There! Two birds killed with one stone: we took part in the Great Cleanup and launched the canoeing season, effectively cleaning up the river Misa while on the water.

So! We got into the boat, armed with three sacks and gloves. I must say, the canoeing process is completely the opposite of usual (when there is no cleanup): you have to paddle slowly so you have time to spot the rubbish, and you have to steer into both bushes and piles of branches, as that is usually where you find things. At first, we nicely divided the banks with the other canoeists – they took the right, we took the left. Very soon, the others found some large plastic car part, at which my partner Guntars laughed: "Look for the car!" We all had a friendly laugh, not suspecting how much truth there was in those words!

Soon after, we spotted two large truck inner tubes in the middle of the river, but we couldn't pull them out of the water because they were tied to something on the riverbed with inexplicable, tangled wires. It was only at that moment we realised we should have brought a knife and, as Guntars added, pliers as well.

Along the way, there were plenty of tyres and then... a car! Amongst piles of eau de cologne and medicine bottles, naturally, there were also many, many alcohol bottles and cans, but we were surprised (aside from the car) by three things – a roll of superglue tape, a children's plastic sledge (for winter), and a stack of clean (washed) 3-litre jars with and without lids. It seemed as if a cellar had been flooded nearby.

For nearly two hours, I sat between the bulky cargo that obstructed the view ahead for us both, a bag full of rubbish, and a pile of bottles and all sorts of other trash in the back of the boat. Once both bags were full, it wasn't comfortable for either of us to throw everything into a third bag, as we would have had to pull over to the side and rearrange the boat. We made the river literally a tiny bit cleaner. If we were to go another day, we would be better prepared, but the rubbish... there would still be just as much.

The photographs show how we navigated between the contents of a dustbin and the singing of birds.
Thanks to the boat hire service in Zemgale – Ozolaivas.lv