I’m hearing that the legislation that banned OW swimming in Wales has quietly been removed & that we may have a bit more choice of swimming venues as long as we can walk/cycle there 
Edit for screenshot:-
Ah thanks. I live other end of Greenway to you. Just commenting in work today how I work in Wales all week long but as I live in England I am now banned for the weekend. But as Eccleston ferry is so close I can bike there with the kids when this sh*t calms down I can begin to see some green shoots! So cheers! Obvs can’t do it this weekend as within about 500m swimming upstream I would be in Wales and end up shot. Or, more likely, I fancy waiting until the water is warmer…
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Just used google maps. Never ever knew that was there, despite long walks from meadows, Chester tri route going right past etc, so truly thanks. An actual car park and everything. Don’t even need to bring kids. Luxury. Might even avoid re-developing the usual weed-stroke hitched arms I usually need at my local lake.
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@Memphisraines The car park currently has great big concrete blocks reducing the capacity a huge amount. I can only assume they were put there during the tighter lockdown restrictions & have not been removed in case we go back to those bad old days. People are just parking on the side of the road & it will be mad busy this Bank Holiday weekend BBQs, canoes, walkers, SUPs etc, etc.
If you do take the family with you there is a path from which they can track you going upstream. As I said the telegraph wires are about 1km from the car park.
In normal times you’ve got to keep an eye out for The Princess Diana, other power boats & rowing (2s, 4s & 8s), but the only problem at the moment I guess will be the single sculls if they’re allowed out.
Edit:- Where have you been swimming? Hatchmere?
Oh yes, I know full well how dangerous the boats on the Dee are, having let my eldest take one of the motorised boats for a spin when he was about 7. Closely supervised obviously, but he had an alarming tendency to steer straight at the bank. Never saw anyone swimming thankfully. Do you use a tow float? Or just learn to sight better?! I’ve been going to Manley Mere oooohhh twice a year to put in a 5 lap swim and kid myself that OW swim training is done for the year! The weeds can be a pain but it’s a good set-up and I’m a 5 minute drive away. Hatchmere terrifies me. Irrational fear of waterlillies and such that crowd the edge. I think the rivers a much better bet, pollution be damned.
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I’ve not used Manley Mere for a couple of years, they’ve kinda priced me out.
I would always recommend using a tow float & a bright swim cap if you have them. It’s also accepted practice to swim up on the far side & return on the near/car-park side.
While I’m banging on with my homespun advice I will never swim in The Dee if it has rained heavily in the previous couple of days due to the very real pollution that you mentioned. For this same reason I have never entered a Chester triathlon or aquathlon as I don’t want to feel compelled to swim in a cess pool.
You can get some info on river flow & height on the link below, or follow it on Twitter.
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That’s pretty cool, thanks. Very useful website. Think I will use it to impress my kids with my in depth er depth knowledge next time we are down by the river. Of course it will fail to do that. Anyway, looks like I’m in the market for a tow float…
Chipstead was pretty good this morning, quite a lot of people though to my mind, or maybe it was the queues - 30 or 40 people going in I think.
Only got boxed in once, so the swimming was pretty easy although did have to keep an eye that the nearest swimmer wasnt getting too close.
Shame they dont do wednesdays or any weekday morning. Id rather avoid the crowds.
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Should try divers cove most evenings 5-6 and 6-7 slots and weekend mornings
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First swim this morning, at London Docks. So so good. With yesterday’s rain, was pretty nippy at first (13.9 degrees reported temp), but acclimatised quickly.
Setup is good. With 20 swimmers, there’s loads of open space to change. There’s 2m bag drop squares on the jetty to leave your bag. Outside the pier there’s 2m painted markings to queue up for the briefing and entry scan, like what’s at the supermarket. Full PPE worn by the person scanning your wristband.
Once swimming, I passed one or two other swimmers early on, but by the end of the 55min window there was only about 2 of us still swimming.
Managed 7 laps of the 400m course.
https://www.strava.com/activities/3502205156
Felt fairly good for the first lap (although reported pace would suggest otherwise!), but tired quite quickly, not unsurprisingly given its the first time in water in two and a half months. Lap times show this pretty clearly!
If I can try and go at least weekly, I’d like to try and get up to 8 laps in the 55min swim window. So 3.2k.
First time using the Garmin 945 for OW swimming today. Given the horrendous reports of accuracy when it was first released, I took along the 920 and had that on the other wrist. If the 400m course is accurate, so 2800m total, then the 945 was under reporting by about 10%, but I can live with that given two dead turns that the watch is always going to struggle with. The 920 reported nearly 3000m, so a somewhat similar over reporting of distance. The relative GPS traces on the 945 are much much better though (its at the top)…
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Im down for chipstead again thursday 4:45, be interesting to see if its more or less busy! 
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With the legislation specifically banning OW swims in Wales being dropped I cycled over to meet my mate for a swim at a local country park. After signing all the disclaimers we had a 2km swim. Strangely for a body of standing water & the decent weather we’ve been having it was colder than the Dee a few days ago.
Lovely swim had the water to ourselves til the end when a SUP got in.
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Very busy at the lake this morning.
Word is getting out.
Lots of more recreational swimmers, with head up breast strokers
Was still pretty easy to stay distanced.
My local lake open on Saturday.
£10 for a swim, £40 for 5 or £70 for 10.
Current lake is £5, but going up to £7.50 and a 50 mile round trip
Last year, I was there 4 times, but have booked 10 sessions, with a view to going twice a week, as no real need to do more, just tick over
Have to book online in advance
Saturdays 7-10, Tuesday 7-9, Thursdays 7-9
One hour time slots - if I don’t hug the outside of the lake, should be able to get 4 laps, so about 3.5km, done in an hour
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Beautiful. Brenig?
Nope, this is only 5 or 6 miles from where I live.
http://www.parkinthepast.org.uk/
My club - Wrecsam Tri - have an arrangement with the owners that allow us to swim there for a donation unless the algae blooms then it’s all off 
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I’m not at all sure if others can swim there, you’d have to contact them. It was great swimming today, cooler, but much clearer than The Dee & weed free.
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A lovely swim and pretty warm at 17°C! I missed Lucy and Reece who’ve been swimming there on a Saturday, club mate got a photo, though admittedly looks a bit closer than 2m.
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It’s open for use by key workers so can make use of that…if I wasn’t working, which I am. Often driving the mold-Wrexham road and never noticed it so will keep a closer eye out from now on!
Thanks
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Cheshire Wildlife Trust went batshit crazy about people swimming in Hatchmere and have banned it outright. (I’m thinking more the litter left by non-swimmers is the cause here)
Welcome to TT2.0 
Good first few posts.
Also, Manchester and Salford residents…
DOCK 9 SALFORD QUAYS IS BACK!!!
Thanks. I think you and Doonhamer are doing a fine job of covering my little part of the world. Sure I’ll be back asking, “where’s that lake?” etc!
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