In 2016 I paddled Europe’s second longest river, the Danube, from source to sea. A year later, in June 2017, I turned to the UK’s second longest river, the Thames, and set off to paddle it from Lechlade in Gloucestershire to my front door in Putney, London.

Cricklade was the original starting point, but the river there was barely a stream at that time of year, so I headed 10km downstream to Lechlade, where the water was guaranteed. From there it was 150 miles, 44 locks and four and a half days, through Oxford, Reading, Henley and Windsor, all carried on the board: food, shelter and kit, fully self-supported. The wheel set-up I’d refined on the Danube earned its keep at the many locks that needed portaging, and there was no shortage of kind strangers offering to help carry bags or lift the board. Along the way there were headwinds, a lock keeper with big opinions, tea shops that appeared exactly when I got peckish, and the chaos of Henley during regatta week, where I felt like a cat trying to cross a motorway. The best bit of every day was the evening, when the boats moored up, the wind dropped and the river became mine.

The Thames continues through central London, but that stretch needs special permission for a paddleboard, and Putney was home, so it seemed the right place to stop. I timed the final tidal stretch from Teddington with a 4am start to catch the outgoing tide, and arrived at Putney Bridge at 12:23 on Tuesday 27th June 2017, ahead of schedule and smiling like an idiot.