Viva Lewes Issue #161 February 2020

FEATURE
Ouse ‘Source to Sea’
Welcome to the jungle
Lewes local Mike
Ellicock would occasionally
commute
to his previous job, in
Newhaven, by canoe.
He enjoys challenging
himself, having also
broken the Guinness
world record for
running the London
marathon with a 20lb
pack on his back. I
meet Mike at the Waterside Centre – where
he works as CEO of maths education charity,
National Numeracy – to discuss his most
recent achievement: paddling the river Ouse
from ‘Source to Sea’.
Mike was inspired to make the journey by his
friend John Cattermole, who came up with the
idea and made the trip in 1987. Mike paddled
the 37 mile route from Slaugham to Newhaven
on 17th November 2019, in 10 hours 59 minutes.
“The first 15 miles are basically a ditch.
There will be 50 metres where you can paddle,
and then you have to get out and climb over a
log. It’s quite jungly: there’s lots of brambles.”
After wading through the jungle brush on a
paddle board for the first 15 miles, Mike then
switched to a ‘Surf ski’ (a longer boat that one
sits in), which allowed him to travel faster. Was
the idea to go as fast as possible? “It went dark
when I was just north of Lewes, but I was keen
to complete the challenge in a single session. It’s
difficult to do: you probably have to do it in the
winter. In the summer there’s less water, and the
vegetation is more overgrown.”
Mike has taken part
in various challenges
and races before, but
finds that they can be
time consuming and
costly. “One of the
points of doing the
Ouse ‘Source to Sea’
was to show that you
can actually have quite
a chunky adventure
right on your doorstep,
with the river and the Downs here, for example.
One of the things I had a go at before Christmas
was to start paddling out to the wind turbines
in Brighton. I think they’re about eight miles
offshore. It’s doable, probably [laughs].”
Mike clearly loves being active outdoors, and
sees it as “much more our natural environment
than spending time behind desks. Homo
sapiens has evolved to move; genetically we are
hunter gatherers. It’s good physically, but more
importantly it’s good mentally to get out and
commune with nature. It’s beautiful, but it’s also
kind of uplifting.
“When you’re into your 40s like I am, you’ve
got responsibilities: kids, mortgage, all of that
kind of stuff. It’s quite important to continue
to play, and not to get weighed down by all the
other crap.”
Joe Fuller
Anyone interested in attempting the Ouse ‘Source
to Sea’, or in sharing suggestions for local adventures,
can email mikeellicock@gmail.com. Mike’s
‘Source to Sea’ journey can be viewed at strava.
com/activities/2872680019
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