"Canoe Trip" #4

I looked around to find Alex lying on his back, with his hands behind his head and legs akimbo; resting his feet on either end of the paddle that was laid crossways on the canoe. I had to laugh. It would have made a good drawing, and I wasn’t sure if I should have been drawing him instead. But it was a shame that in the excitement of the moment I forgot to take a photograph.

A couple of young boys, with nothing better to do than to satisfy their curiosity, paddled out in a canoe to see what we were up to. Alex seized the opportunity and asked them to position themselves so I could include them in the drawing. I wanted to capture the dramatic, head on perspective of the canoe as it came towards us, but we drifted and the moment passed, so I had to settle for a side on view that allowed me to add some detail to the boys, but I was disappointed at missing the opportunity of a more dynamic composition. My energy was all but used up, and as concentration levels fell I realised how stiff my back and shoulders were. One cheek of my rear end had gone completely numb. I put down the pencil and pad, lifted and rolled my shoulders, stretched out my back, and stretched out my legs. I was done. When we got ashore, as we hauled the canoe up the beach something gave way in my lower back, and a deep spasm of pain ran close to the spine on the left side. I pretended to lift but my strength was gone. A fisherman came to help. I straighten up, but knew something was wrong. ‘It isn’t that bad, just give it a few days and you’ll be fine’, I said to myself reassuringly, as I walked stiffly up the beach and sat down on the sand to recover from the shock.