If you were around The Island anytime after about 8 p.m. yesterday, you probably heard a bunch of excited shrieks and screams....
One of the things I used to do to initiate house guests here at The Island would be to suggest a lovely midnight paddle - you know, under the stars and moonlight. "Oh, but here, wear this headlamp so you can see where you're going," I'd suggest helpfully. Of course, fish are attracted to light, so when you're out there paddling in the dark with a headlamp, well, let's just say things get a bit exciting.... for the (mis)trusting paddler and everybody within earshot! There are some pretty good sized fish in the river, trust me, and when they're flying through the air, whizzing by your head, across the bow of your kayak or hitting your paddle - you name it - all in the dark, well, it's like a cross between dodge ball and some slightly insane amusement park ride.
We don't have as many house guests that fall for this anymore (not so many house guests period, hmmm, wonder why that is....), so I let the neighbours in on the secret a while back.
They didn't pick up on my demented motivation (or politely ignored that rather large character flaw); instead, they decided it would make a fun activity for a few families. They even made sure everyone knew up front that the fish would be attracted and would be jumping. I was sceptical of that degree of honesty, but it turns out that squeals of delight are just as appealing as squeals of fright. Who'd have known?
It was low tide, so not ideal, but what the heck, we're always up for a good splash or two, so joined in, heading into the full moon night.
Altogether, there was a small flotilla of about 7-8 boats/canoes/kayaks/singles/doubles, etc. loaded up with dogs, small kids and some of us big kids, plus the head lamps and torches. It was a lot of fun.
It was difficult to capture the images in the dark, especially while ducking & darting to avoid the jumping fish while trying to paddle at the same time, so apologies for the poor quality pics (my phone, which spent most of last night and today drying out, is fine by the way).
One of the things I used to do to initiate house guests here at The Island would be to suggest a lovely midnight paddle - you know, under the stars and moonlight. "Oh, but here, wear this headlamp so you can see where you're going," I'd suggest helpfully. Of course, fish are attracted to light, so when you're out there paddling in the dark with a headlamp, well, let's just say things get a bit exciting.... for the (mis)trusting paddler and everybody within earshot! There are some pretty good sized fish in the river, trust me, and when they're flying through the air, whizzing by your head, across the bow of your kayak or hitting your paddle - you name it - all in the dark, well, it's like a cross between dodge ball and some slightly insane amusement park ride.
We don't have as many house guests that fall for this anymore (not so many house guests period, hmmm, wonder why that is....), so I let the neighbours in on the secret a while back.
They didn't pick up on my demented motivation (or politely ignored that rather large character flaw); instead, they decided it would make a fun activity for a few families. They even made sure everyone knew up front that the fish would be attracted and would be jumping. I was sceptical of that degree of honesty, but it turns out that squeals of delight are just as appealing as squeals of fright. Who'd have known?
It was low tide, so not ideal, but what the heck, we're always up for a good splash or two, so joined in, heading into the full moon night.
Altogether, there was a small flotilla of about 7-8 boats/canoes/kayaks/singles/doubles, etc. loaded up with dogs, small kids and some of us big kids, plus the head lamps and torches. It was a lot of fun.
It was difficult to capture the images in the dark, especially while ducking & darting to avoid the jumping fish while trying to paddle at the same time, so apologies for the poor quality pics (my phone, which spent most of last night and today drying out, is fine by the way).
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