Training challenges

Our direction across the country east from Liverpool to Goole has been chosen to get some benefit from the prevailing westerly winds but annoyingly our first two weeks of training have been accompanied by easterly winds, making things a tad harder work.

The kayak lets a drop (or 10) of water in but we are not overly worried as we need to be getting out of the boat at regular intervals at locks and swing bridges, where we can empty out any collected water. If we can find the leak before July we will find a use for liberal amount of gaffer tape (for all those who followed my walk last year I used a lot of gaffer tape on that trip also).

The one aspect of the trip over which we have no control will be the level of aggression from other canal-users. Not the folks on boats, they are all very friendly; not the people using the towpath, many of whom have asked what we are doing when they see the CSY T-shirts; not the geese that line the banks of the canal and watch as we paddle by. No, the aggression arises from the Queen's own birds, swans. They don't stay perched serenely on the canal bank - the female (I am told it is the male who sits on the nest) comes out to meet us, swimming alongside for a hundred yards or so, wings arched outstretched and head and neck held close to the body.

This one landed short:

After a while the bird drops back, giving the impression of having got bored of being an escort. Then, some seconds later, a sound of heavy, beating wings flapping on the surface of the water is followed by the swan either a) landing just short of the boat or b) crashing into the back of the rear paddler. So far, it has only happened to me and I don't think Andrew is relishing the prospect of being in the rear seat when we next encounter a kamikaze swan.

We are told they won't be as bad in July, it is whilst they are nesting that they are their most protective, seemingly seeing anything else that users the canal as a threat. We will wait and see!