It’s been an amazing year of Ladies paddling in 2011. We have been on adventures all over the place in all types of boats. We ended the year with our now annual Ladies Xmas Paddle.

Keeping with the theme from last year of passing castles by the river our paddle this year took us past Hampton Court Palace. We arrived at the centre early Sunday morning 18 santa hats and one Turkey hat all present and ready to paddle.

Learning from last years paddle Jan kindly produced Christmas song sheets for everyone taking part, I was supprised by the number of cheers we recieved along the route for our festive singing. Myself and Jen decided to create our own version of the 12 days of christmas, it included two wetsuit boots and a Turkey in a canoe!

On arriving at Hampton Court we took to land to test out our navigation skills in the historic Hampton Court Maze, I am happy to report we all made it to the middle and back out again.

Once we had all warmed up with a lunch and hot drinks we continued down the river towards Kingston On Thames. Along the route Jan and Maggie started some christmas shopping, from the river! This year they collected a lemon, pineapple, apple, chair, ball and many other random items you would not expect to find in the river.

It was a fantastic day with lots of fun had by all on the water. I am looking forward to the adventures of 2012 with the Ladies and Girls paddling group.