Looking forward to this Friday's walk from the Source to Cricklade Bridge. Hopefully there may be a chance for a paddle / dip along the way so come prepared.
Here are the dates for the next sections so you can pencil them in your diaries. We will be sending out details for each one a bit nearer each swim. For now, we are aiming high and planning for two sections from Micheal's book in a day but are prepared to cut a section short if it proves to be too ambitious. The start of the Thames is quite a distance to get to for most people so we would like to make the most of the day once there. If we do cut it short we will still stick to the dates but just reschedule the sections. The early parts are a bit of an unknown and we don't really know how much will be a swim, how much a wade and how much a paddle.
Mon02May Cricklade Bridge to Water Eaton House (3km)
Sun15May Water Eaton House to Round House Farm (3km)
Mon30May Round House Farm to Kempsford Church (3.4km)
For June, when there is a full moon, we thought we might make a weekend of it and camp overnight and have a moonlight swim (Shamelessly borrowing the idea from Tom Read and his moonlight swims on the river Nene). (The actual full moon is inconveniently mid week, on Wednesday.)
Sat11Jun Kempsford Church to Hannington Bridge (2.1km)
Sun12Jun Hannington Bridge to Inglesham (5.7km!) (This is a long stretch but we will be able to start at a reasonable time if we are already there and take our time over it. There are no obvious places to leave a car mid way and the Thames path does not follow the river here.)
Jeremy & Sef
Oxford@outdoorswimmingsociety.com