The seed of adventure was sown in Chris Mount's head when he heard about David Walliams Thames swim event. He was completely in awe that a human could swim that far, especially in the sometime murky water of the world renowned river Thames. Three years later he found him self descending a small rickety wooden ladder into a seemingly small river in Lechdale.
His team consisted of a logistics manager, aka Dad, and pal Josh who kayaked beside him all the way. Josh kept him safe, fed and carried vital provisions onboard while his dad drove them to and from the river each day. He also had to find a good place to stop each day, which depending on the roads to the river was quite tricky sometimes.
The swim was a very emotional and physically draining rollercoaster ride. Sometimes Chris felt he was part dolphin, gliding through the water with ease, while on other occasions it felt like battling through two day old custard.
Through his efforts, they managed to raise £3,200 for The Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Helen & Douglas House, with most of the funds coming from people they met on river banks, in between locks and on their boats.
They planned to swim in steadily increments from the start. On day one he managed 8.5km, then day two upped it to 10km with the remaining days trying to achieve around 17km with the final day being 8.9km. The tide helped him swim that distance in only two hours with his family walking alongside helping collect donations and spurring him on.
Chris had one of our trackers with him on his journey. It was kept in a dry-bag on the kayak and was set to update their position every fifteen minutes, allowing friends, family and supporters to follow his progress in almost real time.
"It was so simple to use, we turned it on at the start of the day, put it in a dry bag, and then when we had finished for the day, we turned it off. We didn’t even need to charge it, and it only used about 20% battery over the 15 days. Lovely bit of kit that linked to an interactive map online that displayed the location and also tweets."
For more information on Chris and his swim please visit his website.
This is just one adventure that our trackers have had. They have been up Mount Everest, across the Atlantic, raced across desserts, been to space and also helped raise awareness for races and charities alike.