N2W Northamptonshire to Wales

Friday 19th February A Bridge Too Far

2010-02-22T04:24:00.000-08:00

The last and final leg....

Boats were loaded in Purton, on the muddy banks of the River Severn. We fought the oncoming tide for 2 miles with heavy winds and huge waves it seemed like we were paddling the big wide ocean. After tackling the tides it turned around and we were paddling with the sea on our side. Once the tide changed we were zooming down the river picking up speeds up to 9mph, however our arms could have told a different story! Our first bridge was in site, this was our first and last stop off point for a quick bite to eat. At this point we could see our finishing line that we had longed to see for a long and grueling 6 days. The last 3 miles to the finish line seemed like a life time, as we approached the second bridge we could see Laurianne and Lee with a celebratory bottle of bubbly!

We would like to thank everybody for all your efforts and support through out our journey. Thank you to all those who have sponsored us and kindly given donations.

once again a massive thank you from the Longtown team we couldnt have done it with out you!

The Team: MIke, Lee, Ewan, Rae, Tom, Alice, Pete, Laurianne and Cindy

Friday 12th February 5th day

2010-02-17T12:37:00.000-08:00

Last day of the week the team ventured into Tewkesbury in search of a cafe for a fried breakfast and a coffee.

From Gloucester docks Ewan, Alice,Tom and Rae made their 8 mile journey on the canal heading towards their final stop off point, not much to see but lots of ice on the water to battle through.

Lee and Laurianne once again canoed from where we finished to end the day and the week, this was a short day as we managed to rack up our predicted mileage.

The Longtown team headed off home to prepare for a very busy week ahead.

Our last day will be Friday the 19th paddling on the river Severn to Chepstow which will see the team completing there mamouth journey of 150 miles from Northampton to Wales!

Wish us luck!

thursday 11th february day 4

2010-02-17T12:08:00.000-08:00

After a mean cooked breakfast the team were ready for the long day ahead (again)!

Ewan,Tom and Alice the kayak squad took off in the morning to conquered a grueling stretch of the river Avon- 12 miles in total!

Whilst they did that the second half of the team MIke and Laurianne (canoe squad) paddled a shorter but still intense 7 and a half miles.

Taking it for the team Pete, Lee and Rae sat waiting for us, keeping the mini bus warm and drinking coffee!

Pete wasnt well and unable to paddle any part of the day and Rae injured her wrist from paddling hard through the trees Tuesday! The Longtown team managed to break there 2 new comers (mission complete!)

On the kayak stretch the 3 warriors were blocked by weirs but were not defeated they took up there lines and managed to paddle hard through small gaps made by boulders and stoppers!

After the team met for lunch Mike and Ewan and there sea kayaks paddled a further 8 and a half miles, whilst Alice and Tom the kayak thunderbirds joined Lee and Laurianne the canoe sloths to finish the day in Gloucester whilst the sun was setting.

Arriving in our luxury sheds, the team had a hot shower before scooting off to the pub for a well deserved drink. After a delicious meal the team decided to join in with the local pub quiz which ended in a result of us coming 8th out of 8 teams ( we always see the glass half full).

Good night from the team :)

Wednesday 10th - Day 3 - The weir(d) day.

2010-02-10T13:27:00.000-08:00

77 miles down - 73 miles to go (more than half way. Woohoo!)

