So, since I last wrote, I've been otherwise occupied with three weekends off from training – with birthdays, weddings and holidays to enjoy.
This weekend I know that I'm going to probably pay for my lack of dedication to training, by suffering in Dover harbour. I don't think it will be pretty. For the first three weeks I had done the same mileage as Christian (who has a solo swim booked this year). Now he's done an impossible number of extra 4 hour, and 5 hour swims. I won't get near him this weekend - but hope to do 3 hours - if Freda lets me!
I'm not sure what I'm training for at the moment, which doesn't help. My plan had been to enter the two Lough Earne/Loch Earn swims (Ireland and Scotland respectively) this summer. But my work has been iffy and I'm in the middle of trying to get the situation resolved: basically my long standing contract at the Guardian newspaper runs out in July, and the transit to finding/securing/doing other work has not been easy to get my head around. Never mind the financial consequences. So, my plan is to train as though I was doing those swims, and then decide later on what I will do.
Anyway - more of an update on the weekend after it comes and goes. And for the rest of the summer I don't really have any commitments to take me away from training - so I should be able to commit to Dover properly for a while. This should be the road to fitness proper.
I haven't been only land lubbing though, when I wasn't in Dover. This is what I have been up to.
Last weekend, my swimming buddy Gee (Cally Masters swimmer and dedicated outdoor cold water/lido swimmer) and I headed off to Devon, our trip the somewhat tardy result of a daydream we had last year to swim in all of the lidos in the UK during the course of the summer.
Armed with Janet Smith's brilliant book on lidos, Liquid Assets, Wild Swim by Kate Rew of the Outdoor Swimming Society, and a sheaf of paper of printouts from Oliver Merrington's brilliant resource listing all the lidos in the UK, Gee and I packed several swimming costumes and an incidental amount of clothing, and headed to Devon.
Capturing our imagination originally had been Plymouth's Tinside Lido - a handsome and stripy 1930s lido that juts out from Plymouth Hoe into the Sound. Plymouth was our ultimate destination, but along the way there were going to be plenty of other swimming opportunities...
Water water everywhere...
Saturday we wake in Teignmouth, our first stop, to grey clouds, wind, and lots of it. It had rained on the drive down and it is threatening to rain in the morning. The sea doesn't look much inviting. We have breakfast in our hotel amongst a wedding party from Birmingham, and then pack our bags to go and see what Teignmouth Lido had to offer us.
What it offers is genteel swimming in steamily heated, 29 degrees C, chlorinated water. When we arrive, the pool is roped off with stringy nylon lane ropes into three fat and overample lanes. There are about 6 people swimming lengths. We plop into the fast lane joining two other swimmers and swim up and down in the fug. The lido has a small wire fence enclosing it and is overlooked by houses and gardens. A picnic table and plastic deck chairs are stacked up neatly waiting on the grass surrounding the lido for the sun. The lido complex is such an ordinary scale, so humble and quiet, it feels rather like we have stepped over someone's fence and are swimming in their back garden. After twenty minutes or so, everyone else had cleared the water. The lifeguards take the lane ropes out in preparation for the 'rush' of public swimming - but no public arrives. Instead, Gee and I have the pool to ourselves, and float around for a few minutes idly.
We had the lido to ourselves...
Teignmouth lido is about 10m from the seafront, so we can't resist dropping our bags in the changing room, running out of the deserted lobby in our swimmers, and down to the beach to jump in the surf.
After refreshing ourselves with a frolic in the surf, we head off to Plymouth, about an hour's drive away. Gee has spotted a 'wild' swim around Burgh Island in Bigbury-on-Sea in Kate Rew's book, and we decide to go there first to check out the swim. When we get there we find that we have mistimed the tides and we need to come back tomorrow, which we plan to do. We head towards Plymouth. By this time we are cold, and it's chucking it down with rain. There are floods of water on the winding roads back from Burgh Island.
We reach Plymouth at around one thirty in the afternoon. It's still raining and grey and cold. We have trouble finding the proper entrance to Tinside Lido, but finally manage, and pick our way down the odd desolate steps that lead to the lobby. There are no swimmers around. It's deserted. We pay our entrance fee and make our way to the deserted changing rooms. When we get to the poolside we find we are sharing the pool with just two teenage boys - one in tee shirt and shorts, the other in a wetsuit. There are three lifeguards.
Portsmouth Tinside Lido on a drizzly day. Overlooking Plymouth Sound. We had the whole pool to ourselves - and a cheeky seagull that tried to steal my hand paddles from my pool kit bag! It's a semi circle - with a diameter of about 60 or 70m?
