Simon Johns and James Coquelin set off from Fort William at 6am on Thursday, completing the 60-mile route in Inverness just before 6.30pm the same day.
‘It was tough, but we knew it would be tough and it went to plan,’ said Mr Johns.
‘We recced the whole course the day before and put a lot of preparation time into it.
‘We had two guys as our support crew and they proved invaluable in the end, especially with moving the boat around. Sometimes we even had to put it over our heads to avoid obstacles and cross lochs and things.’
It was not only rowing that formed part of the challenge. Along the way they passed 29 locks, including 13 stops where they hauled the boat out of the water and carried it round on foot before getting back in.
‘The row itself, the two lochs, Loch Ness and Loch Lochy, were very tricky, just because it was very gusty. There were very strong winds and rain and it funnelled all the wind through those water lochs which made conditions very tricky,’ said Mr Johns.
‘The conditions literally changed from one minute to the next.
'We were in still, calm conditions in beautiful sunshine and the next minute it was a force six and then it would change again. It made regulating the temperature really quite hard.
'The body was constantly confused whether to cool down or heat up.’
He said the hardest point was Loch Ness.
Both men have rowed for more than 20 years, but the conditions they encountered on this challenge made it one of the hardest things they had done.
‘There was one moment when James nearly went in, the boat semi-capsized and he managed to cling onto the boat,’ he said.
‘That’s where our crew was brilliant because they made the slips and the pontoons way safer than they would have been if it had just been me and James.’
Their goal was not only to complete the challenge, but also to raise £60,000 for charity Male Uprising Guernsey.
The fundraiser has now surpassed £40,000.
‘We’re very tired now, but we’ve been planning this for nine months behind the scenes, so it’s great to have done it and great to have supported a really good charity,’ he said.
To donate to the fundraiser, go to: https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/mugmonsterrow.
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