Training day # 3

Our 3rd and last training day before our mamouth journey!

2 of the team members had to pull out so we had only 4 of us doing our canal stretch.

In our staff meeting Mike announced that we had 2 more bodies joining us for our 150 mile challenge- our newly employeed Instructor and Trainee which was good news all round.

Whilst getting our kit on ready for the day Tom proudly showed off his new dry bag which had a strap on it making it look very much like a hand bag so after a few digs and personal comments we got on the bus to our destination, red just isnt your colour Tom!

Once on the water we were remembering what last years canals were like especially the one in Birmingham - trolleys, hundreds of cans, T.V!! and dead animals including a cat (canoeing is not for the faint hearted) this canal wasn't going to be any worse!

We came across a floating flip flop, a buoy and a dead sheep, so all in all we didnt do too bad!

Ewan and Tom raced off while me and Laurianne took our time and keeping to a steady constant speed. Memories of our songs from last year sprung to mind so we thought we would make some up, singing about spandex bra's and Tom's new (very lady like) man bag we realised we couldnt laugh and concertrate on the boat so had to abanden that idea. Carrying along down the canal we were stopped by a water pump clearing out the canal so we decided to pull over and have our lunch.

With a bit more energy in us we turned back up the canal to return to the mini bus, me and Tom decided we would have a go at paddling a canoe by ourselves which prooved quite hard until you got into a routine. Ewan and Laurianne walked along beside us and that was obviuosly not enough entertainment so they decided that it would be a good idea to throw twigs which then became sticks which then turned to minature trees at us to pu us off and said they were training us up for incoming obstilcle we may incounter along our event! Some how i think this may have been a lie!

When we were out of the water we got boats loaded we were off home thinking the next time we're in a boat its the real deal!

Wish us luck and keep following the team!