Rowing from Oxford to Guildford – in memory of Rob Allan
18th to 23rd July 2010
We started out our row from Oxford town centre at about 10am on the Sunday morning, not really knowing what to expect. The first day, being one of our shortest days, we were filled with confidence as we were off the river and camp was set up by 6.30pm.
A pub dinner and we were both asleep by 9pm. Great first day! The next 2 days, although a lot longer, were similar… beautiful sunshine all day long!
When it got to Wednesday though, we managed to get caught out in the thunder and lightning with our tent draped over us as a makeshift splash deck.
Luckily, after getting to our campsite we had some warm showers and were treated to a slap up meal by Lewis' dad at the local Harvester.
The next day the weather was looking up as we came through Reading and Windsor, finishing up in Chertsey where again Lewis' parents were on hand with more food at our campsite!
The final day, coming in a day earlier than we expected and probably our toughest day!
We hit the River Wey, and after going down stream on the Thames the whole week we were now heading up stream.
This proved very difficult especially as it was a 22 mile stint to our finishing point in Guildford!
Needless to say we made it there absolutely shattered and again Lewis' parents were at our rescue with a lift home. All in all we managed 104 miles in 6 days, which we were very pleased with.
Thank you very much to all those people who have sponsored us – it really made the trip that little bit easier to finish!
Liam Blackman & Lewis Sutehall
Liam and Lewis have raised £440 for CRY
