July update...

ALWAYS REMEMBERING THE REASONS

BEHIND THE CHALLENGE.......

The children in their typically colourful African clothes

School photo at Tichakunda School

Tichakunda Classrooms



Outdoor learning at Tichakunda

The playground at Tichakunda School

The 'well' where ALL their water comes from.

While looking at those photo's it helps me remember why I am doing this challenge and why I am constantly asking for support. These children need our help, we can improve their education facilities, every single penny will help.

So, the challenge! I'm nearly there now. With less than one week to go, until the start of my 'slot', things are heating up. I wish!!! When I last wrote I had just had the fundraising event, and the week before that I had completed my 6hr qualifier in Dover. Since then I have completed a 6hr swim in Windermere, and a further two, 6hr swims in Dover again.

Ready to go & seeming happy!

This way!

Windermere was a lovely weekend. Accompanied by Marks parents, Sue & John (very kindly watching the children while I did my swim! - I need to thank them for all their help as they have had the boys many times while I swim, ie: when I went down to Dover in June), Danielle, Jason, and obviously Mark - who were my 'crew'! I also need to thank Dan & Jason because they drove about 4hrs there and back just to crew on the boat for me! - and they have helped many times before as well, for example driving all the way up to Loch Earn, Scotland, to watch the boys while I did my swim. Thank you, everyone. I am going to owe a lot of favours when this is done!

Windermere was planned as a good training weekend but also to master my feeding technique. Armed with Fig Rolls, Mini Rolls, Peaches, Maxim energy drink, water, thermos flasks, valcrose, bottles, string, telescopic extension pole etc - we felt pretty well equipped. Lots of laughter and fun beforehand - as always with us four together, the mood was good! The weather was good - no scorching sun, but not thunder / rain / strong winds either. I got in at Bowness (half way up the lake, or slightly more north than half way). The plan was not to swim the 'length' as such, but to get 6hrs in again. Whilst I swam 'the crew' very carefully mapped out the distance I was covering. Going back to school geography days I could see them working hard with a piece of string! It was great because they knew the distance & speed I was swimming. They kept a steady check on my stroke rate, which is a lot lower than I realised - about 52 per minute. But it is a long hard stroke so I am not concerned about this being quite low. As long as I can maintain this, and not drop the strength or 'speed' I will be happy.

The men hard at work, one steers and one controls the speed,
rocket science!!!!!

My shoulder gave me trouble a couple of hours into the swim, and as per every long swim I've done, my mind started to wonder and I had to fight back thoughts of making excuses to get out. I reached the southern most point of the lake, Lakeside, after 3hrs. I started to complain to my crew and said that I don't know if I should carry on and risk aggravating my shoulder etc etc etc. They had none of it and told me to carry on swimming. Of course I swore at them underwater and of course 'they have NO idea how sore it is and how hard this is', 'idiots'. But they were right, and I plodded slowly on. The water temperature felt Mediterranean! It was about 18, far too warm for Channel training, but still good practice and of course the actual distance was great to do. The best thing that happened, about 4 or 5 hours in, was when Mark told me that the boys were on a boat and would be passing soon! Sue & John had got them on a cruiser and of course had their mobiles to check where we were. This made me put my head down because of course, they had to see me swimming, not messing about or whining asking to get out! It was lovely when they came past and I could hear them shouting 'muuuuumy' and see them waving. BLESS!!!

Can you spot them!.....

Thank you Sue & John for doing this with them, and of course thinking of keeping in touch with us so that I could see them. We saw them on the return leg of their trip too - this I was even more grateful for, because I thought they might have aborted the return leg in favour for a pub that was showing the rugby match for John! The only problem with this little distraction was the concern of fellow boat drivers who, when they saw us waving our arms around madly, thought we were in trouble! Obviously this was explained away by the crew when the boats came screaming across the lake to rescue us! So, all in all. It was a long hard day for the crew. Boring I think would some it up! They all had back ache and as you can see from Danielle's face, purely fed up! So you three, imagine how bored I was!!!

The face sums up the feelings!!! Still pretty though!

