BRANCHES/ SNAGS/ BUSHES/ TREES …

are waiting for you (or should we say 'lurking'?) at various levels and angles. Usually they slant exactly so that there is room enough for the canoe under it - not for the canoers, though. So at least one of them has to be content with the wet … Mostly the other will follow, because it is technically quite complicated to fall out of the canoe alone - although some people (read: men) have managed to do so.

Paddling under the trees and into the branches is by no means compulsory, of course, and avoiding them you'll also avoid scratches on your face and losing your caps, but sometimes it is not entirely up to you. Especially during your first trip everything takes a bit of time. Steering and paddling are no exceptions, so at first you also need a bit of luck to get past the first mountain-ash tree (although it's quite romantic to be there in spring, when it's in blossom).

There are also cases not so common in character. For example, the slim wife leans back and has no problems with gliding from under a tree-trunk, but the husband is not so eager to go down to the bottom of the canoe on all fours. So he grabs the tree, hoping to find a way out (or over) and then it appears there is no choice any more, as the river has carried away his wife AND the canoe and he just has to hold on to the tree. To survive. Somehow.

The tree will break, of course. Rotten, probably. Or, the slim wife glides on from under, the man leans back and gets stuck behind a branch by his chin. The unsuspecting wife keeps on paddling, a bit puzzled by the ineffectiveness of her activity, as the canoe does NOT move. The man's means of expression are somewhat limited, as the mouth is shut tightly and the paddle is too short. But it hurts.

At the next tree the man bends forward quickly and in time or even earlier. Unfortunately not LOW enough, as some branch gets stuck between his back and the life-jacket and the man hangs helplessly without the canoe under him … and then the branch will break - of course.

At the next tricky tree the wife feels she's had enough and jumps out of the canoe. The canoe gets turned downside up. And so on for about 16 km.