Sunday, April 15

messing about on the river

although i'm still a little wobbly in the canoe, i'm not entirely averse to going out when it's lovely and sunny!

up till now we've only ever paddled in lochs but the other day thought we would try some paddling in one of our local rivers.

i had imagined that we would just sit in the canoe and let the current sweep us gently downstream but it was a little more hard work than that!

we were so lucky that the river wasn't too fierce as it really highlighted that we still have much to learn ... when m was telling me to 'sweep right', i wasn't sure if that meant 'on' the right or 'to' the right so we didn't always go in the direction we thought we might :)

it's amazing the effect the current has on the canoe too, especially if you have water joining from the side that's flowing at a different rate. then there's learning to read the water, apparently you can tell where the rocks are, whether it's shallow or deep.

and then there were the rapids that m didn't mention until we rounded the corner and saw them - luckily they were only teeny, tiny ones and we were through before i knew what was happening!

so far, i have always sat at the front of the canoe, but after a brief stop at a little island, we decided to swap around. good grief what a difference that made! after we shot straight into an overhanging tree and veered left to right a good few times, we thankfully found another shallow where we could swap back again - it's amazing how bad i was at steering from the back!

when we were stopped, we had a bit of a look around and found ...

otter tracks




i think these are heron tracks




and possible signs of beaver activity?




we had such a fab time, although next time i'll be checking the route book too ... what m had thought was 9k, actually turned out to be 17k! how many corners did we go round thinking, it must be round the next corner surely? then the wind got up!


still, it was the perfect excuse to go for a chippy tea that night, i think we earned it :)

4 comments:

FeltersJourney said...

Sounds like a good day out! And you certainly did earn your chip shop supper.
Brave girl jumping in the steering seat! I am always veeeery happy to sit in the front and do as I'm told :D Dread to think where we'd end up with me steering lol. Wait till you try it in the sea.. waves are a lot of fun!
xx

ThatFuzzyFeeling said...

I've only canoed on calm, still lake waters - you are braver than me! Sounds like an adventurous day...those chips were definitely well-earned! Liz :)

Angela said...

only been on a tidal river, thought going back upstream with the tide coming in behind us would be easy. How wrong was I !!!!

Tracy Markey said...

hi deborah, i'm such an amateur that i didn't realise the back seat was the steering one! and as for waves ... eeeeeek!!!! :)x

hi liz, i think a calm, still lake sounds more what i'm looking for! :)x

oh gosh, i'm so glad you told me angela, i would have thought it would be easy too! we were going to try the tay next and i was going to suggest coming in with the tide!!! :)x