Adventures in DW Land

Around 9:30 on Saturday, Mick, Beth, Shobhanaa & Sarah set of to have an adventure in DW Land, that twilight zone set in the triangle between Real World, Dream Land & Paddlers Place. It's inhabited by 2 creatures in the main, Paddlers & Supporters. The others are Officials, Spectators & General Public. This year we were to be Spectators.
Although it falls in the same geographical region as GMT (or BST) it exists in a time zone of its own, Race Time controlled not by sun, but moon. High tide at Teddington is the critical zero hour whatever Real Time might be. Although "The Schedule" has its own chronology, in retrospect events do not fit into sequences, but occur in a random order. As a result, the following posts relating to DW will follow no obvious pattern.



The places in DW can be arranged in a Geographical sequence & are sampled in this first post.
The Start in a car park in Devizes is a place of controlled terror, anticipation, excitement or boredom depending which kind of inhabitant you are. Only General Public are bored & some of them turn into Spectators after a while & forget to be bored. Reminiscence fills the air, particularly amongst non Paddlers. Ex-paddlers suffer from this the worst.



Canal in the Twilight is another significant venue. If life has seemed easy for Supporters so far, all that is about to change. It is never easy for Paddlers!


Early Morning Thames is the most beautiful place in DW Land, for "sensitive" Spectators & Supporters. For the less sensitive it is just bitterly cold. When I was a Paddler, it seemed both things. It's almost worth being a Paddler again just to experience that feeling. Almost ...
There are few Spectators & no General Public in this region.

Teddington is inhabited by all species. It is a place of interest, excitement & anticipation for all except Paddlers. For them it is just a place of pain. It is the start of that daunting expanse - The Tideway. Anecdotal evidence tells of many varied monsters that swallow Paddlers whole - Big Waves, Strong Currents, High Winds, Sandbanks, Numb-Bum & worst, the dreaded Pleasure Craft! Many General Public are converted to Spectators here. Some even speculate on being a Paddler ... briefly.

The Finish is located in the City of Westminster in the shadow of Big Ben. A place of hopes & fears, laughter & tears. Here, one battle ends & another begins. Getting home awake is the main struggle for all species except General Public. Here, General Public outnumbers all other species especialy as the climate becomes warmer.

For more about our random adventures in this strange land, look out for the posts with DW in their title or labels.