Strength & Balance by Keep_Going_Lass

Following my shopping trip late last week,  I enjoyed the drive on Friday evening in anticipation of a ...... weekend.   I wasn't sure whether it would be relaxing, exciting, tiring, entertaining, scary ...........    It transpired to be all of those things. 

 Arriving at the meeting point in Hereford, I met up with the rest of the Group to discover that the pub was not serving food without bookings - excellent start, I was starving - as was everyone else! 

The main task of Friday evening was to transfer the cars to our finishing point in Monmouth and be bused back in a Land Rover. This we achieved without hitch and the return journey included a pit stop at the local chip shop.  

Do you remember the advert  ".....when a man you've never met before suddenly gives you flowers...."   Well in my case, he wasn't acting on "Impulse", he had bought flowers for his mum and sister and hadn't managed to deliver them en route, so he handed them to the two women sat in the back of the Land Rover, one of which happened to be me.  So what does one do with a bunch of flowers on a River Safari?    Well most of the ladies ended up with an adornment anywhere we could manage - on hats, tucked into life jackets, and the remainder adorned the boats and remarkably, given what they were put through, the blooms were still attached to the stalks by the end of the weekend.

Returning to camp, our next priority was to build it.  A couple of the party had brought their own tents and two were arriving on Saturday morning so the bivvy only had to service 6 of us, made from two canoes,  6 paddles, a tarpaulin, grounsheet, 6 pegs and a long length of rope.

After the doom mongers warning of bad weather, we had a most wonderful weekend with rain only overnight .    On Saturday morning, a gentle prod relieved the tarpaulin of its quarry and treated two of us to a cold shower.

Over the course of our time on the river we paddled in such calm and quiet water that you could be forgiven for thinking you were in the Amazon, whilst at the other extreme after a few “little rapids” the day before, we were coached in how to ride the rapids at Symonds Yat and with the river up a little, the front of the boat bobbed up and down like Captain Pugwash’s ship as we negotiated the fast running water, avoided the rocks and arrived safely at the bottom very pleased with ourselves.  

Unfortunately, we were SO exhilarated with our achievement we didn’t pay attention to where we were going and capsized as we bumped into a rock poking above the water with the boat turned slightly sideways.  We were in no danger though and I squealed with laughter as we scrabbled around trying to retrieve paddles and bits of kit that weren’t attached to the boat.

The same can’t be said for our prior scrape the day before when we misjudged our positioning on another rapid and found ourselves heading at speed for the trees.  Once in the trees, which somehow failed to knock us out of the boat, the water was still fast moving but there was nowhere for us to go and with the water pressure building up underneath, our boat was pretty close to turning over.  

I surprised myself at  how calm I was, deciding  much to my companion’s disdain, to reject the offer of help from a passing canoe, figuring that it would safest to wait for our instructor to come back for us.   In the meantime, we needed to stabilise the boat and worked together, using the tree branches to pull ourselves back against the current further into the bank.    Even if we could get out, we would be heading back into the fast moving water sideways which I figured would be more perilous than being stuck in the trees!

Matt arrived and whilst his calming strategy left a lot to be desired, telling us that we were in the most dangerous position we could be, his rescue strategy and instructions were A1:  don’t hold on to anything, find somewhere to wedge your paddles on the side and limber down into the boat to lower your centre of gravity and keep your head away from the branches.   Manoeuvring his boat along side us, he shielded us from the rapid water flow whilst gently edging us out.  Once released, we had freedom to take control of our boat again using the skills we had learned to get us to where we should have been.

At the end of a tiring day’s paddle, we then had to drag the canoes, fully laden with barrels up the bank, build our shelter for the 2^nd night on the river bank, make a fire so that we could stay warm and eat a banquet of jacket potatoes, sausages and baked beans.

Back to Sunday – following our “swim” at the bottom of the rapids, we had a further 3 miles to paddle, soaking wet, so an extra layer of waterproofs to keep out the wind and some vigorous paddling made it hardly noticeable until we had the opportunity to change into dry clothes after unloading the canoes and all the kit, before heading off home to a bath and comfortable bed - 2 days, 28 miles in some of the most beautiful surroundings our land has to offer.   

The whole experience delivered all my expectations and more.  My partner and I, had delivered the entertainment for our fellow canoers, being the only boat that had to be rescued as well as the only one to empty its passengers. 

On a more reflective note, I found it fascinating and encouraging to observe even amongst strangers, how quickly a “back to basics” environment  develops trust and co-operation and brings out the best that human nature has to offer.

So, in time honoured tradition .... here are the “pictures”  I'm the one with my head in a barrel, but for a good cause  .........

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnb_bAgin-Q