It was a crisp Sunday, a cool wind blowing, chilling the hearts of the roosting birds nearby. The whining of a train passing by broke the almost perfect nature of the place. The river Thames slinked by, blindly falling down, reaching the east coast far away. The pigeon yells, flying away in a flurry of silky white feathers. A lively collection of blue-clad boys walks down the street, towards the river Thames.
Enough of that poetic stuff. The Scouts were walking towards the River Thames, to try their hands at Canoeing. First of all, we (the scouts) changed out of our uniforms in the nearby boathouse. We had a spare change of clothes in case we got in a tight spot and soiled ourselves.
Before we went canoeing, we had a small warm up. I think it was something between rugby and wrestling, Where two teams had to run to opposite sides of the pitch, whilst trying to prevent the other team reaching your side. It was more fun than doing a jog, and we soon warmed up.
We all heaved the canoes into the water and set off. At first, it was simply getting to grips with them, the correct hand positions and all that… But we soon got involved with a few races. We all lined up on the invisible start line across the water. Mowgli screamed, and we set off. My canoe, compromised of Frankie, Johnny and I, was slowest to start. The other two canoes soon got occupied by a navy battle, of water-craft slamming into water-craft. Our Canoe stole a lead, and we won with ease.
Next we tried endurance. We would move to the blue bouy, somewhere between 100 and 300 metres upriver. We arrived there first, but we constantly had to stop because of Mowgli’s handicap of a one man canoe. We then had to turn around and go back. That ended poorly for most of us, and Mowgli decided we should practise turning around. We did it, and went for lunch.
It was time for games. First of all, we had to try a two man balancing act. One person on one side of the canoe, the other person on the other. They had to stand up straight and walk to the other side. Logically, I was the one who had to accept, but for some reason, others remained reluctant. Hugo bravely put up his hand to volunteer. We clambered on Mowgli’s canoe, and managed to stand up on either side. It was qiute difficult to start, because Hugo weighs more than me, but we soon balanced out and walked to the other side. Unfortunately, we didn’t fall in.
We then were ready for a game called “Ball.” Original. Anyway, we soon renamed it and then started playing - It soon became the best game ever. All you had to do was collect a ball and throw it into Mowgli’s Canoe. Simple. Well, Our canoe remained victor for the day, or, that’s how I remember it.
If you’re expecting some tasteless conclusion that would fit in a children’s magazine, stop reading now.
It was good.
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