Friday 2 August 2013

Mango Walk and other popular rounds

It is the last evening of our barge holiday and I am sitting on the little front seat writing. This is the coolest it has been all day and a breeze is blowing the trees directly above the barge at our mooring. Today the temperature was 29 degrees and rising, and I almost melted. I am such a northern hemisphere woman, this Mediterranean heat sits very uncomfortably with me. In Sussex today it was 31 degrees, so I have opted to start back home from Norfolk and not go all the way South before returning North on Saturday morning ! Not only will it be much cooler travelling north, it will cut around 400 miles off my round trip journey. Seems sensible !

The geese are calling raucously and any moment they will fly directly above us. They seem to take a perverse pleasure in doing a spot of low altitude flying along the Broads, as if they are practising to be Dambusters, and I feel myself duck incase they comb my hair with their webbed feet by accident !

The children have loved this slow and meandering break, and walk around the very narrow deck with all the skill of circus performers, and where they go, Guiness the Jack Russell follows, complete in her own life jacket with handle on the back to lift her out of any water she may fall into ( or jump into, she is very intrepid for someone so nano sized).

We have sung so many rounds on our slow travels, the most popular of which is definitely 'Mango Walk' a Caribbean ditty which I taught all my early teaching life to 11 and 12 year olds, and with whom it was equally popular. It makes little sense, but has the catchiest Calypso tune, that even W who is only 6, can almost manage a part. The sense of key is a trifle kaleidoscopic, but the jolliness and 'fun in the sun' atmosphere swirls around us!

Altogether a most successful trip I think.

'............Row Row Row your Boat, Gently down the Stream,

If you see a Crocodile, don't forget to Scream AAGH !............'

 

One must move with the times when it comes to lyrics!

Small people and a glimpse of a small dog in life jacket

 

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