Little Stalky and the Gang Go Canoeing

It was Australia Day yesterday and in the spirit of spending time with family whilst enjoying the country in which we live, we decided to head out for a spot of canoeing.  There were ten of us in total and thanks to the expert planning of Treacle, were all kitted out with sparkly hats, party poppers and noise makers.  What more do you need whilst canoeing.  Beer?  Yes, we had that too.  The weather behaved and we were able to set off on the river with just a light smattering of cloud and nice warm temperatures.  It was a nice route with the river flowing steadily and one or two rapids to challenge our paddling skills.  Most of the rapids were tackled with no problem - a few of us back to front - but mostly no problem.  But there was one rapid that thwarted a number of us.  I was thwarted.  But thwarted only because I'd gone to rescue Mystical Roo's hat.  It had flown into the water and Mystical Roo had gone through the rapids seemingly unaware that he'd lost his sparkly headpiece.  I dove to the rescue but then got myself in an awkward position for going down the rapids myself.  In fact I got wedged against a rock and was unable to free myself.  Every time I pushed myself away I got pushed back again.  I was stuck.  And what did Mystical Roo do?  He turned around, pointed, laughed and then got his camera out.  And that's the thanks I get for saving his hat!  No, it was Monster Noggin who came to the rescue.  She heroically paddled over, risked getting stuck herself and then pulled me to freedom.  Women have got to stick together because men just point, laugh and take photos.  Meanwhile, after being freed, the rapid then took another two victims.  Two who happened to be sharing one canoe.  Two who happened to hit a rock, wobble, unbalance and then capsize.  Mystical Roo was still on the camera and managed to get actual video footage of this along with evidence that he was laughing the whole way through.  Ok, I'll admit it - we were all laughing.  But it was rather funny.  There were party poppers floating down stream so we had to coordinate the canoes to undertake a party popper rescue mission.  After the excitement of the rapids there was much lizard spotting and although no one believes me because I was the only one that saw it, bright purple bird spotting too.  I hadn't even had any beer at this point.  Or been attacked by leeches.  I was NOT hallucinating.  It was a nice way to spend Australia day and a great way to enjoy the outdoors.  We finished off with a surf at the beach followed by fish and chips.  Now that's a good day.