Sunday Funday
[This is one in a series of blog posts written by Charlotte the Intern. Tune in daily to find out about what she’s been up to, what she has been learning about, and all of the crazy things she does as part of the Manna from Devon team.]
When I was at university, my friends and I always talked about the “Sunday Blues”, that feeling of gloom on a Sunday evening when we all started to think about the work we had neglected all weekend, the things that we had to do in the week ahead, and our rapidly diminishing sleeping hours. I hated that pit in my stomach as I loaded up my bag and trudged to the library with a never-ending reading list ahead of me. And I always thought that was such a shame. Sunday has such potential to be a day to relax and recharge before the craziness of the week starts again, and I hated that I was never able to properly enjoy it.
Now, as a student and an intern, with several jobs in the food industry behind me, Sundays have become a working day just like any other, but somehow their distinction remains (if only in my mind). So today, after a weekend of wood fired oven cooking classes and a late lunch of dish upon dish of braised meats, we decided to take advantage of the sun and relatively still water this afternoon to do a bit of canoeing down the Dart. We’re taking back Sundays!
Other than the requisite ferry rides, I had only been out on the river once before today, and never before with the freedom that being in a canoe allowed me. We paddled out past the Dartmouth Castle, then Kingswear Castle, and into a deep, dark, cave that leads from the river into a cove at low tide, but which is too narrow when the tide is higher to traverse completely. We went into one entrance, and I could feel my eyes straining to see something, anything, in the dark, until we rounded a corner and could peer out, once again, at the sea. It was incredible. I felt like Indiana Jones!
On the way back in, we paddled past the Ugly Mermaid (I’m sure that’s not an official name?), where we saw a seal swimming about rather aimlessly. He spied us curiously for some time, no doubt hoping for a bit of a fish snack from over the side of the boat. Sadly, we had nothing to offer.
It was amazing to see the river this way, the small change of perspective revealing so much that I had previously never seen or noticed. I’m continually amazed by how much beauty there is in this place!
Happy Sunday everyone. I hope there has been nothing bluesy about it.
