More Improvers

The first of the Improver's sessions two weeks ago during which we undertook a two hour paddle went well enough, but it wasn't easy. The back didn't let me down so there was very little collapsing into the rear of the cockpit, although I was tired and glad to finish, and it took nearly a week to shed the resulting aches and pains. With the thought of having to do another one soon I put in a couple of trips on the Wey during the intervening weekdays. Both were from New Haw to Pyrford, a distance of a bit over five miles which takes me approximately an hour forty-five to complete, including stops. The first trip went off quite well and on the return I was paddling quite steadily and it seemed, a little faster than before. The second trip was a different kettle of fish altogether. For some reason I just didn't feel as if I was getting it together at all. At Pyrford I did the turn-around without much of a rest as I really felt that I just wanted to get it finished.

Now the Wey is not very deep and I usually have to keep an eye out for branches and other river debris that can foul the paddles or bottom of the boat. About a third of the way back I spied something in mid channel poking out of the water and altered course to avoid it as that usually means a substantial branch can be sitting on the bottom with only a twig poking above the waterline. As I closed on it I noticed that oddly, it seemed to be moving with a strange serpentine movement and heading my way. It passed within a foot of the side of the boat and it was with mounting horror that I realised that it was an Adder swimming across the river. At water level I was as close to it as I ever want to be to a snake, and as it passed right where my hand would have been had I still been paddling.  As we passed, eyeball to eyeball in fact, it raised its little head up further and looked balefully at me with its two beady little eyes. The patterns on its body were quite plain but I didn't hang around to study them. Close encounters with wildlife are all very well but this was as close as I ever want to get.

The second two-hour run came on the Sunday of the bank holiday. I hadn't realised how busy the river can get. It was warm and pleasant and everyone and his mother was out on the water at four-thirty in the afternoon, including the nutters. For the whole hour forty-five we were out there wasn't a time until the last few minutes when we weren't having to deal with the wash and chop being created by large and small motor vessels being driven too fast and even raced on the stretch between Hampton and Thames Ditton. In the end we didn't get as far as the last time, only four and a half miles in fact. I don't suppose this one is going to count but we did try a few exercises like paddling backwards to a given point, and it was useful for a bit of experience in the rough.

Not very much has happened in the weight department. I've lost about two pounds from the start-off weight, which I suppose is going in the right direction, but really that isn't very much more than a good sweat.