Part III is here..
https://uncoffined.com/?p=2941
The canoe trip back from the bridge to Nowhere
We chose to go via a pair of double canoes down river to our overnight accomodation 9 Kms (5 miles) away
As a rule of thumb, double canoes can be ‘marriage makers or marriage breakers’ in much the same way as a tandem bicycle can be ‘testing’.
Spoiler alert – We are still married…
We put both our daughters in the same canoe, which was a good fit as they get on very well.
My wife chose the front of our canoe, while I sat in the back and did the steering and therefore was in the captains seat.
My wife (bless her heart) still likes to be in control though, even if she was in the wrong seat for that sort of carry on.
Can anyone guess where this is going yet?
I’m far more comfortable in a single kayak myself, as I’ve used those for years in both the sea and in whitewater.
A double canoe, however is a totally different kettle of fish
They are very long and seem to have the turning circle of a cruise liner. When your dealing with rapids, you need to lean down river to stop falling out, which feels a bit counter intuitative.
Our first drama was rowing through fast moving waters to position ourselves to head downstream. The canoe started rocking about, so my wife tried to compensate, making it worse..
Just when I had visions of floating downstream with an upturned canoe and a lost paddle, she regained her senses and stopped panicking.
We slowly got better at working together, even though we still had the occassional hassle with whirl pools and under currents which caught us unaware.
The bit that I dreaded was getting to the landing place which needed us to go in a fast moving current, then abruptly turn 180 degrees into a bit of a cul-de-sac. It was a bit touch and go, but we made it back onto solid ground without an unplanned swim.
By this time, we were rather stuffed, and dragged ourselves uphill up to our accomodation at Paranini, and basically just crashed until dinner arrived.
Dinner was just Superb..
It was very tranquil and serene there especially as the sun set, as there was only the sound of the nearby river. (The nearest road is over 20kms away)
Uncoffined 
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