At long last after the usual technological difficulties associated with age, here is a link to a YouTube video slide show of our trip. Enjoy!

Kendal to London The Movie

 

Thanks for all your support.  It meant so much to us. 

 

Still not too late to donate if you would like to. Here is the link 

 

My Donate  

Job Done

Three weary paddlers passed under Tower Bridge at 12.30 pm today to be greeted by a surprisingly large and enthusiastic welcoming committee.  4 foot waves under Tower Bridge gave us some fears that the finish could have been more dramatic than planned but all was well.  The paddle up through central London was all we could have hoped for.  What a fabulous opportunity to view London from such a vantage point. The boats are on the trailer and a suitable quantity of beer is inside the paddlers. We are now making our way home by more conventioal means. We have some wonderful pictures to share and will endeavour to add them over the coming days.

Day 15

A long day today 27 miles and the current was much less than recent days. Started in Windsor and paddled past Liz's house on the hill and finished at Teddington Lock, the end of the non-tidal Thames ready for our final run to Tower Bridge on tomorrow's early high tide.  We expect to leave at 8.15 am and with the tide we should pass Tower Bridge at lunchtime.

You may be surprised to hear that your three heroes were all pulled today by a lovely lady called Becky.  You can see her in the lock with us in the picture above.  Becky is a beautifully restored Dutch barge and was travelling at just our speed.  By sitting on her wake we were pulled along like dolphins on a bow wave.  We made great progress for many miles with very little effort.  I call that exploitation of good fortune not cheating!

If you zoom into the picture above you will see that the purpose of our exploits has nothing to do with kayaking to London.  It has been simply an excuse for David to avoiud shaving for as couple of weeks!

Day 14

Wonderful day cruising down the river,Henley,Marlow, Cookham and ending the day at Windsor where we spent the night on the driveway of Ian (David's nephew) and Alexandra. Ian paddled the last 7 miles from Cookham. Another youngster having trouble keeping up!  River flow dropping now but still very little traffic yesterday. Great fun comparing the fabulous properties by the river. Today is a long 27 mile paddle to Teddington so we hope the river flow does not drop too much

Day 13

A record distance in a record time on the fast flowing Thames.  Very few boats around so we had the river to ourselves apart from the rowers of Oxford University out in force.  The locks on the Thames are all manned and after 300 miles on the English canals we were astonished that a chap would rush out at our approach and operate his massive lock to allow 3 weary paddlers to pass.
We were greated at Reading by Peter Wolesley, the man who did this trip some years ago aged seventy.  It was his story in the press that inspired our adventure.  Peter kindly bought us tea and cakes by the river which was most welcome.  Enjoyed our chat and note comparing.

So how do we pass the time?

There have been a number of questions from friends (so called) and family recently about what wre are doing to pass the time. Well it is really simple - paddling, eating and sleeping. We paddle for 6 to 7 hours a day. Ian collects us and drives us to a camp site where we shower, consume an enormous meal and are usually abed by 9. So that's it - no pubs, discos or nights on the town. This was illustrated well the other day when we finished work for the day right next to a pub which was showing the England Poland match. David consumed a pint, a packet of peanuts and promptly fell asleep. The other boys watched the football but all agreed that their time would have been better spent following David's example!

Day 11 & 12

No we have not sunk without trace just had no wifi and for some reason my phone refused to connect to the internet. Well we are very much on the home leg now. Yesterday and this morning we were on our last canal the Oxford Canal through Morse Country. All very pleasant. At lunchtime today  everything changed. We reached the Thames at Othe Isis Lock in Oxford. The river is in flood and canal boats are barred.  We did our last seven miles in an hour! It really does look like its all downhill now! Just to catch up on the kingfisher count 3 yesterday and ine today.