For as long as I can remember Mark and I have wanted to tour Canada and all things Canadian appeal to us, and so the dream began.

First off we bought the Tilleys, it would take too long to explain, just go to tilley.com. The next step was to get an open canoe. Wow, so many choices and what on earth are we looking for. It did become clearer though when we came across Alan Bridges website.

He was great. He took us out in a couple of different styles, assured us we had the balance needed to go for it, and having chosen the one we wanted said he could have it built in around three weeks.

Oh and what a beauty she is, the Birch Creek 16ft three seater, colour as shown. Our first trip was on the Teifi under Cilgerren Castle and up towards Lechryd, only somehow the good balance wasn't really making up for the fact that we had no knowledge of using a paddle properly. But, with the help of our son Joshua we muddled along in the bright sunshine of a wonderful midsummer's day, our wedding anniversary and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Our next go was later that evening on the Cleddau Estuary putting in at Black Tar. Suddenly I for one felt very small on this rather large and deep expanse of water. After a few hundred meters having been rocked by some fast and not too friendly cruiser wakes I was positively scared and no amount of reassurance from Mark or Josh helped. We may not have been about to drown but this was not my idea of fun, it was also extremely hard work TRYING to paddle against the tide . . .