In the beginning

In the beginning there were 2 canoeists called Esther and Sarah.   Here they are

Esther



Sarah (with boat in bag)




They liked canoeing and are members of Tower Hamlets Canoe Club.  One day Esther said that she wanted to take a canoe a long, long way down a river in Canada.  Sarah said that sounds like fun.

They hatched a plan to enter the Yukon River Quest because paddling 444 miles in under 60 hours sounded like fun.  Esther and Sarah both have a screw loose.

In November entries opened and the third team enrolled were Bare(ly) Scared - that's how keen they were - they also knew that they had to enter early to got boat hire as that won't fit in the airplane.  Dan, Sarah's partner, knew she was doing this but she may have omitted to tell him exactly when the hard money was paid over (oops).  They sighed a disclaimer that said that along much of the route there was no human habitation but there are bears and things that don't like people.  They were no longer Bare(ly) scared they were getting towards actual scared.

They thought that if they were doing this then they should have a point.   They agreed that surely with all of their watersports that at some point they would be in need of the RNLI.  In view of this they have decided to use their voyage to raise money for the London Thames Lifeboats.  There is a bit of spiel about them here.

They may even be needed in training but hopefully not.  Last year Sarah did a relay swim of the chanel (it smells better than the channel) for the Dover Lifeboat due to potential need.

This blog will track the progress, the training, highs and lows and very importantly the decisions to be made over what to eat along the way.  Your views on this are invited as to date we will be fuelled by roast chicken, smoked salmon and chocolate gu puds (yep they can sponsor us if they want to).  We'll no doubt be falling out somewhere along the way and paddling lots of rivers in the UK in preparation as well as going round and round Shadwell Basin.  There will be caffeine based experimentation and hopefully (by Sarah at least) a significant amount of pounds shed.

This is a big challenge and there will be lots of bears to be overcome on the way. Follow our story which will hopefully have a happy ending and see us coming back from the wilderness as big, no longer scared, girls!