Flies, Stingers, 10 strokes and Chips

River Tame at Kingsbury Church: August 26th 2020

On an autumnal feeling evening at the end of August we took a trip to investigate a different entry point to the river Tame at Kingsbury. 

We'd been waiting to find out if the weather was good enough for our 6 person team to swim the channel. We'd just started packing when we found out we weren't swimming. So instead of feeling deflated we went for a swim! 

There's been a fair bit of rain over the last few weeks so we were interested to see how that affected the river levels and the flow. 

We parked in  the village on the main road and walked past the church toward the river and Kingsbury Water Park. 

Straight away there were a lot of flies! But it was a lovely little walk down the steps at the side of the church to arrive at the footbridge and be greeted with wide green fields and the river. 

There was an entry point consisting of a narrow slot down the bank to a tiny gravelly patch of beach just big enough to stand on! More importantly it provided a gap between the stinging nettles. 

The river flow looked super fast so we needed to check out other exit points further down stream so we knew what our options were for swimming. 

We took a walk to the edge of the water park all the way to the motorway bridge to see what the possibilities were. The river looked deep, grey, a little bit intimidating but always inviting so we were keen to find a place to get in. Sadly it wasn't to be. There were thick wide stinging nettles all the way along and very high river banks with no possibility of getting out. 

Finally we walked back to the original spot by the bridge and sent Mel in to test it out! Swatting flies as she went. 

It was pretty strong! And I could just about swim 10 strokes front crawl on the spot with my face in and Mel managed to swim a forwards but going backwards breaststroke. 

It was fun! But a little crazy and not safe for any more than 10 strokes on the spot. If you slipped passed the exit point there's no way you'd get back.

Turns out there's a possible exit point a lot further down the river so we need to investigate that and cut the stinging nettles down before we go! 

For each stroke I got at least one insect bite. But the water is always a tonic for the soul even if it's only for  10 strokes.

And as always we're happy we checked it out and excited about another possible swim.