Friday 1pm - Hampton Pool

From Richmond we hopped on a bus and headed to Hampton open air pools. The heated pool, which is open 365 days a year, is at the edge of Busy park not far from Hampton Court Palace. We were already hungry when we arrived and decided to swim first and then grab lunch at the café and terrace looking over the pool. Like Richmond Pools on the Park the Lido was busy with families on one side of the pool and lane swimmers on the other. After we’d each completed our 400m we joined the kids at the mini slides and started a water fight before retiring to the café.

In the Café we met the owner Dabbie who told us about groups of swimmers who had visited Hampton pools earlier in the year racing each other round several lidos and their tales of champagne to be found at Brockwell Lido. While we didn’t really believe these tales of bubbly and Lido luxury we couldn’t help holding on to a small hope that they just might be true…. As we sat down to eat the rain started pouring down and by the time we left to catch the bus into town we were huddled under anoraks trying to keep our warm clothes dry.

Thanks to Hampton Pools support we were able to add £16.80 to the LEPRA fund and between us we swam 1440m.