Notes
Well, the results looked very depressing. Let's be honest, we are useless. We beat a couple of novice guys in their sixties, and one or two of the less forceful teenage girls. Is there anyother sport on the planet at which we could have been so comprehensively beaten? But on the positive side (a) we can certainly blame the equipment, which is awful, (b) we were good at portaging, (c) we lost our support crew (Ben) for 10 miles but just about kept it together, (d) I actually came away encouraged that we were not even worse. I thought we would actually be on our own as dusk fell over the Kennet and Avon canal.
The tunnel was an absolutely extraordinary experience. So long (500m) and so extremely, utterly dark. When you first go in, it looks quite short - because it's dead straight - but gradually you realise what a terrible place it is. Two crews had capsized and had to wade out through the chest-deep water, one near the start and one about 100 yds from the end. Somewhere behind us, more of the teenage girls were screaming in the darkness. It was a chapter from army extreme survival.
Crofton was good. We just suffer so much and move so slowly on the long sections that you actually have to paddle! Some of the k2s were awesome. I do think that this is potentially an excellent and interesting sport. So let's start by (hopefully) getting our decent Condor and paddles - at least that is one problem we can fix.