Paddling in circles

Yesterday did my first kayak on the Thames with the local canoe club (who's photo that is above), which was great fun but spent rather a lot of time going round in circles.

When asking about minimum experience was surprised that ability to kayak in a straight line was one of them. As Top Gear would put it - how difficult can it be? And certainly in the swimming pool there wasn't much of a problem.

But then the swimming pool is so short its hard to tell as after couple of strokes you're at the far end, unlike the Thames.

However I'm told its a right-of-passage for newbies and others were piroutting more than me - and with a canoe called a "Dancer" I had a great excuse.

The swimming pool also doesn't have a constant stream of rowers bearing down on you nor, more importantly, a couple of knots of tide to battle against.

However very enjoyable in an arms-aching-good-nights-sleep sort of way, and hope its just the first of many.