Today was another blue sky day, so we set off on the road at 9 am and again stopped for many picture breaks. One of the stops was at a lakeside dock where a man and wife were launching their boat in for a day of lake cruising. Mum was down there and said to the man 'We just need a canoe now!'....'well, I know just the person,' the man said.....
And so we followed his directions a mile down the road to a canoe hire shop. Now before I start this tale you should all know that once about 15 years ago on a family holiday to Cornwall we borrowed a sit on surf board and went with our Dad to the sea to try and have some fun.....however after about 1 1/2 hours of trying we could not get Dad to stay sat on the board for more than 10 seconds before a wave came and knocked him off. We still to this day laugh about this everytime it is brought up, and im sure the young lifeguards who were watching us still laugh about it too!!!
So needless to say my Dad and canoes do not go together....but he insisted on having another go so we hired a 2 man canoe and a one man kayak. There was no way I was getting in with Dad so mum drew the short straw. We dropped the van off at a bridge next to the river where we would end up, and hopped into the rental companies van, who took us 5 miles upstream and launched us into the water. The river was very shallow and very slow so dad was fine balance wise and I knew my lifeguard skills would not be needed anytime soon.
Here are some pictures....
The Tourists.....
The Lifeguard making sure the tourists are safe......
So off we set and on the first bend encountered a fisher man!...
Safely negotiating ourselves round him and missing his lines we were onto the next obstacle a little weir....
I went first and waited at the bottom, dad took a big circle to weigh up the 'rapids' and eventually he could not paddle backwards any more and over the edge they went ........ (the difference in height was about 30 inches BTW!!)
So at the bottom of the weir they came, still safely inside the boat, however the river then pushed them over to the left where a big boulder was just submerged in the water. Dad didn't see this and the boat went right over it. Mum was fine she just floated over it but when Dad came to it the boat came to a halt........well, I turned round after I heard the boat scrape something to see Dad doing what can only be described as a bum shuffle to try and free the boat from the rock. I could not stop laughing, and mum was getting more and more annoyed with Dad. I was trying to paddle back up the river to help them but was laughing so hard tears were streaming down my face. Even now as I write this I have tears in my eyes from laughing so much. I just wish I had a video camera, because I would have been sending it to Jeremy Beadle!!
Finally after dads bum shuffling got them off the rock we carried on down stream, I let them go ahead but as I rounded the next corner I was just in time to see dad face plant mum into the bushes at the side of the bank!! Well this just started me off laughing again!! I could hear mum say she was never doing this again with Dad!! Lol
Because I couldn't stop laughing they got quite a way infront of me by the time I set off again. But as the river was quite twisty and turvy they were not far from me on the other side of the bend. This is word for word what I heard next, but unfortunately I did not see it....
Dad to another fisher man 'Hi there, lovely day for it'
Fisherman, 'Sure is'
Dad 'Which way would you like us to pass?'
Fisherman 'Over there to my left sir'
Dad 'Righty-o'
(Pause of about a minute where I imagine Dad was trying to steer the boat over to where the fisher man requested.)
Dad (in an increasingly higher pitched voice) 'Urrrmmmmm'
Fisherman (all quiet)
Dad (higher than last time) 'Its not us that's taking us there, its the boat!!!'
After this I rounded the bend and saw the canoe going down the river sideways....oh dear!
I approached the fisher man and he said to me 'I think they are having a bit of trouble in that canoe of theirs!!!
Im sure that this fisher men told all his mates in the pub that night about some crazy Brits who came floating down the river in an uncontrollable canoe!!
After this mum got face planted again so I agreed to swop with her, after all I was safe that I was going to say dry!
So after a quick change round we set off again....
Dad managed to successfully complete the rest of the river without faceplanting me or getting stuck on any rocks!
Some other pictures from the trip