It was brilliant to be able to finish it. I did exactly 12miles in exactly 6hrs, so that is nice and easy to work out 30mins a mile, including feeding time! I have since spoken to the 'Channel General' on my trip down to Dover and the reason I was probably feeling ill, was that I was taking in too much energy! I was feeding on gels, followed by a bottle of maxim. I have since cut out the gels, and will feed purely on maxim in my Channel swim, every 30mins. I will need to keep these feeds down to about 20 seconds each as I do not want to put unnecessary time onto my swim. I tried eating some solids but this didn't agree with me either so that is a no go in the Channel. I loved swimming Windermere and it was simply amazing to have those three on the boat... it HONESTLY did help me. Jason narrowly missed a dip in the lake with me which made me laugh to myself for ages. The funniest was at the beginning though when they all looked slightly concerned and waved me to stop. I stopped immediately and they all shouted 'can you swim a bit faster, the car ferry is coming across and you need to beat it'. I put my head down immediately and then after about 10 seconds though to myself, 'shit, are they actually SERIOUS'. Sure enough on looking up, it was coming. HELLO! CAN YOU SWIM FASTER TO BEAT THE CAR FERRY. Simply hilarious!!!! Of course I stopped and told them it might be easier to just swim across a bit, wait for it to pass, and then carry on. Anyway, it made a good start to the swim and made me giggle to myself for ages afterwards! You fools!

Going strong & enjoying the scenery....

Finished!

So.... in-between Windermere and Dover it was the usual training in the River Dee and a couple of trips to Blackpool beach. Where my friends, Michelle & Claire and I have found some new friends. Some seals! At first we were totally freaked out and after suggestions that this 'bobbing' thing looked like a bear, sanity got the better of us and we realised it was just a friendly seal. So it's nice to have company and a little distraction to the back and forth, in and out swimming!

Then came DOVER harbour! This was HARD. I can honestly say it was the toughest mental challenge I have ever had, apart from maybe giving birth! Having to constantly fight back the demons saying 'get out, it's cold', 'get out, your shoulder is too sore', 'get out, you can rather do more tomorrow and less today', 'get out, pretend you have cramp'.... etc etc etc! It took all my will power to stay in and although I wanted to do 7hrs on the Saturday and 5hrs on the Sunday, I managed 6hrs on Saturday and another 6hrs on the Sunday. This in total is obviously 12hrs. I hope to have covered the distance, or thereabouts, of the Channel but it's hard to tell because of the intense wind which pushed us back a lot of the time. Going on my speed I might have covered about 24ish miles / around 40km's, but of course like I say, this may have been a lot less! An incredible bunch of people that dedicate their weekends to training aspiring Channel swimmers. Namely Freda Streeter, the Channel General! Truly amazing advice and such genuine characters. I look forward to seeing more of them in the next two weeks while I wait for my swim.

This was definitely a worthwhile trip and has set my mind in gear for what I need to be prepared for. Although I hope they would not send me out in such bad winds, I need to be prepared for the weather to change in the middle of my swim, and then of course the winds may end up like that. It was tough, but I managed it, and I am so determined to manage whatever the Channel throws at me. Thank you again to Mark, who had the boys the whole weekend, despite it being our 5 year wedding anniversary, he never complained once! Poor man spend it at the hotel bar on his own, while I went to sleep with the boys at 7.45!!!!!!!!! Next year, I promise! Mark has been amazing and the boys have had such lovely times with him. He took them over to France on the ferry where Josh practiced his 'bonjour's'!!! Alex spent the afternoon eating mussels, and Josh & Mark had snails..... this was the highlight of their day! It was a long tough weekend for Mark too - 12 hours driving and solid childcare in-between, so thank you. Not to mention he has been in agony with whip lash since being crashed into last Thursday, so he certainly goes on my 'brave' list.

So, not long now, and if you could all keep your fingers crossed for the wind & rain to go away. As Josh says 'rain rain, go away, and not come back another day'.

Watch this space & I'll keep in touch. My 'crew' will be in touch when I set off and they will hopefully be able to update this blog with a vessel tracking link that you 'should' be able to track my boat on........ providing there is signal etc.

Thanks again to everyone for their support.

Jacqui xxx