As i'm sure you're now aware, if you've read these pages or spoken to me, the weather's pretty lousy over here and we're entering the thin end of the channel-swimming wedge.
If we don't manage to get out there in September, then the LAST day we could attempt the swim would be 24 october. Now while this is good as the window opens up longer for us (and to be honest, how many people are going to take that slot on???) it does mean it's going to be chuffing cold. I mean, properly cold and dark.
However, if this all goes to pot and there's a snowflake's chance in hell of us attempting the channel, an alternative idea to justify all our training, and more importantly all our sponsorship cash, is to replicate the channel swim down the Thames.
The Thames is a perfectly navigable river, you can swim from very far upstream to reasonably close to London, heck, it's been done before by our friend Andrew Allum and by the more newsworthy Lewis Pugh who swam the entire 346km length of the Thames to raise awareness about global warming recently. Lechlade to Teddington, the navigable and non-tidal section is 147 miles.
http://tntonline.co.uk/tnt_today/london_stories/london-stories/thames-river-facts.aspx
If we took two full days to do it and swam for as long and as far as we could get somewhere close to this. Obviously we'd run the same approach, one man in the water and the support crew on the boat. We'd have to run on dry land around the locks, but the swimmer could keep swimming whilst the boat comes through the gates. No drama there.
Your thoughts and comments on whether this is insane or a suitable substitute would be most welcomed, especially if you've contributed to any one of our charities and would like to know something has been done in return for your kindness.
Happy trails!
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