This weekend I went down to Abingdon for a dip in the Thames. This is not an unusual event for me at the moment. The water temperature has come up to a toasty 8.3 degrees Centigrade; trust me, that's much warmer than the sub 5 degrees temperatures I have been swimming in. As usual I abandoned the wetsuit, something which has earned me a certain nickname according to what my wife tells me. It isn't idiot or nutter for those of you who are thinking it.
Now, where we swim in Abingdon is pretty much in the town centre. We walk from the car to the start point. I've had to walk through it in a wetsuit before and you do get some funny looks. Today it was jeans, a t-shirt and a pair of flip flops. Fairly normal attire, well, flip flops in winter maybe is pushing it, but apart from that, normal. After the short walk through the centre there is a rather muddy footpath, which is where I normally remove my flip flops and trousers. Don't panic, I'm already wearing my swim kit.
We had quite a crowd watching us when we got in, most of whom were out on a nice afternoon stroll. I think they thought that we were a little strange but were very complementary when we just walked straight into the water. The river was flowing very quickly, I wasn't even really able to make much headway against the flow. Any faster and I think we would have both got out as it would have been too dangerous.
Now, where we swim in Abingdon is pretty much in the town centre. We walk from the car to the start point. I've had to walk through it in a wetsuit before and you do get some funny looks. Today it was jeans, a t-shirt and a pair of flip flops. Fairly normal attire, well, flip flops in winter maybe is pushing it, but apart from that, normal. After the short walk through the centre there is a rather muddy footpath, which is where I normally remove my flip flops and trousers. Don't panic, I'm already wearing my swim kit.
We had quite a crowd watching us when we got in, most of whom were out on a nice afternoon stroll. I think they thought that we were a little strange but were very complementary when we just walked straight into the water. The river was flowing very quickly, I wasn't even really able to make much headway against the flow. Any faster and I think we would have both got out as it would have been too dangerous.
Not long after setting off we came across a few swans, now if you'll remember one of my previous posts you'll now that I have a proclivity for getting attacked by birds while swimming. As we were swimming past, breaststroke so as not to frighten them, one started to get a bit agitated. My swimming partner for the evening was a little bit in front of me when the swan nearest me started to flap its wings while sitting up on the water. It is a little bit daunting when you are at eye level with a flapping angry swan. The first thing that went through my mind was, "oh no, not again." This was the point I decided that a slow freestyle making very little splashing would probably be better than breaststroke as it would get me away from the swan a bit quicker. Luckily, it seemed to work and the swan settled down as I got a bit further away.
The rest of the swim was great, but I'm going to have to start doing something about bird attacks.