Read Downstream for Free Online

particularly Mum. Once I swam just before Christmas, it was chilly and I wore a wetsuit. Dusk was falling and the moon was just coming up, and I swam about half a kilometre. To be in water under a moon alone . . .!’ When his daughter was seven he took her for a dip atGrafton: ‘it was cold and there were a couple of grumpy swans nearby, but swimming in the Thames is definitely something that one can pass on to one’s children. It’s a gift for life. I’ve never got ill. Higher up in the Cotswolds it’s really clean. You get out and your hair feels like it’s got conditioner in it and your skin feels like silk, it’s like a mud treatment. I’ve swum other rivers and the Thames is cleaner. It’s a sanctuary for me. I did a two-day swim near Grafton Lock, we got out there at night and the lock keeper made us tea and we became friends.’ Phil usually straps a knife to his calf if he’s swimming alone, not to fend off anything but in case he gets caught in something. But the worst thing that’s ever happened is losing an earplug. He is a Shaw Method swimming instructor, a method that focuses on body awareness and a swimmer’s relationship with water. To him, swimming is ‘science crossed over with art and, for want of a better word, the spiritual side’.
    It’s because of this rich recent heritage of Thames swimming around Lechlade that I’ve signed up for a one-day swim with SwimTrek, covering five miles from Buscot Lock to Radcot Bridge in Oxfordshire. SwimTrek has been running Thames swims since its inception in 2003 and founder Simon Murie says he enjoys ‘things that are iconic. I need something classical like the Greek islands, the Hellespont in Turkey, and the Thames; it’s a famous river.’ He has vivid memories of spending childhood summer holidays in Ham in south-west London in the late seventies. ‘My mother was a keen river swimmer and I remember sitting on the side of the Thames with my thermos flask, her listening to the radio and me with my comics. I was a young boy and conscious of what others would think and I sort of dreaded it. But my mum liked getting away from things, the stresses of everyday life, and we spent a lot of summer days swimming against the current and crossing over to the canoe club. In the evenings there were pleasure boats with disco lights flashing and there was me, a thirteen-year-old, and people looking out of the windows thinking, “what the hell ishe doing?” As I grew older, I got more into it. When I was young I would think, “who’s looking at me?” By the time I was fifteen or sixteen it didn’t worry me. It was very important for my mum to be able to get away from it all, and when she died we scattered her ashes on the place she liked most.’
    So perhaps it’s not surprising that he chose the Thames for SwimTrek’s first swimming holiday. ‘The reaction from people is different now, we used to be asked, “are you allowed to do it?” and “are you doing this for charity?” They couldn’t think why else we’d be doing it; we had to explain we were doing it for pleasure.’ With the first group of Thames swimmers many lived in London and wanted to immerse themselves in a river that flowed past their backyard. The company has continued to run Thames swims every year: ‘we get a lot of Germans. After the British, they’re into open-water swimming; it’s the Saxon heritage. But ten years ago open-water swimming was not nearly as popular or fashionable as it is now.’
    As I set off for Lechlade I’m wondering what my experience will be like swimming in the upper Thames. Will it be as clean as people say, or will I get ill? Can I enjoy a proper swim, whisked along by the current, or will I only be wading in freezing cold water?

2
    Cotswolds Swim
    â€˜Of exercises, swimming’s best,
    Strengthens the muscles