A picture I painted from a photo taken on a sea kayaking holiday on the West Coast . Why have I posted this ?  I was really sad to hear that Tony Benn the politician died today. He was a man of real conviction who gave up a peerage in order to stand as an M.P. . He was  always entertaining to listen to on Radio 4 especially on "Any Questions?" even if one didn't always agree with everything he said. Anyway my only connection with him was landing in his garden with my Dad in our Canadian canoe about 35 years ago.  It was one of the great adventures of my childhood .It was just like one of the stories I loved reading at the time ( many in books with thick yellowing pages  and fascinating line illustrations from my Dad's schooldays) . We canoed from our home town to the mysterious Osea Island in the Blackwater estuary, camped on the beach , cooked over a driftwood fire and slept under the stars.It all went perfectly well until we attempted to return ; it proved impossible to paddle into the strong headwind that had developed . Instead we were forced to canoe towards the open sea but made landfall at Stansgate Abbey an isolated house and home of Tony Benn.The great man was not in but his housekeeper allowed us to use the telephone to get my Mum to come and pick us up.
 In retrospect we were  lucky not to have got into difficulties .The estuary was very rough, not a good place to be in in an open boat. For me though it was a formative experience- my father with his tales of canoeing expeditions and cycling exploits from his youth and trips such as this , instilled in me a sense of adventure that  has lead me to spend an awful lot of my free time as an adult exploring the mountains of Scotland and abroad.  Thanks Dad.