Sunday Roast Paddle: The Fishes

Twelve of us met at the shed at 10am on a lovely hot Saturday monring. Penny and I decided we would take a tandem open canoe, leaving Su, Stu, Rob, Janet, Lewis, Val, Niamh and Emma free to take the touring boats, and the Chris and Soren were left with the weekender.

There was minimal faffing, and the flow wasn't very strong on the Thames, so we made our way up to Folly Bridge fairly quickly. The clouds overhead occassionally obscured the sun, and in places they looked quite stormy, but there was plenty of blue sky to keep us going.

We wound our way up past the railway bridge and through onto the small unassuming backwater that would take us to the pub. Our pace was slowed a little because it became much narrower and winding but we eventually popped out at the pub. After a muddy ecape from our boats we tidied ourselves up, changed into our 'civvies', and meandered across the lawn to stake our claim at the tables in the garden. You knew we had arrived, Isis style, because we took up three bench sets, a bench, six deck chairs and a large amount of space for our kit. We mostly ordered picnic hampers of various items and sat back to relax. The clouds were more plentiful now, so when the sun did shine we all got rather excited and assumed the position for sunbathing.

And that's it. We paddled. We ate. We drank. We stayed for a few hours and eventually pootled home again. Relaxed and happy. An absolutely fantastic start to the weekend!

- Jen

Photos by Jen.