal. Time to relax.
Next, we needed to find a place to set up our Tree Tents. After a quick ice cream stop, we discovered a little sandy bay with big trees hanging down on the water. We knew straight away this would be the place. Our secret spot for the night.
The clever design and easy handling of our Tentsile Stingray meant we managed to set up camp within a few minutes. As you can see, a Tree Tent was perfect for this terrain. Hidden by branches, we were invisible. From this unique secret spot, we could see the stars through the tree tops as they lulled us to sleep after a hard first day.
The first sun rays through the leaves woke us up to a glorious morning, and the small waves lapped gently below us. I felt completely happy, although now I could feel my arms aching from the day before. Two more days paddling felt like a challenge. Luckily the wind turned over night. So, for the next section we developed a sail sheet from the Tentsile rainfly to help us go down wind. Our travel speed was increased by 5 kmph. What a perfect day!
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It was great to have a Tree Tent to take on our adventure – thank you Nature Guides, and Tentsile for making this possible!  Without this of Gear we would never had the chance to experience this next level of camping, as we did on our Mega SUP adventure.
Get this experience and check out www.nature-guides.com
Author: Michaela Gillessen
