We did it!

We didn't win but we did achieve what we set out to do.
We built a raft, totally out of recycled materials, completed the course in a respectable 7 minutes and 3 seconds and raised a few quid for a worthy charity,
We also had a bit of fun doing it.

If any of you who came down to see us has any pictures of the race, please get in touch. We'd love to see them and possibly copy a few.


For those of you who were wondering, we used a total of 503 bottles.

I'll be updating this blog with totals once we know how much we've raised.

Where and when.

The race we're entering is the Invensys Rail Raft Race which is part of the Chippenham River Festival.
Racing starts at 11.00am saturday 28th August ( so they'll be fishing us out of the water by 11.05!!! )
The festival itself is open 10.00am til 5.00pm on saturday 28th and sunday 29th August.
Full details can be found here:
www.chippenhamriverfestival.co.uk

Please sponsor us

With only 2 days to go, no more to do to the raft. Our focus turns to raising as much money as possible for the North Wilts NAS.
As the father of an autistic son myself,  I know what an important job they do, a job which relies on charity donations.
Please, if we approach you, give what you can and seriously consider ticking that gift aid box..it really can make a big difference.
If you're coming down to the river festival, come and find us and make a donation there.
Of course, there is also the donate button at the top right corner of this blog where you can make a donation from your paypal account or even your credit/debit card.

The countdown begins

Only 6 days to go. Just finishing touches to do on the raft, no more chances to test it.
The next time the wombles all get together is going to be on saturday at the race.

 It's now a big push for sponsorship, so if you know any of the wombles, expect to get pounced on!!
 If you don't know us or live too far away to get to a sponsor form, please consider hitting that donate button on this page.

The shovels have to go.

Today we had our second float test, it was also our last before the race next saturday.
It was also the only time since we decided to do this that we have managed to get all four wombles together in one place at the same time!!
Up to this point we've been planning to use shovels as paddles, but this morning's outing has changed our minds.
The shovels are fine for gentle paddling around the pond, but prove to be a bit heavy and bulky for prolonged use. (they might also be deemed as dangerous by the race officials ...a swinging shovel can do a lot of damage.)

A friend has lent us a couple of dingy paddles so we've got a week to find 2 more.

drum roll........IT FLOATS!!!!!!!!

Yesterday I strapped the two pontoons to the top of my van, threw loads of scrap timber and extra bottles in the back and went off to meet my fellow wombles down at the pond.

Steve was the first to meet me down there and we soon had the raft assembled along with some improvised seating of celotex slabs (thanks to my outhouse roof coming down the other week) and decided to give it a quick float while we waited for the others to turn up.

It worked!!!  We had a little paddle around the pond and Steve even did a little dance to see how stable it was.
But...we were still two wombles short.
Soon Laurence turned up,  but unfortunately Paul couldn't make it. We needed to see if it would take the weight of 4 wombles!! We soon solved the problem by roping in offspring, Paul was replaced by 3 kids and a dog!!!

With all the extra weight we did get a little lower in the water so added a few more bottles to the bottom just to be on the safe side.
All in all, a very productive morning....and loads of fun too!!!

A most important bucket

Our raft has been slowly taking shape over the last few weeks. Now with a pair of 10 foot pontoons stuck in my back garden, I've been lacing up the bottoms with baling twine...lots and lots of it.
None of which would be possible without a big bucket of twine kindly donated by Laurence.

Miles and miles of twine, threaded through (almost) carefully drilled hole, through aluminium tubes and tied up with the bestest granny knots I could manage (I never was a boy scout). eventually forming a tight net pulling the sides in tight against the bottles and supporting the middles of the lozenges.