Strange People

And one day James and Nathan stopped at a village. The village was deep in the Loire valley. The village was comprised of a few houses, a church, a café and a tourist information centre alongside an otherwise deserted stretch of the Loire.

The villagers were shocked when James and Nathan arrived. Handsome strangers, by now the two were tanned, had thick moustaches and bulging biceps.

However it was not their Herculean looks that shocked the villagers. The villagers heard James and Nathan speak a strange language. Although some of the words may have began life in a French dictionary, every sentence seemed to finish with the word 'mate'. Further the villagers saw that the strangers carried their paddles everywhere and seemed to have named them - as well as their biceps.

The villagers saw the strangers march straight to the tourist information centre. However, they did not stay in the village long. Rather the villagers saw James make frantic use of the WiFi apparently trying to contact somethings or persons called first Cathy and then Facebook. Meanwhile, Nathan made straight for the toilets and returned from the sink carrying several litres of tap water as if it was holy.

Having replenished themselves, the strangers were next seen to eat what appeared to be jam and something called peanut between two slices of bread - despite the adjacent café. The owner of the café swore that James had also asked for the local beer, despite the Loire valley being world famous for wine and the fact that vineyards were evident for miles about.

To this day the villagers do not know what to make of these strange visitors canoeing up the river. Nevertheless the villagers wished the strangers Bon voyage and nodded and smiled when Nathan appeared to reply that they were going to sea a dead Turkey.