The river Cam - 3/46

The river Cam, Cambridge (with Josh) 26 April 2011

As you can see this was my maiden river outing for 46in12, and a lovely swim it was too.

I managed to pressure, I mean persuade Josh to join me in my third swim of 46. He was up-for-it yesterday but for some reason seemed less inclined when I arrived at his Halls this morning - might have been something to do with the temperature being 10° less than yesterday! I assured him that this was air temperature and had no bearing on the water temprature - he didn't seem too convinced, however he still appeared with towel and swimmers... good lad.

We made our way to the river via the Cambridge city centre ring-road - going round it twice! This is a city that is totally devoted to cycles and public transport - there are bollards that rise in the middle of the road if you dare to enter within 300m of the city centre, and more cycle lanes than you can shake a bike pump at! Even most of the street signs are the blue cyclist ones - hence my double trip around the beautiful city of Cambridge.

Anyways, we found the spot, a lovely wide river with dropped banks for easy access, there was also plenty of evidence of previous swimmers - not surprising given the recent heat wave. We ambled along the river bank for a couple of hundred yards and happened upon a fallen tree with the majority of its trunk lying invitingly half in the river - perfect diving spot!

We got changed into our trunks and dipped a toe in the water, bloody hell it felt chilly. After much procrastination and worry about sunken poles sticking vertically under the water right where I was about to dive, I made the plunge - literally! Yep, it was real spanner water... it tightens your nuts :)

I managed to mess around near the tree for about 5 minutes, trying to persuade Josh that it wasn't that bad, before I saw a punt come around the river bend about 100m away - my cue to get out and dive in again, all Tom Daly like.

Josh finally plucked up the courage and went for it, he dived in with a quite stunning swallow dive - then jumped out almost as quick as he'd gone in... that was it for him, way too cool.

I swam for about 200m upstream and back before getting out - managing to chat to kayakers and punters on the way. When I got out I realised just how cold it was as my toes were actually blue. Brrrr

Well, that was my first river, I only hope the rest of them are just as good, but slightly warmer.

Pictures (and hopefully a video clip) to follow in another post.