It’s taken me two weeks to write about this but somehow my arm muscles are still aching so I’ve had a constant reminder that it is something I need to write about. It’s also a constant reminder that I need to change the name of this blog as AquaSplash is yet another activity that you wouldn’t do with a toddler. The minimum age is 6 and all participants need to be able to swim 25 metres in deep water. Luckily, the toddler is now a competent swimmer and also 14 so we were fine on both counts.
So AquaSplash is an inflatable obstacle course on a lake – we visited the one in Chigwell. For readers of a certain age, think “It’s a Knockout” in water. For readers of slightly less than that age, think “Takeshi’s Castle”. The Ts and Cs said that you needed to have a certain level of physical agility to complete the course but….well, we’ll get on to that. It was Roo’s choice of birthday treat so I agreed to it but booked myself and the mother of his two friends on to the course as well so we could try and stop the three of them drowning.
Google Maps didn’t seem to think we could get to Luxborough Lake on public transport so my first plan was to get the tube as far as Buckhurst Hill and then order an Uber from there. I’d checked the uber app a few times as I was sceptical about whether it would work in Zone 5 but sure enough, the options were there. The lake is actually close-ish to three Central Line stations but I’d chosen Buckhurst Hill because it was on the Epping branch and there would be more trains going that way than around the Hainault loop to Chigwell or Roding Valley. I felt like this choice was justified when we got as far as Stratford and saw that all the upcoming Hainault loop trains were terminating at…well, Hainault. So far, the plan was working perfectly.
The uber part did not work. Although I got as far as “finalising” a few times, it never did finalise. Maybe it’s because I needed a 6 person car or maybe it was the area but either way, we were out of options. It was time for a mile long walk through some bits of countryside. Incidentally, there is a bus stop at Buckhurst Hill and the 167 turned up just as we’d decided to walk but we had no idea where it went so were reluctant to jump aboard. I’ve just checked the route and that was a wise choice – it goes nowhere helpful. There is a 549 route which is more helpful but that doesn’t seem to run on Sundays. So we walked and it looked a bit like that:
Incredibly, we didn’t take any wrong turns – following Google Maps in the blinding sunshine can be a challenge and I doubted it a few times when it took us past some people’s garages and down an overground woodland path. Then we emerged onto a rugby pitch, dived into another woodland path and finally found a makeshift bridge over the River Roding:
Once you find the bridge, you’re pretty much there but it can be hard to keep the faith when you’re on a sport pitch, there’s no clear path ahead and one of the party has just walked headfirst into low hanging tree.
We got to the lake just in time. The Uber debacle had set us back a bit and we were already running to a tight schedule after church went on longer than expected. Luckily, we’d done our waivers already so all we needed was to change into our swimmers in the portacabins, get fitted for life jackets and attend the safety briefing. The changing facilities are pretty basic – I didn’t even see loos anywhere- but we were safe to leave out stuff on a shelf by the lake as it’s so remote and unlikely that anyone would swing by and nick it.
All there was left to do was to swim out to the obstacle course, climb aboard and get started.
Now, one of those things was substantially easier than advertised and one substantially harder. If I say it was the bit which required participants to be “reasonably fit & healthy”, would you believe me? First though, the easier bit. Although the Ts&Cs described it as a 25 metre swim out to the course, it was nowhere near that – it was really just a few metres. But I guess they need swimmers of a certain competence and a length of 25m is a pretty standard competence test.
More than easy, the swim was positively blissful. After a long walk in the sun, it was lovely to splash around in the cool water and I could have happily stayed there all afternoon. I politely let everyone else board the obstacles ahead of me but eventually, I had to try it and this was the challenging bit.
Basically, you have to be able to pull yourself up by your arms only – there’s nothing to put your feet on so the undignified move involves getting your leg up at a 90 degree angle onto the float and then hauling everything else to follow. If you can do a chin up, you’ll be fine but I’m not sure I could do that in the prime of my youth, let alone as a decrepit 40-something. Also, my legs don’t bend the right way. My skinny child managed it with little effort but he has long legs and no body fat at all. Meanwhile, I had to get grabbed by the lifejacket by a lifeguard who must be used to this cause he managed to drag me onto it. No wonder my muscles are still aching though – that was more work than I did 14 years previously giving birth to the child. And about the same level of dignity.
Once on, I tried my best not to fall off cause I didn’t want to go through that again. So I did the easiest obstacles – climbing up the pyramid, back down again, over there a bit, back a bit. Fortunately, the instructors didn’t feel the need to shout at us to complete the course so they seemed relaxed about me being a bit relaxed. I ended up sitting on the widest bit of the course, dangling my legs in the water and supervising the teens from afar as they scrambled over the obstacles. They all did very well and I think they made it rounfd the whole course. The other mother did well too….it was just me that was taking the lazy option.
At one point, she did persuade me to go down the slides which meant a dip in the water (yeh!) but another struggle back onto the course (boo!) The instructor promised to help me after going off to sort out a kid in trouble…I was more than happy with that, bobbing about in the water not even having to tread water because of the life jacket. Again, I could have stayed there all day but he did come back and then I resumed my less-than-frantic assault coursing.
On a serious note (unusual for me, I know) it did occur to me when I went down the slide that cold water swimming can be dangerous if you don’t respect the water. We hear every year during heatwaves about people drowning after they’ve jumped into lakes even tho they can swim and I kinda understand it now. My head went underwater and when I surfaced, my breath was coming out in very short bursts because of the cold water shock. I had a life jacket on and plenty of things nearby to grab onto so 100% safe but it did occur to me that anyone jumping into a lake without a life jacket could find themselves breathless and unable to get their breath back. I’ve done tons of cold water swimming but I always ease myself in slowly, letting my body get used to it and taking as many slow breaths as I can. And even I had that shock when my head went under. Given that we’re in a heatwave right now, it seems like a good time to remind people to respect the water and respect the sea. There is more information here.
Anyway, back to the fun stuff and I’m happy to report that the three boys had a wonderful time. Us oldies had a few aches and pains the next day and maybe for the two weeks after that but it was fun for us as well, I think. I’m not sure I would do the obstacle course again but I am now very keen to join the HP open water swimmers that visit the lake every Saturday. Now seems like a good time to get started.
On the way home, we aimed for Roding Valley as we weren’t under any kind of time pressure, and it was a much shorter walk. We crossed into Essex – I’m not entirely sure where we were before – and wandered over another rugby pitch but found ourselves a nice beer garden before getting back on the tube. Some very well-deserved pints of lemonade and bags of crisps later, we were at this diddy delight:
Yes, we had to wait a while for a train but it was a short hop for us to Woodford and then the bsu back from there. Totally doable!
For more information on AquaSplash, click here.
