On July 23 and 24 my friend Leslie and I went on a weekend adventure:
a learn-how-to-kayak weekend on the Ottawa River. We had a great
time, combining sports and relaxation on a weekend away from the
city.
As you know, wherever I am, I keep my eyes open for interesting
travel-related story ideas, and one story idea decidedly hit me
right in the face when we started socializing with the other weekend
vacationers. There was a group of 36 people who had all come on
a bus from Toronto to go rafting for the weekend, and the trip was
organized by a company called Meet Market Adventures.
Their website says that Meet Market Adventures promotes singles
travel in Canada & the United States for busy singles seeking
adventurous singles travel vacations in Canada & the United
States. Apparently you can choose from over 30 adventures for every
interest in any month and enjoy the great outdoors with hiking,
biking, sky diving, skiing and lots of other activities.
At breakfast on Saturday morning we got to know a few people from
the group and they told us that this singles travel company organizes
everything from after-work get-togethers in local bars to one or
two-day weekend getaways, to week-long cruises and other outings.
Well, I am solidly married woman, so I am not personally concerned
about finding a mate, but I have lots of single female friends who
are experiencing varying degrees of frustration with the dating
world and have tried everything from online dating sites like Lava
Life, to speed dating services, to more personalized match-making
services, with decidedly mixed success.
During the past weekend the hobby behavioural scientist in me made
an appearance and I tried to study the dynamics of this group as
much as possible. Friday night was a very rowdy night on the campground
and I can only conclude that this group (probably the largest group
on the campground) as well as some other smaller groups took advantage
of a weekend away from home and really let loose. There was lots
of hollering, loud music, obviously plenty of drinking, and from
the sounds of it, people had a pretty entertaining time.
Saturday was the first day of rafting for these groups and since
we went kayaking instead of rafting, we didn’t have any interactions
with the singles group during the day. In the evening we headed
down to a dock by the river front and bumped into 6 members of the
group: 4 males and 2 females who were chatting in a very orderly
way and taking in the sunset. Everybody was very friendly and the
ladies including us said goodbye after about half an hour to head
back to the campgrounds.
We had a nice chat with one of the ladies from the singles travel
group who said that she has participated in several major adventure
events organized by Meet Market Adventures and she quite enjoyed
them, although her dating results to date have been mixed.
Once back at the campground we briefly joined our white water kayaking
colleagues at the campfire on the top campground, designated for
"quiet campers". Here totally opposite dynamics were at
play: these were 2 couples who had been together for 5 and 8 years
respectively, and one of the couples just recently found out that
they are expecting a baby. Definitely no mating help needed here...
After about 10 pm we joined Krista’s "poise" performance
on the middle campground which was the home base of the Meet Market
travel group. Krista delivered 4 performances of poise, a martial
art used by the Maori people that involves two wires with a wick
at the end that is set on fire. It was an awesome performance, and
the guys in particular seemed to enjoy it since Krista is not only
talented, she’s also a very cute-looking young woman.
As the evening went on, one of the single travellers declared himself
the "leader of the tribe" and proceeded to play the bongo
drums that had accompanied Krista’s performance earlier. He certainly
had an interesting concept of rhytthm and style. He also delivered
a graceful dance around the campfire in a towel and for some reason
kept referring to my friend Leslie and me either as "the kayak
girls" or "the sacrificial virgins" (yeah right..),
but overall the tribal leader turned out to be a lot less obnoxious
than he initially seemed to be. I was wondering who was actually
going to get voted off the campground by the end of the night....;)
My friend and I had a great time socializing with a few people
from this group, jokes were flying the whole evening, we even went
down to the 3rd campground level (designated specifically for noisy
campers...) where the local residents had the biggest bonfire on
the go that you can imagine. It was one of those evenings where
you just feel giddy and laugh your head off, both Leslie and I unaided
by alcohol since neither one of us actually drinks. Mind-altering
drugs weren’t necessary, since this was an evening of pure unadulterated,
spontaneous and harmless fun.
Overall the single travellers seemed to have a great time. There
definitely seemed to be more group socializing going on than individual
mating attempts, and overall it seemed to be a pretty respectable
way of connecting with other like-minded human beings, male or female
for that matter.
Leslie and I headed to bed at around 1 am, but many in the crowd
were still going strong. The next morning the group had another
day of rafting scheduled and some people had been on the go until
6 am, when the cows made their wake-up calls and daily inspection
and paddie-dropping run through the campgrounds. There were a few
bed-heads and red eyes in the crowd and I didn’t envy these folks
for having to go rafting on whitewater for the whole day after a
night of hearty partying.
The crowd returned at about 2 pm, and there were even more tired
faces in the group. They were safely packed into their bus, ready
to go home to Toronto, until next time. All I can say is that an
adventure outing for a group of single adventure travellers seems
like a pretty decent alternative for people who want to make friends
with shared interests. Whether it is a good mating venue only time
will tell...
About the Author:
Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and
Transitions (http://www.travelandtransitions.com). Find unconventional
travel information, cross-cultural experiences, interviews with
travellers and other inspiring people. Submit your own travel stories
& win an exciting Amazon River cruise! "Life is a Journey
- Explore New Horizons”
Read more articles by: Susanne
Pacher
Article Source: www.iSnare.com
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