The first thing I should point out here is that I haven't been submerged for about three and a half years or so. This is because I don't really like swimming. Since my parents had a really good shower installed, I haven't had a bath. The same has been true through all my University accommodation. It's always been showers. So I haven't been underwater for a very, very long time.
So I'm in Canada. I heard about this lodge trip on which my sister and mother were going, and I thought it would be cool, and I have been out in the Milford Lodge (one recalls the Milford Academy) for two days.
It's a set of wooden lodges on the front of a reasonably large lake. Supplied are many canoes and paddles. I haven't been canoeing since I was about 10 and that was in the Thames. But here I was, with a genuine Canadian Canoe, all to myself, with my cousin and sister paddling around me. It was good fun. After we set out on a small row around our most local lake, we stopped by a floating platform near our lodge. My sister, in looking for her mooring rope, capsized and went in. I was quite impressed; it's usually difficult to capsize those things unless you mean to.
We had a very long row the next day to a remote beach (probably only accessible by canoe). Messy sandwiches and sunburn later, we rowed back as fast as we could, through semi-rapids (Pike's Run), and over massive lakes. It took us about an hour and a half to get back, but that's after four hours (or so) to get there.
As we approached our home lodge, I felt hot and bothered enough to want to tip the boat over. I didn't, as Becky was with me, but after we landed I suggested it to Roan (cousin), and he was more than eager. So for the first time in nearly four years, I went underwater. We tipped the boat and went in. It wasn't really cold, in places it was warm, but we even managed to get all the water out of it afterwards (in shallower water). I got in again, and as Roan did, it tipped, and the canoe sank slowly. And that was the most fun. It could even be considered accidental.
We tipped it a few more times, and the trip slowly came to a close. We made it back to Mahone Bay, where we were staying with the rest of the family. Since then, we've done a lot of fun things, the main one being searching for a "woods beater", or a very cheap car to thrash through the woods and then scrap. We found a little Mazda 323 in red which would only cost $50 (Canadian), which is nothing, but the car needed to be released by police, which even to this day it hasn't been. Eventually (yesterday), we bought a 1989 Plymouth Reliant K, which cost us $200, but we didn't have the plan to destroy it. We plan to keep it and sell it t Roan's girlfriend as her first car by the end. It's just an old car, and it has a few things wrong (old radiator, burst brake lines), but I'm going to give some time today to repairing it, so I can take it through the woods and dirt roads briefly before I leave tonight.
When I get back to England tomorrow morning, I can relay more of my adventures, such as my new gaming mouse and DVD writer. But until then I'm going to repair some car.
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