fatvegan

Ian, Rebeka and I went canoeing on Friday night. We set off down to Crosslands with the racing canoe and dad's spiffy new yellow canoe. I didn't think there was going to be any room in them for our stuff, so I brought as little as possible. Just a jumper, a blanket and my tent. In the end there was heaps of room in the yellow canoe.

The camping spot was pretty close too. It took a little while to get there, because we had to stop every now and then to rearrange our cargo. But it was really only a 5 minute paddle. But that was alright. Apart from the odd jumbo jet flying overhead, once we got there it did seem pretty isolated.

Ian had brought absinthe, Thai saki and a 6-pack of migraine-inducing Tooheys. I had brought some old wine and one of my Cubans. We cooked up a really tasty pasta, which had just the right amount of smoky, ashy goodness. Then we sat around the fire and smoked the cigar and drank and chatted.

The night was absolutely freezing. My blanket wasn't thick enough or big enough. Not unless I curled up in a ball and wrapped it around me twice. Which I ended up doing. I wrapped some of our canvas shopping bags around my legs and tied my t-shirt around my head and put dad's OV cap on. I pulled my arms inside my jumper so I could give more blanket to my legs. That must have been about 3am, and I was desperately hoping for morning to come. After a bit I warmed up enough to go back to sleep. But I woke up with the sore throat and coldiness I still have today.

Despite the sickness, I woke up to a band of ducks fossicking merrily through our campsite. So that took my mind off it. I often wake up in that tent to something interesting going on outside - usually animals of some sort. I can just open the door a tiny bit, and sit in the tent and look out.

Ian an I spent a lot of our morning crushing cans and collecting beer bottles that had been left in our secluded paradise. I paddled back to the mainland and stole some of the plastic tube wrappers they had put around the newly-planted trees. I needed them to keep the cans and bottles in. It was such a cold morning. I ran across the dewey grass barefoot. The water in the river was the only warm thing, so I'd stand in the river for a few minutes between trips.

I poked sticks through one end of the tubes to make bags so the garbage wouldn't fall out the bottom. Then we ferried it over to the car when Jem and Chris arrived. We managed to consolidate the garbage into one big garbage bag, so I could wander back and replace the tree protectors. Although there seemed to be too many bags for the number of trees. I hope that doesn't mean that some of them had died.

It makes me want to go canoeing again. It was heaps fun. Fully tops. I need to ring Alex Miller and see if he's still interested.