A “Jolly Jape” It Was Not
24 Jan
The photo accompanying THIS news story from Lancashire in the United Kingdom speaks at least a thousand words about one of three men who attempted to paddle the flooded River Irwell recently.
A paddler in a wet-suit crouches forlornly on a bridge stanchion, hands held to his face. His over-turned inflatable canoe is caught in a tangle of debris pressed hard against the bridge by raging whitewater.
“I have never seen the River Irwell so wild. It was high and very fast flowing. No one in their right mind would have entered it,” Ady Tonge, the man in charge of the rescue, said. “Sadly, these three men foolishly thought it would be a jolly jape to paddle their canoes in it.”
Two of the paddlers scrambled to shore for safety before reaching the bridge where their companion was forced to seek refuge.
