Louise and her family welcomed us into their beautiful home - a farm, a short drive away from the town. The sheep, the dogs and the horse kept us entertained and the garden provided the perfect setting for an evening meal in the sunshine.
Louise was the hostess with the mostess and together with Nikki did an amazing job with the catering. Delicious, fresh meals were delivered from both the farm and the boat house kitchens and freshly baked snacks kept us going between sessions. Louise's flapjacks were amazing but my favourite was the carrot and coconut cake.
Day 1 - Friday
The weekend's training began with launch lifting! Getting launch down the steps at Monmouth is no mean feat but with six HPS girls under Louise's expert supervision the boat was in just as Dez's father arrived to tell us not to use that one - it leaks. So we had practice lifting it up the steps too!
The first water session of the weekend was a guided tour of the river, with Louise and Dez pointing out the landmarks and obstacles on the river. Lesson #1 don't take the outside of the bend - you won't come back! Lesson #2 small sticks in the bank are very difficult to spot when racing down the straight - but using swans is not reliable - they move! Once we'd determined that by church they meant some steps on the river bank, and by pink cottage they meant wires over the river we were all set and ready to get some hard work done in the afternoon!
Day 2 - Saturday
Saturday dawned bright and clear - when you're in vest tops before boating at 7.30am you know it's going to be hot! A long paddle in singles gave us the perfect opportunity to enjoy the flat water before it too warm, but this was followed by some leapfrog in the second session. It was cooking and the aim became staying cool! Catherine pioneered the t-shirt dunking technique while I went for sticking my feet in the river (socks and all) at the end of each run! Only Kate seemed unfazed by the heat - I think she is solar powered!
During lunch Dez tended to the latest addition to our fleet - an Empacher double, carefully cleaning and lovingly polishing it while the rest of us chilled out in the shade.
It was Kate and I who were lucky enough to try it out first after lunch. It feels very different to the WinTech we have been paddling in!!!
The last session of the day was chosen to match the weather - skills in the singles, where Dez set us increasingly difficult challenges.
After doing all the exercises Dez set we got a bit more adventurous, Laura and Nikki challenged each other to see how long they could sit at front stops with their hands off the blades. It was only going to end one way!
Since they were wet they were on a mission to get us all swimming, successfully dunking me, Rebbecca and Louise. The prize for the best skills has to go to Louise who could completed every task including the yoga. Heidi would be proud!!
Day 3 - Sunday
Another beautiful morning and another long technical paddle in the singles, followed by some crew boat work and then some hard work in singles!
It was Easter Sunday so the necessary chocolate fest had to take place.... to facilitate this we all had a secret bunny who'd carefully selected us an Easter treat. Mine had the hardest task since I don't react well to chocolate! This was followed by an Easter Egg hunt in the nearby skate park, where 5 eggs are sill missing - presumed eaten! The scrap over the last egg in the tree ended with Vicki muscling out Lindsay and Laura!
The day ended with a trip to Symonds Yat, which provided stunning views of the surrounding countryside and a lovely pub next to the river for that well deserved drink!
Day 4 - Monday
As a treat on the last day we got to do the long paddle in crew boats! Caversham had called Laura and Vicki away so that left us with a double and a quad.
Following this was a 1500m time trial, where Kate proved she is indeed solar powered and the swans proved they do move and are unsuitable as landmarks!
The last session but definitely not the least was starts - we got quite an audience along the bank as we tried to get from one end of the landing stage to the other from a start in under 10 secs! With Catherine on start marshal duty and Dez on timing, the quickest was Nikki in a rapid 9.8 seconds... next up was Lindsay - I have some work to do!
All that was left was to load the trailer and head off home, tired and tanned! A big thank you to Louise for your efforts! Bring on Henley!
0 comments:
Post a Comment