The River Rother Raft Race

For the last couple of decades the August bank holiday has brought a host of strangely dressed people with oars and barely floatable, home made rafts, to the banks of the River Rother. This year I joined them for the first time and James made his second appearance. We used rafts put together by some of James' school friends a few years ago. We knew they had been tried and tested but they had since been altered and freshly painted so we didn't actually know if there were enough oil drums to stay buoyant under our weight.

Mark, James, Me, Sally, Robin, Richard.
Click for more pictures

On the Saturday afternoon we went to stay with Robin who had maintained the rafts and we were joined by all the other rowers and their partners. After a few last minute adjustments involving a power drill to attach some seats and brute force behind a hammer to bend a final piece of aluminium into shape it was off to the pub for a team building evening.

Sunday was race day. We were woken early by the cockerel outside. Very early that is. After dressing up in our costumes of Weston theme we sat down to a hearty breakfast of toast, bacon, home grown tomatoes and eggs laid by the chickens in the back garden. We then were off to load the rafts into the horse box before making our way to the Cowdray ruins near Midhurst, where the race was to start.We were not the first to arrive. Already there were many rafts of different shapes and sizes laid out on the grass with their oddly dressed rowers and the public milling around. A photographer was also taking photos of all the groups for the Petworth Observer. There is a strange picture of us all running towards the camera which made the paper. It wasn't long before the race was due to start so we made our way to the edge of the river. There was a minute between each raft starting off to cheers from the spectators who were standing all around the banks of the river. Sally and I watched James and his team row off then climbed onto our own raft.

Success it floated! We then paddled onwards. Sally had fallen from a horse the morning before onto her right shoulder. When it was x-rayed in A&E she was told she had chipped some bone and probably pulled some ligaments. However she couldn't be convinced not to row so with some diclofenac and lots of determination and, lets face it, stubbornness, we paddled hard for the whole 3.75 mile course. It was great fun. We tried hard to catch up with the boys who we could see not far from us on several occasions. We overtook several rafts and had small battles with others who insisted on trying to soak us with water. Along the banks spectators were throwing water at us, all with good humor. There was one guy standing on top of a bridge with a bucket on a rope. He lowered the bucket into the water scooping some up before pulling it back up and throwing it on us. Someone on that bridge also had brown sauce which wasn't quite so funny. Made my hair smell really odd.
The most fun part of the course was the fish ladder. A series of about 6 steps with deep pools in between designed to catch fish. Sally was the pro having rowed the race several times before and advised rowing as straight and fast as possible down these steps. We did it. The crowd cheered us. The guy standing in the water at the bottom of the ladder then gave us a little push because we were hooked on something and we were off. The next obstacle involved us getting off the raft to lift it over some rocks after which I ended up chest deep in water. The rest of the course was more straight forward with only reeds, rafts and trees to contend with.
Sally and I finished in 2 hours and 1 minute, apparently 1 minute faster than the boys. We climbed up the bank of the river aided by a rope whilst a tractor was used to lift out the raft. We were soggy and shattered but had both had a great time. As had the boys. When all but one of the other rafts had finished the winners were announced. Sally and I had come first out of four in our group. The boys had come 4th out of fourteen. We were presented with a trophy which we can add our raft name to. 'Two rowed out' will be remembered in years to come on the trophy.