Houseboating anyone?

In the Fin Review today, there is an article "The charms of cruising the old world", which rabbits on about the pleasures of hiring a houseboat in Europe and pottering up and down the canals.

I don't see why Europe should get all the fun when we have our own canals right here in Five Dock.

Ok, maybe they are not as picturesque as say cruising between Amsterdam and Budapest (for starters, this canal is only about a kilometre or two long) and these are more storm water drains than canals. The only thing you are likely to see floating down our local canal is a dead rat, bellyside up. Or, if the filthy locals up stream have been tossers again, an amazing amount of waterborne garbage. This canal has a litter trap at the end of it, and it's a net like something you'd find on the back of a prawn trawler. After a good dump of rain, the net is chockers full of garbage. Chip packets, cigarette packets, coke cans etc. It takes a fair sized truck to haul away all the junk that collects in a day or two.

It says something about the risk averseness of our youth these days that I am yet to see any kids trying to paddle up and down it in some sort of homemade conveyance. Something like a couple of sheet of corrugated iron lashed together with baling twine, with a few picket fence posts as oars. How are kids supposed to gather a decent collection of scars if they aren't willing to fiddle around with bits of sharp, rusty garbage?

Mark Twain must be spinning in his grave. Do you think for a moment that the current generation is going to spit out any Huckleberry Finn's?