The Kamenice River doesn't flow that often, so when nature calls, you have to go.

Jan and I had never been to Kamenice before, and at the last minute we decided to go on the last Friday afternoon in February. It was clear to us in advance that it would be dark.

We meet in Železný Brod, where we also leave our car, so that we can add a bit of the Jizera River to the Kamenice River. In Plavy, we get on our packrafts sometime after 3 p.m. The water gauge shows 66 cm, which should be about optimal. Thanks to the power plant, the first few hundred meters are very shallow, but we can bypass them by taking the channel on the right.

But then it goes beautifully. So beautifully that the first bath is not long in coming. After the bath, we are a little more cautious, which means we slow down. We scout everything that looks unpleasant to the eye, so we proceed very slowly along the river.

But our reward is a golden hour of light and a spectacular river with rapids, which in places is perhaps a little beyond what we want to tackle.

The second bath comes under Navarov, and there is little light left under the last weir. Darkness descends on us at the confluence with the Jizera River. We ride Paraplíčko at full speed, and Železný Brod looks like Singapore in the dark.

It was beautiful. We will definitely come back here...