Sponsored by
150-mile canoe journey starts
Staff from an outdoor education centre braved snow and sleet on the first day of a 150-mile sponsored canoe trip.
Employees from Northamptonshire County Council's Longtown Outdoor Education Centre, in Herefordshire, started their epic fundraising feat from Northampton yesterdaymorning and by the evening they had travelled about 17 miles in the snow.
Their trip, which is expected to last seven days, will take them to Wales and in the process they hope to raise 1,000 for the Northampton Hope Centre, formerly known as the Northampton Soup Kitchen.
Centre manager Mike Fawcett said: "We've had lots of snow but you often find things like that bring the best out of people.
"It's made us keep paddling to keep warm and has kept us motivated.
"For the first five miles of the trip we were joined by five men from the Hope Centre, which was really nice.
"We've canoed about 17 miles so far, which is likely to be our shortest stint.
"The rest of the days we plan to average about 30 miles."
The 12-strong team includes operations manager Lee Cave, of Rushden, trainee instructor Tom Sharpe, of Kingsthorpe, Northampton, and fundraiser Laurianne Mackenzie, of Cogenhoe, and has so far raised about 400.
The quest will see the team canoeing on the Grand Union Canal, River Avon, River Severn and Severn Estuary to reach their goal in Wales, amid predictions of yet another blast of snow this week.
The trip comes 12 months after canoeists from Longtown took part in a shorter charity paddle from Herefordshire to Northampton and saw men sleeping rough under a bridge in severe weather conditions.
To sponsor them visit www.justgiving.com/n2w.
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Kettering
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: -8 C to -1 C
Wind Speed: 3 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North west
