A Thames Swimming Story

Laura and I are swimming the length of the River Thames

And we’d like to take you on a short journey. Come on in!

We started at the source of the river. The first 14 miles were too shallow to swim so we ran.

Once the water started flowing properly though, we jumped right in.

We wear wetsuits most of the time because I get cold being in the river for so long at a time.

My friends Nick and Vicky from Your Web Media joined us for one of our swims to get photos (like this one) and some video.

River swimming is a wonderfully peaceful way to escape from life and see the world from a duck’s perspective.

Front crawling down stream is a great feeling too. A bit like flying.

Laura’s a much better swimmer than me so I wear flippers to keep up. I don’t feel too bad though because even Martin Strel uses them (although he did swim the Amazon).

Locals and passers-by almost always stop for a chat or at least give a bemused wave.

After each swim, we just hop out and walk back to the car. We’ll repeat the process until we get to around Richmond where the tides start kicking and the London Harbour Master might not appreciate our presence.

Do keep following our progress. We still have somewhere around 100 miles to go though so don’t hold your breath just yet.