The forecast rain arrived finally about 6-ish and it poured. I finally got up and wandered off to the campfire which, despite the rain, was roaring again with a kettle on the boil. The ground was well and truly boggy within a short time – but it’s amazing how quickly you get used to the mud and grubbiness. I hadn’t washed and didn’t intend to, and was wearing yesterday’s clothes, most of which I’d slept in … I drank a cup of tea, then took Dave a cup, then we took down the tent etc and packed up. Breakfast was substantial – a good fry-up with veggie sausages for us.
Then there was a bit of palavering as we paddled off to the campsite with some of the stuff so that it could get picked up by the minibus – I took the chance to use their proper facilities – oh the luxury of a real toilet.
Then more canoeing – the rain by now had eased off so was very pleasant again, if less sunny. More beautiful peaceful river scenes – a lot more trees on the bank this time including amazingly huge old willows – and as we neared our endpoint, loads of water-lilies and reeds in the water. My back and shoulders were really aching so wasn’t that disappointed when we didn’t do the whole route – I couldn’t have managed it. As it was, the young kids were rather slow and we wouldn’t have made it in time. The rain started up again about 10 minutes before we finished. How lucky were we with the weather especially compared with what the West Country and up north endured.
Then got picked up by the minibus and taken back to Wroxham to pick up our stuff and drive back home – totally filthy and a touch soggy. At home, unpacked and draped the house with wet, muddy things to dry off, and had lovely hot baths.
