‘I’m 90 for goodness sake’: rainforest activist to pedal 104 miles down Thames

Robin Hanbury-Tenison: ‘I’ve been doing lots of training. All I do is pedal away on an exercise bike.’ Photograph: Merlin Hanbury-Tenison View image in fullscreen Robin Hanbury-Tenison: ‘I’ve been doing lots of training. All I do is pedal away on an exercise bike.’ Photograph: Merlin Hanbury-Tenison ‘I’m 90 for goodness sake’: rainforest activist to pedal 104 miles down Thames Veteran campaigner Robin Hanbury-Tenison is raising money for a research station near his home in Cornwall P edalling on water for more than a hundred miles in a heatwave, pushed back by east winds and having to navigate 31 locks would be a challenge for anybody. But when that body is 90 years old, with a bad knee, failing balance and malfunctioning arms and shoulders, it’s a herculean feat. Rainforest campaigner Robin Hanbury-Tenison, 90, is pedalling 104 miles down the River Thames from Oxford to Richmond on a water-bike to raise money for a unique research station which is being built to study Britain’s temperate rainforest. Hanbury-Tenison, the founder of Survival International , who spent much of his younger years raising awareness of the value of tropical rainforests from the Amazon to Borneo, has turned his attention to overlooked temperate rainforest after discovering that his modest Cornish hill farm had an important fragment of the mostly vanished habitat. “I’ve seen what we’ve lost. At my age, if I’m going to do something about it, I’d better get on with it,” said Hanbury-Tenison. Starting on Friday and supported by his son, Merlin, who will ride alongside him, Hanbury-Tenison will navigate a pedal-powered craft that sits on the surface of the water from Magdalen Bridge, Oxford, aiming to finish at Teddington Lock in Richmond on International Rainforest Day on Monday. View image in fullscreen Robin Hanbury-Tenison: ‘I’m proud of being part of the movement that showed the world that tropical rainforests matter, are endangered and need to be saved.’ Photograph: Merlin Hanbury-Tenison Merlin said of his father: “As a 90-year-old he finds he has been slightly falling apart. He’s got a bad knee so he’s trying to rest that to get ready. He did a rowing challenge but found his arms and shoulders stopped working. He climbed to Cornwall’s highest point but his balance and his legs have gone, so he’s worked out he can sit on a bike and peddle. It’s like a rickety old car going down a mountain with bits falling off it. “I’m going to take a stick so I can beat him when he slows down. It’s going to be a tough one. I just hope it doesn’t finish him off,” he added. View image in fullscreen Robin Hanbury-Tenison: ‘Of course things begin to hurt but one pedals through the pain threshold.’ Photograph: Robin Hanbury-Tenison Hanbury-Tenison has been offered some support as he makes his way down the river. “A number of people living on the Thames have said: ‘Drop in for a cup of tea’. As if I have time for a cup of tea,” he said. How are Hanbury-Tenison’s injuries? “I’m 90 for goodne