Today the Kayakers set off first through the lovely Charlecote Park. The weather was in our favour with lots of glorious sunshine. After portaging (carrying our boat around) a deadly weir we set off towards the famous town of Stratford upon Avon, underneath the old Toll bridge and passed the enourmous RSC theatre and some equally big houses. Three really fun weirs followed which boosted the team morale along with lots of singing and lateral thinking games. We met up with the minibus at Binton bridge and passed the baton on to the Canoe team....
Lottie, Pete and Lee started the first leg of our journey in glorious sunshine and a stiff, cold wind behind us. This leg went smoothly and quickly with an enjoyable saunter down the river. It snow again and Pete canoed down his first weir of the day - while Lottie and Lee giggling from the sidelines. On route we had a brief lunch stop in a draughty half standing fishing shack! Next was the team's first propper weir; this was a white knuckle ride for some team members (Lottie was in crash position at least 50 yards before getting to the weir!) Then Lee decieded not to tell Lottie about any up and coming weirs, just in case she swam to the shore and abandon us. Further weir descents were enjoyed and full of hilarity before, during and after. Somehow Lottie would end wetter than anyone else - clever Lee always sat at the back Ha Ha!
A fantastic next section followed for the day's kayak warriors - some excellent weirs, swirling snow, a black swan and some kayak skills in a beautiful, memorable section ending below Fladbury Weir. Alice and Tom's confidence grew massively as they tackled the wild waters of the big weirs. A great day.
Reunited with the team it was back in the bus for the journey to Stratford Youth Hostel, a fine meal cooked by Ewan and a chance to nurse the aches and pains in a steaming shower.

Tuesday 9th February, AVON EPIC! Day 2

2010-02-10T12:57:00.000-08:00

47 miles completed, 103 to go.

The true stoics (Rae and Mike) bivvied out in the true spirit of the adventure and woke up to find a dusting of snow on the ground. After another fine breakfast at the Keech's we were off.......The day started early with the team on the canal by 8.45 am. There was ice in places and some people felt a little achy but the main diversion was Pete's impressive dive in at the end of the 1st leg (he claims he was surfing the boat!).
After the usual rendezvous issues team and minibus were re-united and a smaller contingent set off down the River Avon (resembling a ditch). This section saw the team slaloming through shopping trolleys, traffic cones, lap top bags and limboing under trees. A few small weirs and some tight bends made this an entertaining section. Ewan and Rae kindly waited by a very low bridge that was completely blocked by debris to warn us before we handed over the baton to the next team.
Thinking the river was going to get wider and deeper after the ford we set off only to discover more trees including some river wide blocks that we had to negotiate. (The art of tree climbing in Kayaks has been invented.)Then we handed the baton to the canoeists...
We started off with a death defying six foot vertical drop down the bank and into our canoes, luckily we all landed in our seats and survived. Our paddle journey was superb and picturesque, canoeing whilst the sun is setting always seems like a good idea. Our journey involved lots of bridges and wildlife, but the best bit was finishing at a lovely pub with a roaring fire and sampling the local hospitallity. Meanwhile the kayak team were.....setting off into the jungle once more - or at least it felt that way. The river went through many wooded areas and then opened out just enough to fool us into thinking we could get through. Many trees were climbed over and freezers bypassed before the long walk out in the dark meant we finally found mike and the minibus at 7.00.
The day ended with a gorgeous curry and by 10pm most of the team were in bed tired from their long paddles.

Monday 8th February 2010 - Day 1

2010-02-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

The night before:
The snorers slept well (Ewan, Rae, Mike) everyone else had a little sleep!
We have a team mascot; her name is Cindy Summers she is a 12 inch cute bear in purple. She is keeping Ewan awake with an occasional head bash.
Morning came:
A breakfast for champions from the Keech family in Long Buckby.
We all arrive in good spirit at County Hall, Northampton and started to unload and get ready for the journey with friends. Soon all our faithful supporters turned up on a very cold and snowy canalside. Mike, Ewan & Rae gave an interview with the local press and the Paddle team posed for photos; including our friends from Northampton Hope Centre - Steffen, Barry, Rhys & Katie (Tom fancies- sshhh it's a secret). We had superb support from our County council colleagues and Kingsthorpe Community College students and our very good friend Mr Keech. A big Thank you to you all !
Our supporters were very keen to send us off on our way (Wimps - they were getting cold) After a few smiley poses we were on our journey back to Wales!
The paddle journey involved good conversation, terrible singing and warm hearted belly laughter. First competition - Boys vs Girls Abondoned Ball Hunt; the girls are way ahead on 3-0 Lottie has an eagle-eye for balls!
The 3 Amigos - Steffen, Barry & Rhys enjoyed the paddle; along the way one of them pointed out where he had previously slept out in the cold for 6 months. This brought it home to the team reasons for doing the paddle jounrney. Also Lottie got a good soaking from certain individuals!
The Hope centre team stayed with us until lunch and they sent us on our way. The afternoon was forever enduring, cold and hardwork. We persevered into the darkness well - (Mike, Lottie, Alice & Tom completed the last leg) Whilst the lightweights ate millionaire shortbread and suffered in a warm minibus - lucky gits!
Thanks for reading and please continue to follow our journey. We hope you all sleep well tonight cause we sure will !
Until tomorrow Cheerio - Lee, Alice, Lottie, Ewan, Rae, Pete, Mike, Tom.

