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Normally a good beginners' trip, the Crake gave us a good exercise in group management with this telegraph pole temporarily wedged across the full flow of the river. With a higher level of water, kayakers would pass over it, perhaps without even being aware of its presence. At this level, however, it would be enough to stop a boat, with a risk that a kayaker would be capsized and swept under the timber. With enough room below it, this might merely be very scary, but it's unlikely there'd be enough space to get under this one, and the force of water would tend to hold the victim in place requiring very quick and effective rescue. Far better to spot the hazard, bring the group down to an eddy one at a time, and portage a few metres round it, as we did. It is the sort of obstacle about which information circulates very quickly through the boating community and a chain at one end showed that the process of getting it removed had already been started, although I suspect that a chain saw would have been needed to finish the job.