Standing in a river

Yesterday, as I mentioned two days ago, I went on a school geography trip to a river, and I just thought that although it isn't particularly interesting, I'd write about it anyway!

I won't go into too much detail about the boring work side of things, because believe me, nobody wants to know about that, nor do I want to relive it. What the trip entailed was going into rivers (in wellies) and measuring certain factors about it, such as the width, depth, velocity and load size. It also entailed getting very very cold, and in some cases, very very wet.

The first group to go in the water and demonstrate how all of the equipment is to be used properly, were obviously very apprehensive. To go into a river, watched by all of your peers must be a little nerving, especially when most of these teenagers hadn't worn wellies since they were five and had flashing lights and played music. I think that my favourite quote of the day came from this group - "Is it wet in there?" - well... it is a river you know!

But then after laughing at all of them, it was our turn. I had already been told by the students who went on the trip the day before how cold you get, so I was well armed with multiple layers of fluffy socks underneath my dotty wellies. It was quite an odd feeling to be honest, going into the river and feeling all of the water around your feet, feeling it pressing against you and the current attempting to move you, but to not be bothered by it at all (the water wasn't very deep).

We obviously had work to do, so couldn't stand there musing for too long, especially as it was quite a chilly day. By the end of it, my feet were actually ok, fluffy socks are a savoir, but my hands were absolutely freezing from having to pick rocks up off the floor of the bed. However, I did think that the bright red of my fingers brought out the pink in my new nail polish very well!

We had to measure three parts of the river, each one becoming deeper each time, until the water line was worryingly close to the top of my wellies, and I had already soaked myself through walking, so movement had to be done cautiously. One boys wellies were so short he had been completely swamped and was basically just going for a paddle as appose to a serious geography experiment.

By the end of the day, the sun had come out and it was actually really beautiful, the third location in particular. We did realise just as we were leaving that we had just invaded a golf course - perhaps the reason for why it was so beautiful.

It did take all evening and a hot bath for the feeling to completely return to my fingers, but my toes were fine all day. Just as well really, because my friend used all of the spare socks that I brought to throw at people on the bus journey home!

See you soon!