Swim 3: The Red Lion, Castle Eaton to Hannington Bridge

We met at the Red Lion again, with permission from the landlady with the promise that we would stay for lunch.

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We shuttled a car down to a layby at Hannington Bridge in order that we would have warm dry clothes at the end and we could get back without having to walk.

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The Thames is deep enough here to swim along longer stretches, but there are still very shallow parts where wading is unavoidable. We combined the end of swim 5, swim 6 and swim 7 from Michael Worthington's book and covered a distance of 4.6km. It’s a long stretch but there are issues along this stretch with trespass-free exit points. The Thames Path now diverts from the river and the bank is private land. If the going gets too tough, there are scrambleable exit points at approximately 3km where the path touches the river again. Get out just after you have passed under Hannington Bridge on the right bank on to land that is public access and up out by a gate just to the side of the bridge. Rubber feet are essentials again.