Day 7: On rhythm but a half stroke behind

Day started with birds at 5 am, wake to the sound or rushing water. Sounds glorious.

But let’s start with the night before….open fire, venison burgers, veggie fry up, Dutch oven potatoes. OUTRAGEOUS. And then the topper was the Dutch oven brownie with drizzle and whipped cream. From a raft!!

Went to the tent with such sweet thoughts of slumber and then fought the whole night with my sleeping pad. I thought Suneet was going to kick me out of the tent.

In any case, back to this morning…fire going. Hot coffee. And an avocado, bacon and egg McMuffin- the Kiwis know how to put on a great spread.

Packed up, back on the river – a few super close calls but everyone stayed in the boats today. In some flat sections we had some guerilla tactics where Elke tried to drag Tim out of our boat into the very chilly water but we defended the boat well.

Pushing through some tough water – commands called out from the back, I don’t have my hearing aids in – he’d yell to HOLD ON and I’d keep paddling. “front paddle please” and I set the stroke. Quote of the day was Dale to Suneet – no, you ARE in Rhythm, just a half stroke behind. Awesome ride to the pick up – and now onto our overnight. Packing, resorting, next activity. Tomorrow we start on the bikes.

BONUS: Heather’s bruised but persevering leg!