TWO clerics, the Revd Christina Rees and the Revd Patrick Forbes, have launched into an 85-mile fundraising journey down the Great Ouse, the fifth-longest river in Britain, which flows from Bedford to King’s Lynn.
The pair, lifelong friends, are paddling a two-seater, inflatable kayak — “seaworthy, but not built for speed” — for as much as eight hours a day. The potential five-day challenge, they are saying, will not be just to boost money, but “since the Church of England could use a great news story”.
On Tuesday, just their second day, they described themselves and their support team — Mrs Rees’s husband, Chris, and Mr Forbes’s son, Stephen — as “exhausted but euphoric”. They set off from Bedford on Monday after a canalside blessing from the Bishop of Bedford, the Rt Revd Richard Atkinson.
Mrs Rees spent a decade of her childhood and teenage years on the sailing boat that her parents bought after selling their home and possessions. Mr Forbes, who’s 86, was a Merchant Navy Radio Officer, a parish priest, St Albans diocesan communications officer, an information officer at Church House, after which press officer for the Missions to Seamen. He had never paddled a kayak in his life until January, when the pair launched into serious training. He said that he was not fazed by the “baptism of ice” which he endured when capsizing on his first attempt.
The current might be of their favour, and the river becomes tidal because it nears King’s Lynn, however the 16 locks will necessitate disembarking and “portaging” — carrying the kayak overland. To that end, dead-weight lifting has been a part of the training, together with squats and tricep lifts. Peanut-butter energy balls will keep them going, they are saying.
“How we’ll find it physically or emotionally once we get drained, I don’t know, but we’re determined to complete,” Mrs Rees said. Mr Forbes, who was considered one of 117 people to walk through the Channel Tunnel before it opened in 1994, is raising money for the Tibbs Dementia Foundation and Mrs Rees for the Li Tim-Oi Foundation, of which she is director. Florence Li Tim-Oi was the primary Anglican woman to be ordained. The foundation named after her supports women following a calling to Christian work (News, 8 May 2015).
Speaking from Hollywell on the second night, Mrs Rees described the stretch of river that they’d travelled that day. They had seen “4 kingfishers, many blue herons, weeping willows trailing their branches, swans with their cygnets. . . In terms of nature, it’s been absolutely exquisite.”
Conversation has alternated with periods of stillness, and Mr Forbes, who was a co-founder of the Holy Fools, has kept them entertained by “singing excerpts of Gilbert and Sullivan and reciting Tom Lehrer poems”. Mrs Rees calls him a trouper. “He’s really weary at the tip of the day, but he’s amazing. Here he’s, 86 and never given to extreme exercise, and he’s just paddling away.”
At the close of the day past, she had had aching shoulders, and Tuesday had brought aching wrists, but all of the training had stood her in good stead, she said. “I’m hoping at the tip that I’ll be a recent woman.”
