My expo group is 1B and we had intro to canoes in week 3. We had a lot of fun with this activity, even though the weather wasn’t the best. We canoed along the Yeerung River and Miss Patterson said that the river was at the lowest she’s ever seen it! When we started, I was in a canoe with James. We started by canoeing up river towards the Yeerung Bridge. On our way up, a lot of people got stuck under the bridge on bits of concrete or under the fallen tree we went under because the river was so low. We saw some amazing flora and fauna and even saw some azure King Fishers!! On the way back James and I fell into a really good rhythm and had a very smooth run back. We pushed the canoes back onto shore and went off to have lunch.

After lunch we were planning to do capsize drills but unfortunately it started raining. We all piled into the bus and ate our lunch in there. After about half an hour the teachers decided that anyone who still wanted to capsize in the rain could and two hands shot straight up; Tom’s and mine! So we got our life vests back on, hopped in a canoe and started towards the middle of the river. Because of the rain, there was now a bit of a current so we had to paddle upstream a bit but after positioning ourselves, with everyone else watching from shore, we capsized! It wasn’t as cold as I’d expected but it was pretty hard to push the canoe to the bank with the current. After we’d got the canoe to the bank, we tipped all the water out and flipped it over… Capsize done!!! Once we were out, Tom and I went to get warm and dry while the others in the group kindly packed the canoes away for us. When we were in the bus headed home, a thunderstorm hit, lightning and all, talk about perfect timing. All in all it was a fun day, and I think the rain just made it all the better.

By Kendra