Training day # 3

2010-02-04T08:43:00.000-08:00

Our 3rd and last training day before our mamouth journey!

2 of the team members had to pull out so we had only 4 of us doing our canal stretch.

In our staff meeting Mike announced that we had 2 more bodies joining us for our 150 mile challenge- our newly employeed Instructor and Trainee which was good news all round.

Whilst getting our kit on ready for the day Tom proudly showed off his new dry bag which had a strap on it making it look very much like a hand bag so after a few digs and personal comments we got on the bus to our destination, red just isnt your colour Tom!

Once on the water we were remembering what last years canals were like especially the one in Birmingham - trolleys, hundreds of cans, T.V!! and dead animals including a cat (canoeing is not for the faint hearted) this canal wasn't going to be any worse!

We came across a floating flip flop, a buoy and a dead sheep, so all in all we didnt do too bad!

Ewan and Tom raced off while me and Laurianne took our time and keeping to a steady constant speed. Memories of our songs from last year sprung to mind so we thought we would make some up, singing about spandex bra's and Tom's new (very lady like) man bag we realised we couldnt laugh and concertrate on the boat so had to abanden that idea. Carrying along down the canal we were stopped by a water pump clearing out the canal so we decided to pull over and have our lunch.

With a bit more energy in us we turned back up the canal to return to the mini bus, me and Tom decided we would have a go at paddling a canoe by ourselves which prooved quite hard until you got into a routine. Ewan and Laurianne walked along beside us and that was obviuosly not enough entertainment so they decided that it would be a good idea to throw twigs which then became sticks which then turned to minature trees at us to pu us off and said they were training us up for incoming obstilcle we may incounter along our event! Some how i think this may have been a lie!

When we were out of the water we got boats loaded we were off home thinking the next time we're in a boat its the real deal!

Wish us luck and keep following the team!

Training day # 2 river wye!

2010-02-04T08:04:00.000-08:00

PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT.....................................

Laurianne went the whole day without taking a swim! Smiles all round!

We started the day by getting on the river and trying to remember what skills we had learnt from our previuos trip, Laurianne learnt how to go backwards so she kept that up! The river was much wider than the one we had previuosly been on so we had lots of room for mistakes (not too many trees or rocks to dodge)!

The section we were paddling wasn't very long but we were concerntrating on getting used to moving the water and a different river. We stopped for a bite to eat on the river bank when some friendly horses decided to come and join us! After a few nibbles of a red juicy apple they gradually walked off back to there field- obviuosly prevered green apples. Tom set up a skimming of stones across the river competition which everyone joined in, then we decided it would be best to head off back down river. As we were getting back into our boats Laurianne decided she needed the loo, after waiting 20 minutes for her to stop fighting with her wetsuit and layers we were off.

The water was so calm and flat until......The Weir!!!

This would be our last obsticle to get across before we got out of the water. Ewan went down first then me then Tom, then Laurianne then Lee we all made it in one piece hooray!!

Laurianne decided she had had too much fun so got out while the rest of us had a play on the weir. It took a few goes for me and Tom to get confident on it but once we had it sussed you couldn't get us off it! Lee mean while got out to collect the bus to take us home.

