Greetings Sun worshippers - Summer is here at last.  Hopeful it will hold out to the weekend. Currently, (pun intended) we have the best of both worlds - warm weather with lots of water making progress easy - as long as you're going downstream.  Fortunately that's just what we're doing.

This weekend we will swimming under another of Brunel's Great Western viaduct masterpieces at Gatehampton and continuing down past the Beale Wildlife Park.  Might be a potential ice cream stop? (Australian style waterproof money could be handy.)  After that we head to the pedestrian inaccessible Whitchurch lock where we will have to walk around and jump back in for a short swim under the second of only two toll bridges on the Thames (Remember the other Toll bridge at Swinford back in September last year?) to jump out at Pangbourne Meadows where we are parked.

We'll then repair to the Greyhound pub in Whitchurch for lunch.

We'll be meeting at  Pangbourne River Meadow Car Park at 10:00am on Sunday 29 July:
http://goo.gl/maps/MCyn
Parking is free on Sundays

We'll Shuttle to Goring and park at the same car park we finished at on the last swim:
http://goo.gl/maps/T1GO
Parking is free here as well, on Sundays

and walk down to the beach Entry Point that we exited at on the last swim:
http://goo.gl/maps/8x2q

There is no access, pedestrian or otherwise at Whitchurch Lock, so we'll swim to the lock walk around, get in and swim under Whitchurch Toll bridge and exit in Pangbourne River meadow here:
http://goo.gl/maps/4scg

There may be a challenge for walkers as the Thames path leaves the river at Gatehampton and heads for the Chiltern Hills only to rejoin at Whitchurch.  The tow path crosses to the other side at Gatehampton via a long defunct ferry.  We could consider dropping walkers off on the tow path side on the shuttle up BUT that means peeps will need to arrange for waterproof bags to carry their car keys.

Jeremy and Sef and the Basking Sunfish of the Thames.

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