Karaoke Kayaking

Oh....my.....god. Kayaking was the most brilliant fun. And we did kind of karaoke...well, we sang.

We had the most perfect day for messing around on the river. The bit of river we went to was in a city called Ladner. Most places here are on the Fraser River Delta somehow. There were five us of and we have two double kayaks and one single. Beth and I shared a double since we were novice kayakers and the larger boat is more stable.

The evening before we went out, Roma (not evil Roma, good Roma) had told me that it takes just twelve minutes for anyone to learn how to kayak. I think she was right. I sat at the back and had peddles inside for steering, and the person at the back has to take their paddling cue from the person in front.

We took off down the river, Lori had us go down little creeks that you would think were impassable. We sang, we laughed, we talked. We got stuck in bullrushes, we got ourselves out. We got swept aside by the current, but we got ourselves back where we wanted to be.
We saw eagles, I have seen them in the sky, but never just sitting on a tree - this one looked like a vulture, I had no idea how huge they can be. We saw marsh wrens, (nothing to do with women in uniform before you ask;) swallows, kites and a heron, a huge heron that looked almost like a pterodactyl as it took off.

After a little while, because you are so close to the water and because the boat is so light and sensitive to your movements, it seemed as though the boat had become part of us. We were out for two and a half hours in the sparkling, silent water. We stopped and listened to the cottonwood trees sighing. It was just the most amazing thing to do and it felt as though we could have stayed in the water for ever, and that the afternoon would go on for ever and that it would always be summer.

Perfick.