TAKING A BREAK: The Chernobyl mums and their children relax aboard the Richmond Venturer during their week-long trip up the Thames away from their contaminated homeland
What a beautiful weekend we’ve just enjoyed. Temperatures up into the high teens, wall-to-wall sunshine and memories of that abysmal winter rapidly vanishing into a distant haze.
There are rowing clubs up and down the length of the Thames and crews being put through their paces by enthusiastic coaches pedalling along the river bank are a familiar sight for anyone who regularly takes a stroll beside the water.
I knew from a very young age that I loved the water. It didn’t matter whether it was pottering about in a small rowing dinghy on the Thames at Twickenham where I was born or flinging myself through breaking waves on the beach at Holland on Sea in Essex where we used to stay with my uncle and aunt most summers – I just loved the water.
