Friday 25th September - Best get it over with...

Day 2 and "who will volunteer to take a canoe out then?" Well, it had to happen at some point, so I thought I'd dive in at the deep end.

Once more we split into 2 groups, half in kayaks and half in canoes. After collecting a one-bladed paddle and blue barrel for lunch and valuables (note to self - take extra drybags next time!) we loaded trailers and eventually headed off to Brown Howe on Coniston. Before long we were changed and on the water.

Now, I have no idea why I've never really fancied canoeing, but now that I've spent a day in one, paddling on a lake, initially with and, later, into a (slight) headwind, I'm starting to rationalise my thoughts. Think of it like this; you kneel in a canoe in order to paddle it. That is, you spend your time on your knees in something resembling a plastic bath-tub. A plastic bath-tub that has grit in it and soon has half an inch of water slopping about as well. The bottom of the bath-tub wobbles like a stiff jelly as you paddle through ripples - fortunately we never saw any waves.

You paddle your bath-tub primarily on one side of its hull which means that your upper body becomes twisted and your shoulder start to ache. This happens quite quickly, but that's ok because, soon after it starts to ache, your shoulder starts to burn. So you change position and paddle on the other side of your bath-tub - only to find that your other shoulder starts to ache. So you resign yourself to spending your day with burning shoulders. It also dawns on you that all the grit, sharp and jaggy, that gathered under your knee, digging into it, piercing your your (expensive) drysuit and turning it into a teabag, washes across the bottom of the bath-tub and congregates under the other knee. Where it annoys just as much as it did under the first knee but can now make a whole new bunch of holes in your drysuit. Also, because you are not used to paddling left-handed, the canoe goes in every direction except the one in which you want to travel.

After a quick lunch stop you get do do it all again only this time into a headwind. Which means that your wobbly, grit and water filled bath-tub is totally unsteerable no matter which side of the bloody thing you paddle on. And, because of the headwind, you put twice as much effort into your paddling which really impresses the muscles in your shoulders...

I hope that I soon learn how to paddle a canoe efficiently and am trying really hard to look forward to the next chance I have to put myself through it all again...