Oooh missus it's freezing!

Hey groovers, just time for a quick update on our second training session - another lake-orientated-affair on Windermere. The whole team attended except Mike, who chickened out to attend his brother's wedding (a poor excuse, we thought) and Kevin who was in an exotic and far flung realm.

When we arrived at the lake, the whole business of getting the boats and ourselves ready was notably slicker than it had been the last time. I'd like to put this down to increasing team competence, but the real reason is likely to be that it was so cold.

Nigel Dykes from the University of Cumbria kindly joined us on the water and took us through some rescue moves. This mostly involved Tom jumping gamely into the water over and over again while Nigel used him as a model to demonstrate the different ways of entering your boat if you become parted from it in deep water. We then had a good old paddle, with Tom looking decidedly chilly before stopping for lunch. Stupidly, Ian and I decided to try some rolling practise before lunch and we therefore ate our soreen loaf in a near-hypothermic state!

After lunch and a beer-belly-reducing (I hope!) paddle back up the lake, we all agreed that we should try some of our new rescue moves. This started well, with us forming pairs consisting of a rescuer and a rescuee. Alas, the water was defying the laws of physics, being still liquid and yet about -15 degrees, so the whole thing got a bit out of hand. The details are too embarrassing to tell, but suffice it to say that Wendy needs to find a more ergonomic boat re-entry position and I need to learn not to squeal like a small girl when being plunged into Baltic waters :-)

Next practise session is on Satuday 5th April and this one is on the sea! About 20 miles worth too... Gosh, better stock up on pies...

Meet the Paddlers....

No heroic exploit is complete without some, erm, heroes. Sadly, they are in short supply these days having mostly been maimed by dragons in earlier times. As such, we've gone for ordinary(ish!) humans instead and here they are!

Back row (L-R):

Mark - Known for lurking around photocopiers in search of adventure, Mark is currently digging a trench from Newton Rigg Campus to the Solway Firth. When we told him that a key reason for the Challenge was to symbollically link University of Cumbria campuses, he took it all a bit literally :-)

Wendy - Leading donkey-whisperer and luminary of Carlisle Canoe Club. She's a great white water paddler and therefore posesses the nearest thing to expertise we can manage

Ian - Lecturer at the School of Forestry, but (strangely) can't tell the difference between a sycamore and a monkey-puzzle. Must be some sort of front. Ian's collection of outdoor sports equipment would fill a very large room and, in fact, it does!

Mike - Hat designer to the Stars, Mike's first love is wandering the motorways of England by lamp-light. Apparently he likes looking in the drains best. We worry.

Andy - Better known for reclining beneath motorcycles, Andy prefers soreen loaf to vitamins and has made a lifelong study of world pies. He's the only Southpaw in the group and is famous in the fleshpots of Burkina Faso.

Kevin - As you can see from the picture, Kevin is the only member of the group to have a paddle. The rest of us use teaspoons. Kevin is an Ethnomusicologist, but I'm afraid that I've no idea what this means and it isn't on Wikipedia.

Front row (L-R):

Tom - Another Forestry dude, Tom prefers Bhutan to areas that are more traditionally known for their forests. When not leaping into cold lakes, Tom scours the world for rare and exotic ingredients for his own range of high-end shampoos.

Jasper - Our squadron-leader from a sea kayaking point of view, Jasper is the only one of us who can navigate at sea - which might be useful. When not paddling, Jasper likes to go sailing and when not sailing, he likes to paddle.