Kenneth Grahame was no fool...

It never fails to amaze me that something as simple and easy to do as paddling can have such a profound effect on me; earlier, I got on the river, paddled for a bit, met a guy in an open boat taking some kids out and had a good chat about everything and anything, went up Osney Lock, paddled a bit more, came back down, talked to the lock-keeper for a while, then sat on the wash of a little cruiser back to town. I then paddled up the Cherwell up to Magdalen bridge and back in the sun, with stunning views of Oxford opening up round just about every corner.

"Is it so nice as all that?" asked the mole, shyly...

"Nice? It's the only thing," said the Water Rat Solemnly, as he leaned forward for his stroke. "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing, absolutely nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

"Simply messing about in boats, or with boats. In or out of 'em it doesn't matter. Nothing seems to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not."

Too right.