As we turned into Sg Bayor, looking at its wide nipah palms line banks and clean water, we knew that the morning was looking up as it was just the two of us on this peaceful river. The overcast skies turned out to be a blessing and along with the morning breeze and the gentle flow of the river; it was ideal paddling conditions which could not get any better than this. This sure beats the crowded golf course or the tennis courts on a weekend morning anytime. And as our kayaks glides silently across the water, we wondered why no one else is doing what we were doing; and we felt privileged while I silently muttered gratitude and thanks. I am again uplifted.

After a while the sun broke through the clouds and Joe hurriedly slapped on his sun block while I reached for my camera to capture the changing light conditions. In an amazing transformation, the sky was suddenly revealed in pure deep blues beautifully contrasted by the now ‘cotton-soft’ white clouds. I took shots after shots intoxicated by the sheer brilliance and majestic beauty of this simple composition of water, sky and trees bathed in the clear morning light.

We paddled past a small village, startling the villages who had never expected any kayakers on their river. And every bend of the river held some small surprises from a tree with overhanging bowling ball size fruits to a small clearing for a burial plot out in the middle of nowhere. We came across an old man with his sons fishing in the middle of the river and he proudly showed us his catch of a ‘lobster prawn’. After paddling for 2 hours with the occasional interruptions from calls to Joe’s hand phone (yeah, unfortunately you can never get away from 'em unless u turn 'em off) we decided to turn back. We picked up pace as the now nearly noon sun start beating fiercely down on us. It dawned on me that to someone reading this thousands of miles away from the equator, freezing and waiting impatiently for spring's arrival , this must seem so unreal and if not for the photos would be forgiven to think that the all these must be the vivid but mad imaginations of some really overworked architect in his flights of fantasy!

It was nearly a four hours paddle covering over 17 kms and as we plopped ourselves in my car, almost exhausted but completely exhilarated, the only expression on our burnished but not quite sun burnt faces was a big smile! Life is sweet.

7th January 2006

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