Looking back it was an epic adventure SUP boarding the length of the Thames, source to sea.  Our adventure though definitely started well before getting on the water.  The question we asked ourselves was, do we want to travel from the source to Putney Bridge, or the source to the sea?  Our answer was HELL YES to the sea!  

What did we do that really made this trip an incredible journey?  Not only did we successfully complete what we sought out to achieve, we received help from so many supportive, amazing people, often at first complete strangers who ended up rallying around us.  Our biggest challenge wasn't the actual paddle, but learning about risk assessments and passage plans, working with the Port of London Authority (PLA).  We needed the PLA's permission to paddle the last section of the river from Central London to the sea.  I was totally passionate about our journey and we eventually got what we set out to achieve with a lot of hard work, productive conversations and determination… a massive thank you to the PLA.

Here's what we did and what we started creating without even realising it… a melandmichelle.com event.  Once the seed was planted, we… 

• learnt to build a website 
• created a FB page 
• had a stab at the whole twitter tweeting thing
• started raising money for Tree Aid
• joined the This Girl Can national campaign
• linked in with Thames21 to become volunteer citizen scientists (AMAZING!)
• secured board sponsorship with the super supportive team at Active360

AND

• spent three months in almost weekly communication with the PLA, creating our incredibly detailed passage plan and risk assessment 
• spent one month searching for and negotiating a safety boat with qualified crew, securing the Gravesend Sea Cadets (for the last three days of the trip) 
• secured our safety kayaker, a massive adventurer himself Mr Harry Whelan (to support us for one day through Central London)    

And lastly of course we whipped our bodies into paddle shape.  After a few weekend trips away on different sections of the Thames, our muscles started to figure out what they needed to do, which made every morning we woke up on our adventure one of excitement to get back on the water.

If you are keen on doing this adventure yourself or something similar, we'd love to hear about your plans and help you out where we can.