In May 2017, we headed out to Germany for giving the Neckar River a try with our packrafts. We kicked off in Rottweil on Saturday morning where the Neckar is still a small, tiny runlet which made rafting basically a tough challenge. On our way North, we had to leave the river a couple of times due to dams. But we made it via Talhausen to Epfendorf and continued on Sunday via Oberndorf to Sulz am Neckar where we ended our trip.
All in all the Neckar is quite beautiful in this area but it’s far from being perfect for packrafting purposes. The water level was simply too low and a lot of times we had to pull the rafts.
The water level during our trip was in Rottweil around 85-90 cm. I guess a level of 130-150 cm could be much better for packrafting purposes. The Oberndorf level was around 100-110 cm which was OK in some parts of the river but also more would be better. The water levels for the Neckar can be found here.
Conclusion
You can packraft this part of the river - but wait for the momentum right after loads of rain to really enjoy it.
Video
Pictures
