Best of luck to him.

He's braver than me with all the shit I see dumped in the rivers.

He's swam the channel before I think. In the little britain live australia tour he did some big sea swimming race and did quite well.

Channel 20 miles ish, Thames 140 miles. Doing 24 a day, got pulled out yesterday due to onset of hypothermia in ****in September!!! I read/heard somewhere that there's parts of the Thames where he'll have to swim in a dragged cage due to the dangerous under currents! 😯 sounds loads of fun!

Just a thought, could you actually just float as it's all flowing towards that there London? 8)

That's what I thought - can't he just paddle and let the current do the rest?

Tidal river....

Hats off to the chap for the endeavour, mind you!

not all 140 miles of it, though.... up to them locks it's non-tidal.

i hate swimming... feel like i'm constantly fighting to stay alive. can never get the breathing thing right and end up with a mouthful of chlorine or salt water.

i did once try to walk on water by putting my armbands on my ankles. the lifeguard saved me. i was about 6, mind.

It's only tidal towards the London end tho isn't it??

He was hurting tonight only just finished an hour ago having started at 0700 this morning!!! Very impressive, 2 miles is hard let alone 20 a day four a week!!

I read/heard somewhere that there's parts of the Thames where he'll have to swim in a dragged cage due to the dangerous under currents

I must have just imagined it then aracer 🙄

I'm going to be part of his support crew/ fundraiser on thurs from goring to henley. Come and say hi to the big foam bt engineer!

P.s dont forget to bring a coupla quid to donate towards walliams' efforts!

wrightyson - Member
I must have just imagined it then aracer

Nope, they mentioned it on Radio 1 yesterday morning..

He was swimming under New Bridge at the exact moment I was driving home on Monday night.

Normally I'd have chucked an apple core...

Good work cheez0. Bit far for me to just pop down but will be donating from home!!

Tidal river....

It's not tidal in bloody Reading!

Don't know much about rivers, do you? 😉
FYI, it's tidal up to Teddington lock. Stuff like locks tends to stop a tide dead.....

Stuff like locks tends to stop a tide dead.....

This thread's teaching me more about the Thames than about DW, which is fantastic.

Anyone else ready to throw in some interesting Thames facts?

Here's mine:

From its source to the sea, it is estimated that the Thames carries some 300,000 tonnes of sediment a year.

I say good effort.

I must have been living in my own bubble because I didn't know this was happening until last night..

If he can do it, and I hope he does, thenfor sure all that nonsense he does on TV will pale into insignificance in my eyes.

He's braver than me with all the shit I see dumped in the rivers.

Thames is not too bad - not that dirty, nothing like it used to be in the 80s. They have salmon coming up the river nowadays.

It's only tidal towards the London end tho isn't it??

Tide starts partly at Teddington, but the low tide is held high by gates at Richmond Lock. After Richmond lock, it is proper tidal. He'll have 12 miles or so of tidal swimming from Teddington if he's finishing at Westminster.

From my limited experience of swimming in the tidal Thames (not Central London ever though!), assuming he only swims when the tide is going out or flat, and has all the safety boats etc. that point will in some ways be the easiest section. When the tide is coming properly in, you just can't swim against it - it comes in at something like 4 or 5 mph on a big tide, at that point all you can do is get out and wait a few hours. But when it is going out, it is like a free ride to wherever you're going. If he starts that swim at the top of the tide, he'll get down that bit in no time.

yeah come on David,, its harsh out there, i heard him on the chris moyles radio show and he was clinging on to the side of the boat whilst speaking to Moyles,,, moyles said abit of a break for you then (walliams said...not actualy a break No ! lol ... walliams has picked up a stomach bug also..drank to much Thames water he thinks.yuk...
wot a great man ...brilliant...
wots the number to donate again from your mobile ? text swim to ?

What about Richmond Lock? Don't know much about rivers do you?

Doesn't stop the tide (not fully) - it's only a half lock plus barriers. Stops the level dropping below a minimum level, but lets high tide in (the barriers are opened for two hours either side of high tide, and you can take a boat through them and skip the lock). I had to wade through 6 inches of water to get onto the island footbridge in Twickenham a couple of times last week.

