[OSS RATS] OSS Swim the Thames #24 - Abingdon Lock to Culham Lock - 10:30am Monday 7th May 2012 - subject to confirmation

Jeremy Wellingham jeremy at wellingham.com
Wed May 2 21:55:40 BST 2012


/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=responsibility
<http://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/index.php?p=swimming_tips&s=responsibility>
All swimmers swim at their own risk.


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