{"id":5483,"date":"2020-08-15T11:41:01","date_gmt":"2020-08-15T15:41:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=5483"},"modified":"2020-08-15T11:42:52","modified_gmt":"2020-08-15T15:42:52","slug":"episode-94-swimming-down-the-rhine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=5483","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 94: SWIMMING DOWN THE RHINE"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
EPISODE 94,   SWIMMING  DOWN THE RHINE RIVER , RHEINFELDEN, SWITZERLAND,<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
August 2020<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Today, the third August week end, a thousand adventure seekers will be floating down the St. Clair<\/div>\n
River from the Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia to who knows where.  They will be  floating on an<\/div>\n
assortment of plastic, rubber,wooden rafts.  Some with beer coolers strapped down.  Yes, it is<\/div>\n
dangerous.   Normally huge freighters thread their way down the St. Clair River  but not this<\/div>\n
week end.   Attempts to stop the rafters have failed so  the big  freighters are not allowed<\/div>\n
on the river this week  end.  <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
For those who are not familiar with geography, the St. Clair River links  Lake  Huron  with Lake Erie.<\/div>\n
A narrow stretch of fast water between  two of  the Great Lakes.  Yes, it is an adventure.  No one<\/div>\n
organizes the FLOAT DOWN so no one is responsible therefore the Float Down is hard to <\/div>\n
stop.  Rescue  boats  from both US and Canadian sides of the river will hopefully retrieve<\/div>\n
any person whose plastic raft springs a  leak.  Or drinks too much beer.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
The  international boundary between  Canada  and  the US runs down  the centre of<\/div>\n
the river.  Mistakes in navigation could  land  American adventurers in deep trouble\u2026<\/div>\n
especially with Covid 19 in the air \u2026 and in the  lungs of some floaters.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
As I was reading the article about the Float Down in the Toronto Star, I was<\/div>\n
reminded of  the sunny August day several years ago when our son Kevin<\/div>\n
asked , \u201cHow  about swimming down the Rhine today?\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
We  protested but finally caved  in and stepped into the fast flowing Rhine<\/div>\n
at Rheinfeldon, a Swiss town above Basel.  There were a couple  of others<\/div>\n
in the water\u2026moving fast.  No need to swim,” just let the racing river carry you\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Once in the river, Kevin also told us to keep close to the Swiss side of<\/div>\n
the river.   \u201cDon\u2019t get out in the middle or you will miss our landing point<\/div>\n
and end up floating through the City of Basel.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
We  followed him and his kids.  When he cut floating and began to swim<\/div>\n
to shore, we did the same.  \u201cThe landing point is narrow\u2026you will only have one chance.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
We made it.  Thrilled actually.   Take a look at the pics  below\u2026not our families<\/div>\n
but could well have been.  We  carried  our clothes with us  but did not have the<\/div>\n
special clothing float bags of the Swiss swimmers.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
I did get into a problem however.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n


<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
We landed at a Swiss waterpark much  like the playground below.  Kevin <\/div>\n
recommended we all take a slide down a hard plastic flume like the one below.<\/div>\n
That was fine for slim adults and teen agers.  Not so  good for me.  My bum<\/div>\n
was too big so it spanned the water flume that made sliding  possible.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
I sat there, about ten feet down, immobile.  Everybody laughing.  It took a long<\/div>\n
time to weasel  my way down\u2026sort of bum walking much to the enjoyment of<\/div>\n
our family  and any kids and adults interested.  \u201cMove along\u201d, some seemed<\/div>\n
to call in Swiss German.   It took a  long time.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
august 2020<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 94,   SWIMMING  DOWN THE RHINE RIVER , RHEINFELDEN, SWITZERLAND, alan skeoch August 2020 Today, the third August week end, a thousand adventure seekers will be floating down the St. Clair River from the Blue Water Bridge in Sarnia to who knows where.  They will be  floating on an assortment of plastic, rubber,wooden rafts. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5483\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}