Charlie Grey Paddles Coast To Coast

If you walk along the Kennet and Avon canal, you'd usualy see holidaymakers cruising along on their long boats, or a few ducks chancing their luck dodging the river traffic for a crust of bread from picnickers enjoying the scenery and the boats passing them by.
Something you wouldn't expect to see pass you by however, are a couple of surfers on boards that would not only challenge the length of a canal boat, but also their speed.

OK, so canal boats aren't necessarily associated with speed, but they'd certainly over take your more experienced rambler and alright then, the Fanatic Fly Race SUP isn't longer than your average river boat, but they are certainly an impressive sight.
Also with seven days to complete the challenge, Tim and Charlie certainly had to keep up the pace so I am sure a fair few canal cruisers were slightly more than surprised when they were over taken one man and his paddle.

Sadly, after three day's of paddling, Tim had to pull out of the trip due to a re-occuring injury, leaving Charlie to head up the canal by himself. Over the course of the journey, friends and supporters of the cause joined in on parts of the route which kept up morale. 

Here in our next article,  Charlie takes us through the high points and the challenges of the 6 day journey, from the mud in Weston-Super-Mare, past the Roman pathways of Bath and up through London and beyond.