DRAGON LADIES

Well, there are Maiden Voyages and Maidens Voyaging and today I managed both! At the end of Salmon Arm wharf are a collection of boats. These are not your usual power boats with the go-fast engines but fiberglass open boats which are called Dragon Boats. They could be loosely described as long, rather flat bottomed canoes without the turned up ends.

They are Chinese basically and appear to be paddled in every corner of the world although I can't say I have ever seen them in the West of Scotland.

I went out in one this morning. The group were of 'Seniors' age, mostly women, and Barbara sat at the front with a drum the size of a whisky barrel. The canoes seat 20 (I think). As I have no photos I cobbled together this photo I took in Vancouver 2 weeks ago. The bow and decoration are mine!

I absolutely loved it! The lake was calm in the early morning; it never gets much wind at the best of times. We paddled for 30 minutes over to Sandy Point, went ashore for a swim and some donuts then paddled back again. I am pleased to report that the lake is still warm and being fresh water has a completely different feel from the sea.... silky and slippery. (What was missing, of course, was the shore sounds of the salt chuck.)

Sitting at the front Barbara kept the beat and the pace was fairly brisk the whole time. We occasionally divided for half rest and half paddle. A couple of times I suggested in an aside that we sing but my mate Diane basically said "I can't sing" and nothing developed. (A built-in rhythm section and no music - weird!)

I was unaware of the association of dragon racing, as done by the ladies, to the campaign for raising money for breast cancer. While there are many teams of women who get together in this way there is one special team and they are breast cancer survivors.


So being short of photos of my day, here is a graphic representation which relates to the Dragon Ladies of the Lake!