Europe 2024

When we were at Lake Trasimeno yesterday we saw that you could hire canoes to go to the island. You can also catch a ferry. Apparently it won’t take long to get there by canoe, so we decided to paddle there. Deb, Stefano and I were in a triple canoe, Brett and Bree in a double and Ernie decided he could paddle alone. Graham and Bonnie were smart and decided to cheer us off from the shore. It’s 1.7km to the island, as the crow flies (there is a photo showing the island in the distance).

We all get loaded in our canoes and head off. Ernie is paddling strong, the three of us are floundering around a bit and Bree and Brett look ready for the Olympics. For maybe the first 5 metres we were together. Ernie starts drifting off to the right, Bree and Brett head off like they had a motor behind them and the three of us headed to the left to keep the chop face on.

It’s pretty had going and we end up nowhere near Ernie. He’s on his own. After a while the guy who rents the canoes can see that maybe this is not going great, and jumps on a SUP to head over to Ernie to make sure he is ok. I wanted to shout at him that he was worried about the wrong canoe. We can see Bree and Brett’s canoe on the island, so we know they at least made it.

After a good hour or so we could see the shore getting closer and finally made land. Great. Except we also have to get back. Bree and Brett were sitting watching us in hysterics. They thought we looked so useless and were hardly moving when they passed us that we would turn around.

Had a wander around the island then summoned the courage for the return trip. By now it’s quite windy and very choppy. Ernie was lucky. He rowed a little then got tethered to Bree and Brett for the trip home. Favouritism. Because it was so choppy we headed face on into the chop. Graham thinks we rowed twice as far as necessary. We were just trying to not sink the canoe. Old mate on the shore who rented us the canoe didn’t know where we were heading. Old mate who rented us the canoe also said on the trip back it would be very easy and the wind would blow you back. I call bullshit. It was just as hard as the trip there, if not harder.

We kept saying, we will laugh about this one day. Still waiting for that day.Weiterlesen