Joe

Can't believe nobody has yet alluded to Mrs Walliams and her most delectable .. err .. flotation aids.

i did once try to walk on water by putting my armbands on my ankles.

😀

Who didn't try that as a child?

me 🙁 Though there is no reason why I can't pinch my daughters floats and have a go now!

Thames is not too bad - not that dirty, nothing like it used to be in the 80s. They have salmon coming up the river nowadays.

That's true, still wouldn't fancy it much when the storm outfalls start working. The combined sewer system in London is still a major embarassment! Not to mention a health risk, hope he's stocked up on Imodium...

And to add to that, did it rain yesterday? Hmmm so it did.. and the overflows will be working flat out, raw sewage overflows running into the Thames..

Nice..

This without the bun anyone..

[img] [/img]

wrightyson - Member
I know he's a bit Marmite

Meaning, what?

And to add to that, did it rain yesterday? Hmmm so it did.. and the overflows will be working flat out, raw sewage overflows running into the Thames..

Isn't the overflow thing mainly only in the tidal thames - ie. only his last day?

"Marmite" - You either love it or hate. Things described as "Marmite" generate a bit of a polarised opinion. So David Walliams has fans and haterz, not many people just seem ambivalent towards him.

At least that's my understanding.

Respect to him, but he has a long way to go to matching Eddie Izzard's achievements.

Sorry David, but good on you anyway 🙂

He got sick last night apparently.

Text 'Swim' to 70011 to donate a quid

I actually meant good luck to him.

I work on rivers I'm currently sitting now on a weed boat on the river. Even in the middle of the countryside you can still get pollution.

Respect to him, but he has a long way to go to matching Eddie Izzard's achievements.

Sorry David, but good on you anyway

Massive respect to both of 'em from me.

Will he swim past the Dome, sorry po'o2 arena?

He's seriously suffereing today you can follow it on @sportrelief on twitter and he's finding it hard! ALL respect to him.

"marmite"
Perfect explanation by peyote ^^^ there.

well ive just donated a quid to him/sport relief so best of luck to mr walliams 😉

Thanks for the donation wrightyson!

I'll hopefully have a few pics to post up in a coupla days.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14878646

Rather conveniently, I was crossing the bridge at the time and saw him heading in. Luckily for him, wind and tide were both the same way, so he was making good speed.

Well done that man!

The amount of sewage that's supposed to have poured into the Thames this week i'm surprised he couldn't walk all the way to Westminster!

Well done that man.

+1. Good effort. Swimming in the Thames, particularly in London, is really quite grim..

Great effort. Not heard the radio today so not heard what his money total was up to.

well done to him, but one little point. he didn't actually swim the length of the thames did he?

Your right warton he only swam 143 miles of it, what a cop out 🙄

Well done to him. An effort truly worthy of respect and admiration. Top man.

Your right warton he only swam 143 miles of it, what a cop out

Truly incredible effort, and he deserves massive respect for doing it. But all the hype around it was 'David Walliams swims the length of the Thames' and he hasn't. Just saying. FWIW the Thames is 215 miles long.

Maybe they're considering the length of the inland Thames rather than the coastal Thames? Cos the coast of Britain extends right up into central London.

Maybe. I dunno. What I do know is that he's done something that's a colossal achievement, one I don't think I could ever replicate, and raised shedloads of money for good causes.

He's a forking legend, is David.

Apparantly with all the sewage in the river he couldn't swim with the correct technique.
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He was just going through the motions..... 😯

Lewis Pugh did the whole length (including running the stream from the source to where it is swimming depth) down to Southend. He said that it was jolly hard and he's a very very experienced distance swimmer who's done loads of big ocean swims. I imagine that means that the whole thing is incredibly hard, so I think you have to have an awful lot of respect for Walliams even for doing the 140 miles of his route.

I dunno - I find that a mile or two of proper cold water is tiring enough, let along back to back days of >10 mile days.

HAve to say I've always thought he's a right fud, but hats off to him for this, pretty hardcore.

The overflow issues are only in the London end of the Thames.

Not an easy problem to solve as a) there's limited space to build the infrastructure needed b) whatever is done must be affordable

There is a solution though - the first part of it will be complete by 2015 and will get rid of most of the problem an the second part likely to be constructed in the next 8-10yrs.

🙂