With today’s canoe club exploits we decided to stay as dry as possible seeing as it was only few degrees above freezing most of the day. So we headed out with some Canadian canoes to Clare Glen, Co Armagh, to run down the River Cusher. The water levels were fairly low so it would have been frustrating in kayaks but it was grand for the open boats. I could probably count on the one hand how many times I’ve been out in a Canadian canoe and I’ve been on a river in one just once so I’ve a lot to learn especially when it comes to handling whitewater. We went in pairs which required a bit of teamwork and being the lighter of my pairing I was in the stern doing a lot of the steering. But it took me a while to get the hang of manoeuvring in and out of eddies. Open boating doesn’t hold usually great appeal for me, but today’s outing was just great – perfect for the weather and quite atmospheric in places with the fog clinging to the fields we drifted past, going down the weirs was good craic and I learnt a fair bit. All good!