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May 2012

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OSS Swim the Thames #24 - Abingdon Lock to Culham Lock - 10:30am Monday 7th May 2012 - subject to confirmation
by Jeremy Wellingham 05 May '12

05 May '12

/Darling Buds of May, Spring is here, the Thames has risen and is in full spate, making this a speedy swim - hopefully not too speedy. According to the flow meter at Maidenhead rowing club the Thames is running at 164 m^3 / sec today (Tuesday) . (In comparison, on our last swim it was a mere 11.7 //m^3 / sec.) //We'll need to do a risk assessment at the time - probably throw in a stick :-) Fortunately the exit and lock is at the end of a long cut where the flow should be minimal./ / First the bad news; we won't be able to camp this weekend - the local campsites won't entertain a single night's camping over a bank holiday weekend. Given the weather this might not be such a bad thing after all. Also, following a lot of deliberation, I've reluctantly rescheduled the date to Monday as the rain has turned the Thames in to a bit of a monster. Inspections locally from both Neil's colleague and mine reveal that the tow path is awash at Abingdon and Culham. The hope is that by postponing the swim to the end of the weekend the river will have calmed down. Apologies for deviating from the planned diary dates but the other option was a cancellation, which didn't seem a good option either. So, we will do a single day's swimming on Monday 7th May from Abingdon Lock to Culham Lock. This will be an approximately 4.15km swim - #34 in Michael Worthington's //I/?/the Thames/ /*We will don our Health and Safety hats (hard, of course), goggles and protective gloves and assess the risk on Saturday and send out an update to confirm if we are still going ahead - this will depend on the flow subsiding, considerably, which in turn will be dependent on no more significant rain. Look out for the confirmation e-mail on Sunday.* We'll meet here in the *free car park at Culham at 10:30am on Monday 7th May 2012: * http://g.co/maps/ynxdp Get changed, and shuttle up to the car park at Abingdon Bridge, where we met for the last swim: (Will need money for parking in this one - £1.20 for 3 hours) http://g.co/maps/rzf3d >From here it is a relatively short walk (0.75km) to Abingdon Lock across the fields, where we'll start our swim from: http://g.co/maps/x77ep We can have a breather around half way, just past the Marina entrance on the opposite bank, where there appears to be a beach of sorts: http://g.co/maps/v5rh6 ending up at Culham lock next to the car park. From there we'll repair to the /George & Dragon/for a spot of lunch - table is booked for 2:00pm: (/Tel: 01235 848142 ? ) /*Can you confirm by e-mail if you will be staying for lunch?*/ / //http://g.co/maps/an9n4 / Sef & Jeremy and the Barbus barbus of the Isis isis. OSS swim responsibility statement: By attending you confirm that you are a member of the OSS and have read and accepted the OSS swim responsibility statement: http://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/index.php?p=swimming_tips&s=responsib… <http://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/index.php?p=swimming_tips&s=responsib…> All swimmers swim at their own risk.

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