A fish called....Jorgia

Sunday afternoon after Kieran's football I thought it would be a nice idea to visit the Bartels family. They have a great creek running along one side of their property which is nice and close to the house but during the time that they have lived there it hasn't really been running very much. Just a few puddles and a trickle. Of course with the recent rain the creek has been running really well and I had promised the kids that I would take them up to see it and have a bit of a play.

When I was growing up we had a creek at the bottom of the paddock near our house and Adam and I and our friends used to spend hours down there building bridges, racing boats made out of leaves and wading around having a great time. Of course I have told my kids about all the fun I had and they were excited about doing the same in the Bartels' creek.

So we arrived and I decided I might take some nice creek photos of the kids sailing boats etc etc. The creek had two larger deeper parts on either side of a bridge the kids had made and Tamara commented to me that the left side wasn't that deep but that the right side downstream of the bridge was quite deep and she didn't think that the girls would be able to touch the bottom.

Anyway, the kids were having a great time. Hannah and Molly were sailing a boat that Molly had built earlier in the day and Jorgia was sailing a boat made from a leaf or bit of bark. After supervising very closely Tamara and I were about 10 metres away chatting when I heard Hannah and Jorgia having a bit of an argument about a stick that Jorgia had. I was just about to tell Jorgia to get away from the edge and stop leaning in when.....splash in she went!! Of course into the deep side!

Well Tamara and I ran over to the edge expecting not to see anything but bubbles and prepared to have to jump in to save her (Tamara was a little more prepared than me, I was still taking my camera off from around my neck). There she was with her little head above water doggy paddling about and managed to get over to the edge where we hauled her out! She was very calm and sensible until she realised that she "nearly drownded" and burst into tears sure that the other kids were going to be cross with her because she had "wrecked up their game". Everyone was very concerned and we got her to the back door, tipped out her gum boots and got all her wet things off and a warm towel around her.

After about half an hour of thawing and stress-counselling she was ready to go again but that was the end of the creek activities for the day.

Just shows you how easy it is for a tragedy to happen. While we can laugh about it now it could have been a disaster. I am glad that we have a swimming pool and that she has learned not to panic when she can't touch the bottom - that was a huge factor in her being able to get herself out of trouble!

Anyway before all that drama I did manage to get a couple of nice photos. On our way up to the house from the creek Tamara called out to Nigel and told him that Jorgia had fallen in to which he replied "Did you get any photos?" (of course he was kidding!)