Up the Kafue without a paddle | Darren Low rowing 900km for clean water

In July 2018, our Managing Director Darren Low will take on RowZambezi – a 900km rowing expedition down the Kafue River, to raise money for clean water causes. Rowing alongside Olympians, Boat Race rowers, international and elite club rowers, RowZambezi is a platform for the passionate, committed participants to make a change for good on the planet.

RowZambezi sees 3 boat crews row for 14 days down a challenging stretch of the Kafue, which has never before been tackled. Rowing up to 80km a day is the rowing equivalent of 1.5 marathons, as well as the endurance, the rowers need to dodge hippos and crocs as well as the harder to see the threat of disease – malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever carrying mosquitos.

On Water for Water

The water crisis isn't an African problem.  In 2018 Cape Town reached zero water and in 2025 it is expected that London will enter water crisis, unless a change is made. With a rising global population, the impact on our water security is ever increasing.

The WWF and FISA (rowings governing body) have set out to build a freshwater research centre, The Kafue River & Rowing Centre – an extraordinary multi-purpose facility on the Kafue for world-class water management research and the sport of rowing. The centre will be accessible physically and virtually to freshwater researchers around the world and help find solutions to the water problems facing our planet. At the same time, the centre will have a focus on developing the sport of rowing.

Rookies and Pros Working Together

The ‘coaching’ boat which Darren is part of is led by Team GB Olympic Silver Medallist Zoë de Toledo and also includes former model and TV celebrity Jodie Kidd. Both Jodie and Darren are novice rowers and being taught to row this year, Jodie by Team GB double Olympic rower Debbie Flood, and Darren at Minerva Rowing Club in Bath.

As well as the coaching boat, the BoatRace Challenge Boat will be tackle RowZambezi – which sees members of each of the four Oxford and Cambridge boat clubs putting aside rivalries and working together to take on this epic task.  The final boat is made up of some of southern Africa’s top rowers, from Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia and South Africa including Sizwe Ndlovu who won RSA first ever Olympic gold medal for rowing at London 2012.

Get Involved

Each boat is fundraising to achieve the £30,000 it needs to take part in RowZambezi through individual donations made possible by being able to sponsor a KM on the RowZambezi website, and through partnerships with organisations who want to align with our purpose of improving lives through creating solutions to the water problems on our planet. Partnership is essential in rowing and we see this as key with any company or organisation wanting to align themselves with us – it’s a two-way relationship and as such we will be creating bespoke arrangements to deliver support back to our partners.

Visit www.rowzambezi.com for more information about the expedition and how you can get involved, or even sponsor a KM