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Dave and I had had returned to our East London base for breakfast having decided to make a quick change of plan and tackle the two Essex pools later. Sally had rung ahead and discovered that the Chelmsford pool was closed for cleaning until 12 noon. This was no problem as we were arriving around then. When we finally got to the pool there was a large queue built up waiting to get in. Dave asked one of the security people and was told that there had been an incident that morning and we should return later in the day. However, on further investigation it became clear that there were not many people using the pool, so through the reception staff, I was able to speak to Ian, the pool manager. He told us to go ahead and use the pool, which was part of a large leisure complex. This time we again swam for ½ an hour, as we were unsure of the pool length. There was a big globule of I know not what in the bottom at the deep end so our earlier information about pool cleaning seemed a trifle inaccurate. However, we had a relatively unimpeded swim and were thankful to cross it off our list.