Our stomachs fully satisfied with food, we were ready for the second activity of the day, kayaking. After a quick change of clothes in preparation of getting wet we made our way to the lake. The camp site is situated next to Lough Ree, so it was a simple walk with our ors and life jackets we were given and we were there.
We did a warm up activity with the one of the 3 instructors and then made our way to the kayaks, I shared one with my friend, we were pushed out into deeper water and we began to paddle. At first I looked at water and froze, I had forgotten how dark the water was in this lake. It wasn’t a dirty lake, the water was very clean, however it was dark because of the seaweed and the depth of the lake itself. You see, another irrational fear of mine is dark, murky water, where I cannot see the bottom, or has a lot of seaweed, and this is why I froze. I will not go into why I have this fear now, it may come up in another blog at a different time. This always happens when I’m out in open water, I soon snapped out of it and ignored the water, as the instructors were calling us to follow them.
We made our way to this small marshy island, it seemed to be built on reeds and mud that had accumulated, and gotten trapped over years amongst the reeds and out of the water this small island was formed. Here, we stepped out of our boats, brought them ashore and it was time for another warm up activity. We had to run round this small marshy land, and get back into our kayaks and not be last. ‘All right’ I thought ‘Its only small, easy enough to do.It will be fun!’ The instructor then decided to add in, we could only run if we were screaming, if we stopped screaming we could not run. Have you ever tried running and screaming at the same time aross muddy, soft marshy ground? I seemed to get out of breath faster than normal, most likely it was because of most my breath was in putted into my screaming. I soon made it back with others and into my Kayak, waiting for my friend who was yet to appear. Once we were reunited, out onto the water we went.
Now it was time time for a game. A sort of chase or tag, what ever you would like to call it. Out of all of the kayaks out on the lake, 2 of them with be ‘Bongs’ and the rest ‘Bings’. We would all be shouting either Bing! or Bong! to let others know what we were. The aim of the game was for the Bongs to catch the Bings and for the Bings to try and avoid the Bongs. Once you were tapped by a Bong, you too became a Bong, and now you were to help catch the rest of the Bings. That certainly got us moving about the water.
After, we were lead to a small bay, that was only accessible though a small, narrow water way with tall reeds on each side. Once inside this small bay, It too was surrounded in reeds, we were completely in closed. The Instructors asked us all to line up beside each other, and hold on to the boats beside us to make a giant raft. I knew instantly what was about to happen, they did this every year. It was a game I defiantly did not want to take part in. A volunteer was asked to stand up in their kayak and then try to run across the other boats with out falling in. The first person got to the end of the raft, lost his balance and fell in, with everyone laughing in their own kayaks, we watched as he climbed out of the water and started to make his way back to his own kayak, again walking across the other boats. But, before he got there, he decided to capsize another guys kayak, and of course everyone laughed apart form the unsuspecting person. Who looked shocked and very unhappy that he had been tipped into the water. With no one else wanting to attempt the same, we raced back to the main shore then messed around in the shallow water with each other out of the boats. This was soon followed by most people heading back cold, hoping that the water in the showers were warm and inviting after the cold water of Lough Ree.
Kat 🙂 xx
Katn1p's World of Wonder 