Tuesday 26 September 2017

Skinny dip plus.

Things have been somewhat quite on my front recently. Most of my walking has been local walks. Some walks, around five or six miles, have been combined with a swim.
After a layoff of many years, I find myself to be somewhat weak swimmer and lack confidence. However, I persist
Over the last week I found myself in a couple of challenging dips. Big seas and large rollers.
On those occasions i stayed in the shallows, playing tag with the crashing waves.
Wednesday evening saw me going in with the  swimming club. Friday, early morning, around six forty AM, saw me joining a few club members for an Autumnal Equinox swim. Chilly but a beautiful morning. In a mad moment, I then participated in the club's normal Friday swim at eleven in the morning.. it was a case then of nipping back to the flat to finish packing. Mike and I were off to Ross Back Sands for our annual pre skinny dip bivi.


The Saturday was largely spent drinking  tea, reading and maybe a spot of snoozing. Mike and Lucky headed off for a wee walk while I stayed with our stuff.
On his return, Mike went for a dip. Over the last few days I had been experiencing a few problems with my balance and my legs have given out once or twice. Possibly this is due to a recent increase in my medications? Wanting to make sure I was ok for the skinny dip, I avoided doing anything strenuous and that included swimming.


It was pleasant bivi though, despite a bit of condensation. Our day was enlivened by the flights of geese passing overhead. Skein after skein filling the sky. The air loud with their gabbling and chatter.
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                                                 Driftwood
Saturday afternoon saw us setting up camp at Druridge Bay in  preparation for the dip in the morning.
A night of little sleep, quite a few folk like to party. However, Mike and I were conscious by five in  the morning.  A cup of tea and in the early, pre dawn light we headed off to the beach. Crowds were already crowding the narrow strip of beach. The tide was high and there was a bit of a swell.
As the sun peeped over the horizon everyone stripped and hundreds of naked bodies hurled themselves in to the briny. Shrieks of laughter and cheers filled the air. It was a good dip, one I enjoyed. My actual time in the water was not that long, roughly between fifteen to twenty minutes. Unfortunately I did not manage much on the photo front. Mike, over on northernpies.blogspot.co.uk, has far better photos.
All in all, it was good fun. A big thank you Mike.

Just to round things off, today's conditions for swimming. Also, with a falling tide, A fairly large  swell was running.

7 comments:

  1. Not sure if that's brave or mad. I will go with mad. Nice photos of the sun reflection.

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  2. Thank you Alan. Probably mad, but all in a good cause.

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  3. Full of admiration Dawn!

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  4. I think very eccentrically British :)

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  5. Thank you Chrissie. Eccentrically British! Yes, I like that Andy.

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  6. I'm in awe of you Dawn, I really am!
    :-)

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  7. Thank you John. it is a case of needing to keep as active as possible and not allowing my Parkinson's to dominate.

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