The
speeches went on and on while even those who had paid to sit in the stands
must have been ready to drown the next one to approach the microphone.
Finally they were done and
720+ oars were raised in unison a cry went up and they took off up river
en-masse.
There
they waited for their heats to be called.
On 30 + boats rode crews of 22.
Mostly all male some all female and a few mixed. One man on
the bow another on the stern and in between twelve seated two abreast and
eight standing,
They're
Off!
Two by two they raced downstream
then paddled back for their next contest.
Meanwhile we sat on the river
bank with our feet almost in the water and fervently hoped the crush of
people behind us wouldn't knock us in as the excitement mounted.
My
favourite crew.
For one thing they were all women, but mostly
because with their black tee's and red head scarves they really stood our
amongst the paler colours and baseball caps of the opposition.
