Downstream

thunderstorm and the sewers
were overflowing. There had
been a general alert to canoe
and row clubs not to go on
the river. So we almost didn’t
do it.’ But then Steve says he
got a better understanding of
the river and in 2004 ‘we
went up to one kilometre, to a
green navigational pole at the
upstream end of Chiswick
Eyot, to the island and back.
You start by swimming into
the tide knowing it will turn