In June 2025, a scratch crew of school and university leavers took on the challenge of rowing a traditional boat the 124 miles non-tidal Thames from Lechlade to Teddington in 3 days.
It’s safe to say that the row proved to be a challenge not to be underestimated, as the following report by lead crew member Benjamin Thum explains:
“In 2023, my brother Felix and I cycled to Brussels with our friends Tom, Toby, Will and Alfie. This 400km journey, which until last week was our biggest accomplishment, fuelled an excitement for challenging long-distance events — and it was a great way to raise money and awareness for some brilliant causes.
In 2001, before Felix and I were born, our brother Fred passed away from meningitis when he was just 4 years old. For a long time now, we’ve wanted to raise awareness of the disease and raise money for the Meningitis Research Foundation. We also planned to work with the OddBalls Foundation — a charity we’d supported before — which raises awareness of testicular cancer.
To do this, we decided we really wanted to use some kind of boat, to paddle or row the length of the River Thames. Essentially, our idea was to take on a challenge we had absolutely no clue about, with no facilities for doing it and no knowledge on the matter whatsoever.
Thankfully, after meeting with ex-neighbour, Simon Davis – who has been involved with the River Thames his whole life – about our ‘plan’, he introduced us to another River Thames expert, Guy Fisher, founder of the Shiplake Outloars. Without Guy, we would genuinely have had no clue which direction down the river to set off. We also wouldn’t have had a boat, any nutritional knowledge, or have known how to row in the first place. So, safe to say he was a vital part of this!
After speaking with Guy, he kindly offered to lend us his boat, show us how to row and handle his boat safely. We had to assemble a team. Felix’s and my general approach to this was to ask people if they wanted to do a 125-mile row while they were in the pub — and then refuse to let them back out. Luckily, Toby, Louis, Tom and Lucas all fell for it. The next step was assembling a support team.
My dad, Nic, and his friend Nick (Nic squared) agreed to support us along the river in a Defender, carrying our bags and water. My mum, Julia, agreed to cook for everyone, and my sister, Louisa, took on the role of photographer.
We had a team!
So that was it — the team set off:
Day 1: Departing from Lechlade at 8am on the 9th of June 2025, heading 39 miles towards Abingdon.
The first day, we knew, would be completely different from what we were used to. Manual locks and a very windy river made this pretty much uncharted territory for us. Up near the source, you feel like you’re entirely alone with your crew — and maybe some cows. There’s no phone service and no sign of civilisation for the first good few hours, just a creek-like, windy river. Honestly, it’s beautiful. The mood was high in the boat for everyone except Tom, who became a horsefly magnet and spent the whole first day screaming.
To summarise: this was 10 and a half hours on the water in 25-degree heat, in some very colourful and funky OddBalls vests, and a constant flow of inappropriate rowing puns. What more could we want?!
image copyright mapmytracks.com
Once we moored at 6:30pm in Abingdon, spirits were still high — although we were very tired and hot. Our welcoming committee was quick to point out that every single one of us was burnt to a crisp, complete with some awful tan lines from our funky vests. Tom had a great one right across his forehead where he hadn’t moved his hat, and poor Louis was so red he looked like a lobster.
Day 2: This was as a big one. We had planned to row 57 miles from Abingdon to Bray — a very tall order. Based on our pace from the day before, this would take around 13 hours. So, we all woke up at 5am (the support crew at 4:30!) to make sure we were on the water rowing by 6:30am.
We had a slow start to the morning: sore bums, sore sunburnt shoulders, and a very daunting distance ahead. By midday — 5 and a half hours in — we had only covered 20 miles. Our pace was slow, we hadn’t eaten or drunk enough, and by the time we got to Sonning, morale was very low.
Then we had two saviours.
First, Anna — Toby’s mum — had made awesome painted signs with Blue Coat’s art department and ran beside us on the shore cheering.
Secondly, Guy who was tracking us online, noticed that our pace had fallen dramatically from Pangbourne, met up with us, and hopped in the boat to assess things. We decided that finishing in Bray might’ve been a bit too ambitious, and it was best to stop earlier in Bourne End (otherwise we’d be rowing through the night). After some rowing tips — a lot of food and proper hydration — we set off again from Sonning Lock.
Guy left at the same time, sculling a boat that he built himself, and annoyingly managed to outpace four of us for half an hour rowing all the way down to Shiplake College!
That stop was a massive boost. We roared through Shiplake Lock and soared through Henley, where we saw Simon who cheered us on from Phyllis Court, and eventually came through Temple Temple lock. At this point, Guy met us with ice creams, and then we saw Will and Alfie — two of the boys we’d cycled with — who cheered us on from the shore.
With spirits raised and our energy back to normal , we had a ‘pub quiz’ on the boat to take our minds off the long stretch ahead. Personally, this was one of my favourite parts of the whole trip. We had come back from a low point and were arguably at an all-time high.
image copyright mapmytracks.com
After passing under Marlow Bridge and going through Marlow Lock, where we had family and friends cheering us on, we came into Bourne End as the sun was setting at 8:30pm — 51 miles from Abingdon, 14 hours after we had set off. I am so proud of everyone who was on that boat that day.
Day 3: After a large pasta meal and a shortish sleep, we were back on the water at 8am for the third and final day, with 36 miles to Teddington Lock. This final day — everything just seemed to go right. Our pace was quick, we were flying through the locks (thanks to Nic Squared!) and morale was great. The inappropriate puns were still going strong, and the daily pub quiz was looming.
image copyright mapmytracks.com
We finally finished the day at Teddington at 6pm, where we were greeted with an immense amount of support — and beer! I think I can speak for all the boys when I say this is easily our biggest physical achievement ever, and one of the best trips too.
The physical aspect isn’t the only thing to be proud of; we’ve raised £5,200 with Gift Aid (and counting!) and managed to push through some tough mental battles along the way.
A huge thank you to the support crews, and to all the family, friends, and strangers who supported and donated along the way. This wouldn’t have been possible without any of you.”
Benjamin Thum