After a good long play we all got out and loaded the bus ready to head off home for a cup of tea.....

Training day on the monnow river!

2010-01-21T07:07:00.000-08:00

We met yesterday at 9am in the freezing cold conditions to complete our first training day. The team this year includes most of the old faces from last year Mike Fawcett (head of centre at Longtown OEC) Alice Giacomini (trainee instructor) Laurianne Mackenzie (friend of longtown and our new faces are Lee Cave (operations manager) and Tom Sharpe (trainee instructor) who are prepared to undertake this monstrous challenge, one member who is joining us Ewan McGillivary (instructor) was away on a 2 day course for forest schools so he missed out on the snowy, wet, cold day! once the trailer was loaded and our kit was ready we were ready for the off. we arrived at our 'get in' place and Laurianne regretted putting her wet suit on fully as she baked nicely at the back of the bus! whilst we got boats as well as our heads prepared for the day Mike drove the mini bus to our 'get out' point and ran back to meet us! waiting for Mike was going to take a while so tom and lee decided to give a few helpful hints on how to properly warm up for a day of paddling this included tom demonstrating the 'wax on, wax off' manoeuvre which apparently would warm up our arms and lee taking the lead on his hula hips dance moves. is this how they used to dance in the 80's? all very amusing!!

anyway back to the reason we were there, once our boats were on the water we had a useful session instructed by mike teaching us how to break in and break out of eddy's which is a technical term used in paddling for getting in and out of the current. little circuits were set up for us to practise as we needed this skills for our big journey, unfortunately for Laurianne she went to break out of the current lent the wrong way and took a dip! I'm guessing by the look on her face the river may have been a tad cold! back in her boat we all blasted down the river quickly to warm us up and to get to our most important part destination of the day(lunch stop).

once back on the water the team were now feeling the cold especially Laurianne so Lee and Mike decided to do a long section of continuous paddling to get us warmer. along the journey we in countered 2 broken weirs both which were paddleable. we didn't have a massive section of river to do but it was more of looking to improve our skills on moving water. myself and tom felt more confident as the day went on and were willing to push ourselves a bit more. I'm sure Laurianne wont mind me telling you all that she fell in again( she liked the water really) not far from our 'get out' spot so walked the last 20 metres, to say she hasn't been in a kayak since she was 17 she did brilliantly! we pulled our boats into the side and when we thought all the fun was over Mike spectacularly tried to get out of the boat onto the bank and went flying backwards head first into the water! its always nice to end the day on a high note!! nice one mike :)

Blurb

2010-01-21T05:37:00.000-08:00

This seems to be an ongoing annual event for Longtown OEC, paddling a distance of 150 miles across Britain to raise money for charity in 7 days. Once again we have 6 keen beavers ready to acomplish this task. This year the task is to start from Northampton Abington Lock and to eventually end up in Chepstow(with out any capsizes we hope!). Our start date is Monday 8Th February to the Friday 12Th. We will then be doing a further 2 days to complete our journey at another date, the reason why we can't do the straight 7 days is that the team have to come back ready to welcome in a visiting group for the weekend (personally i just think the boss wouldn't be able to hack 7 days!!).

Things that are different from last year: 50 miles extra!!, its in rivers and the sea rather than canals and we have a different charity. This year we are raising money for Northampton Hope Centre, they provide support for the homeless and disadvantaged. This was chosen by Mike Fawcett (Head of Longtown OEC),when we were paddling our 100 mile journey last year and we came across some homeless people sleeping underneath the canal bridge in icy conditions and i speak on behalf of the team how struck we were by this. we couldn't imagine how tough and inhospitable this could have been for them.

I will be updating this blog through out our journey to tell you off any swimming or general funny moments we may in counter so be sure to keep reading and stay tuned!!

Any further info can be found at http://www.longtownoec.co.uk

Any donations will be greatly appreciated

Thank you :)