Gig in a pig!

This time of the year, most calm mornings, if you gaze out across the Fowey estuary, you will see these amazing rowing boats, with crews of 6 and a cox man and perhaps a seagull, (that is an extra  person on board, not the bird.) They are called GIG boats, and "gigging" is a fabulously important and grand tradition in Cornwall. 

Seeing that Dino and I have been rowing for years in Venice, I had assumed that this kind of rowing would be a breeze, I was definitely in for a surprise. After 20 minutes of rowing I was aching all over. Who knew that it would be so intense. The grannies had us beat!

We are part of the social rowers, we meet up once a week, and row for about an hour. The good rowers, or should I say, the competitive ones, go out often, and they look terribly elegant, gliding along the surface of the river, all in perfect timing.

On the other hand, when we go out, we are regularly out of sync, we stop quite often (due the new ones getting tired, that's us) and we particularly look forward to the social rows that end up at Golants Pub by for quick drink. 

Cannot wait for the end of March, when day light saving begins, we will row on Friday evenings at about 7pm... Talk about a great way to start the weekend. 

By the way, gig in a pig, means that the boat is made of plastic, and not built in beautiful Cornish leaf elm.