The most dangerous and unpredictable factor during the canoe trip is the other person in your canoe. He/she may swamp the canoe (if he/she is sitting in the back), bore you with endless instructions (when sitting in the front) or nag (in the back); constantly mix the terms 'left' and 'right' (regardless of his/her location in the canoe); forget about everything, enjoying the views, and let the canoe get under/in/on something (branches, stones, snugs etc.); forget about you, splashing irresponsibly and innocently (imagining that's the way people paddle) or make you choose the widest paddle at the very beginning in order to be the first and quickest of the trip; or try to invent his/her own personal style of paddling … which won't work as far as the basics are concerned. Compare cycling - you won't move on, unless you pedal (preferably with your feet) and try to 'steer' a bit. Anyway, if he/she has to struggle with branches and riverbanks, it is very rarely he/she alone.

Or he/she may start to sing. Unexpectedly, unquietly and unbearably. Or you tell him/her with emotion: "See, what wonderful mushrooms on stumps!" and he/she answers with obvious contempt that there is no stump in sight as far as he/she can tell. Or he/she stands up to go to the bank without any prior notice, loses the balance and you (both!) end up in the mud. Or is very careful and balanced while climbing on to the bank, but pulls the canoe precisely at the moment when you have just stood up to get moving. Then it's you in the mud alone. The gang is laughing on the riverbank and no-one would guess not few of them have gone through the same procedure not long ago. Generally every bit of advice coming from your companions is unreliable, vicious and malign. They would just love to see you in the same trouble they got out of a minute ago.

Thus, to cut the long story short using the words of a somewhat puzzled-looking girl, who was trying to get out of the canoe: "It seems to me the people paddling in one and the same canoe have to like eachother."