Rowing the length of the freshwater Thames from Lechlade in Gloucestershire to Teddington in Middlesex and then to add 2 days of upstream at the end from Teddington to Cookham in Berkshire makes this into a 10 day challenge. Robin Hope and his hand picked crew (mainly in their 60's) will be doing this in June in a 1895 double skiff 'Tara'.

It would be misleading to state there will be no pleasure on the trip but there will be days of rain and headwinds particularly if 2009 summer has any resemblance to the so called 2008 summer! Each day we would hope to be on the water no later than 10.00 and hopefully finishing about 6.30pm. Ideally there should be a crew of 3 or 4, 2 rowing and 1 coxing with rotation of duties at locks. It is hoped for the pleasure of a day or 2 on the river crew members will take a sponsor sheet round their friends. In boating circles a lock is about equivalent to a mile so it could be argued we will be doing 152 miles + 54 locks (54 miles) i.e.206 miles in all.

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