Last weekend my canoe club had a trip going down the River Thames. I think it was from Whitney on Wye to Hereford. After we were all changed into our kit (you can see me in my bright green, purple and green gear to the left, I look great, I know, I know), we messed around while waiting for the adults to sort out the shuttle. This mostly meant saving the fish and sliding down a rail because why not? Finally, we got onto the river. My Mum and I were back in our dream team - sharing a canoe. You'll probably see us swapping paddles a bit as I started with my whitewater paddle which made my arms SO tired because it's BIG so then I stole my Mum's flat water one when my flat water one was just chilling under the seat - but oh well. As you can see, the weather wasn't great so everyone was very happy when we arrived at the lunch stop and it had finally stopped raining. My Mum and Dad seem to have purchased these snazzy new chairs so while we sat on the wet ground, they just sat smugly on them, telling us we could always buy our own! We set off again down the river. Lots of people were getting tired and although I was VERY happy to see the campsite, I didn't actually feel that bad. In this photo you can see I've stolen my Mum's paddle. At last, we turned the corner and boom, the campsite was there. After a big scurry to get the canoes out the water, we set up our tents and got out of our kit. We had dinner (and lots of other snacks - canoeing makes you hungry) and read a bit in the tents. Then the most intense game of man hunt started. I'm going to give you a play by play of what happened and it literally ended up with my heard beating so fast because it got so intense. First, my sisters, my friend and myself ran down a long field and hit behind a bush. We were there for ages but then the tagger came. The field was so long that we didn't even have to run but it was thin so there wasn't really a way to get around him. I went up the field but my friend just ran for it - which worked and she got out. After a lot of dodging and waiting, my sister and I decided just to run for it. I kept running like hell and made it out of the field but my sisters were caught and never made it. I ran down to my friend's tent and we hung around there until the attackers came. I went left down towards the river and she went right - she survived a bit but most of the attackers followed her so she was caught. I hid down by the river and, then my sisters found me. Even though they were caught they were on my team so we ran up and hid in the ladies toilets BECAUSE THE BOYS COULDN'T GO THERE! However, we could hide there forever so we all ran up to our car and hid in there but then the boys found us. The other boy who wasn't yet caught was in the car as well and when we all ran out of it, I think he got caught. But I ran across the field and hid in the long grass and then that was pretty much the end of the game. SO MUCH FUN. We then sat around a fire and messed around the field (which was getting misty). We went to bed very late (and I was reading fan fiction on my phone until later) so when we got up the next morning, I didn't look very awake...at all... But it was back into the paddling kit and getting the canoes set up before a mad hassle to get everyone on the water. It was time for Monnington falls. Sounds scary? Well it wasn't. Basically, it was just a tight bend and a little wave train. In higher water making the bend could be a lot harder so you would be swept into the trees but we didn't have that issue so it was easy as pie. All good! It was nice and raining, just in time for lunch. After lunch, I swapped boats and if you think it looks still in that photo, the one below shows as bad as it got, not very. It was only grade 1 which means it's just "riffles with small waves with few obstructions that can be easily missed with little training". But I wasn't there for the whitewater (if you're wondering why I have a helmet then, it's there to see the rain off). There might not have been much whitewater to see, but there was some cute bird things (I've forgotten the name - like a pro). FINALLY, we reached the end it was time to get back to civilization and internet. It was fun though!
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Hi, I'm Zoe
I'm a teenager and this is my blog. I update it roughly every other day (I'm a lazy teenager, sometimes I'm too busy wasting my life on YouTube or with fan fiction). Archives
January 2018
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