Father’s Day Families paddle…16/06/13

Father’s Day Families paddle…16/06/13 What to do? Father’s Day and the start of the freshwater season? Well, a nice forecast so perhaps the first family paddle of the day could combine the two. Thus we headed to Beccles, four kayaks somehow strapped on securely and the two girls and a friend’s son being provided with a rod, reel and lure. Kayaks and canoes off the roof and in the water we headed upstream, the girls resplendent in their new wetsuits. What a palaver! Trying to keep three kids lines running with a canoe and a kayak milling around amongst them, boat traffic and weed and my own lines trailing behind all came together to provide much stress and I was relieved as one by one the children decided to give up! I carried on as long as I could, moving ahead but eventually had to stop and give a tow as we were paddling upstream against wind and flow. At least it gave me a workout… Spotted Si and his dad on the way too… The kids were having a whale of a time too: Not to mention the adults… Arriving at the Lock Inn the picnic came out after I’d managed to half sink another friend’s canoe after trying to get across to the bank and sitting on the gunwhale. Much hilarity ensued from the dry people of course and then we had to empty it three feet below before I could have my ham and cheese ploughman’s baguette. We met up with a couple more sets of friends and all paddled back together, fishing again being a non-starter with purposeful capsizes and random swimming by the children, tears from splashing and various arguments and the usual family fun! Absolute chaos and great fun. Oh, and as usual my little selkies spent as much time jumping in as they did staying out… Of course nothing goes to plan on a day like this and we ended up landing an hour later than planned which put us in a rush to get home for the planned extended family meal but we made it with half an hour to spare. A pity then that we returned to a scene of devastation after the new neighbours dog had got into our garden, destroyed and damaged a large quantity of plants, knocked over the barbecue and shat on the paving to no word of apology or even acknowledgement from next door. With my wife in tears, my children in the bath and my parents at the door I was glad that we’d opted for a takeaway…roll on the next family day out!