Things I once thought

I Once Thought Mar 6, 2013

Just watching a documentary on the Murray River paddle-steamers prompted me to remember something. Something that – at the time – seemed perfectly logical, but now I smile and nod wisely. To myself.

I was about 10 or 12 and it is the first in my list of Things I Once Thought.

#1 The Murray River must flow downhill

Looking at the map of Victoria, with the Murray defining the topmost border, it clearly would have to run downhill, that is from left to right as you look at it. I mean check it out yourself :

It’s obvious – to a 10 year old budding scientist – that the slope is falling away from left to right. As in (somehow) it’s a profile view (I hadn’t thought that bit through). So it followed the mighty river flowed from Mildura towards Echuca.

It was a genuine shock to discover it goes the other way.

# 2 There are no waves at the surf beaches in Winter

We hardly went to the beach at all. If we did, it was in Summer. Somehow, by a pre-teen exercise in Boolean logic, I deduced there were therefore no waves in Winter. I can sort of see where I was going. Sort of.