The lido is beautiful - magnificent and decaying, despite its recent refurbishment. Being deserted doesn't help give a feeling of liveliness. It feels like a haunted house. The fountains that help aerate the water are massively noisy - the sound of the water pummelling echoes around the concrete of the building. The water is bizarrely salted and chlorinated – which seems so eccentric. The water is around 18C, but there are much colder patches.
Soon the boys get out and we have the lido to ourselves to swim around, sometimes across, sometimes up and down, sometimes round the edges. Gee gets cold and decides to get out, I stay in as long as I can without seeming rude. I could swim here all day. It has a feel of yesteryear.
Sunday - wild swims without wetsuits!
We spoke yesterday to the dudes in the surf shop by Burgh Island at Bigbury On Sea, and they gave us the lowdown on swimming round Burgh Island, and very sweetly handed us a copy of the tide tables. We need to arrive for the swim around high tide or a couple of hours later at the latest (it's a spring tide so we have a bit more leeway than you would at low tide). It's just as well we have the leeway because we get a bit lost and don't get to the Island until 9am. High tide was at about 7am. We've decided to wear our little fins as Gee's a bit worried about getting too cold on the swim round the island. The surf dudes tell us it's about a mile around the island if you go outside every rock. They tell us it will take 30 or 40 minutes. They tell us to go anti-clockwise and when we get to the east of the island to keep well in to the rocks. They also tell us there are some 'tricky currents'. I'm nervous as hell. Gee thinks we can climb on to rocks if we get into trouble but if truth be known, we have no idea what is on the south side of the island - it could be sheer cliffs for all we know. And I know that spring tides can be harsh. My mouth is dry as I put my watch on, tell the surf dudes that we should be back in an hour including sightseeing (they'll alert the lifeguards when the arrive at 10am for the start of their shift, if we're not back), and we walk across the sand of the causeway towards the start of the swim.
An arial view of the route round the island
A view of the rocky route from the top of the island - if you look closely at the rock to the right furthest out to sea, you'll see all the cormorants standing sentinel
It's a beautiful day - the sun is shining and the sea is flat as it could be. We set off, both nervous. It's beautiful and clear, there are amazing different types of seaweed - one type looks like egg noodles, another dark and flat. We see big silver fish, and little shoals. We start picking our way around the west of the island between the rocks - between rocky tunnels. It's really beautiful. We turn the corner to the 'dark' side of the island - furthest away from the shore. Here there are lots of rocks - we are weaving in between them - it's pretty sheltered here despite the fact it's the 'sea' side of the island. There is a rock that a whole bunch of cormorants are perched on - all looking out to sea. Rising out of the water there is a sheer cliff of what looks like mica, glinting in the sun.
We swim through a narrow gorge about 2m wide and 10m long. It could be rough here but today it's flat calm and lovely. I flip onto my back and relax and look at the view. We're having a lovely time.
We come out of the gorge on to the East side of the Island. The wind is coming from the East so this is the side that is a bit more tricky. We've been told by the surfers to stay close to the rocks - which we are doing but it's a bit bumpier now. Gee's getting a bit colder and we're having to think more about swimming. The water is moving so vigourously that the sea's rock bed looks like it's moving violently - whereas it's actually just the seaweed moving violently in relation to the seabed. Quite disconcerting. Gee is not enjoying this so much but now I feel more relaxed because I can see where the end is and can see our destination!
No sooner have I relaxed than I realise I'm trying to pick myself between two big shelves of rocks and that I've taken the wrong route! The rocks are about 4 feet apart, only just under the water, and I'm trying to forge a route between them. Suddenly a violent wave breaks over the one to my right and throws me towards the one to the left of me. Then the same wave breaks on to the rock to my left and throws me back towards the rock on my right. And so on. I'm suddenly in a mini washing machine, ricocheting back and forth between the two rocks! It's not dangerous, just tricky to manoeuvre, and I manage to prang my hand and knee on one of the rocks. Doh. I wrestle free and join Gee ahead of me. We have one more bit of rock to pass and then are in to the shallows. Excellent.
We've had a brilliant swim, and exit the water triumphant. After Gee's warmed up, and I've been patched up by a lovely lady in the car park, who tries to stem the impressive bleeding from my knee with two tiny bandaids - my knee actually looks like it's spurting blood from that 'knee artery' - we walk around the island and marvel at how the water level has dropped. Rocks that we were swimming through an hour ago we'd have to walk over now.
This was a beautiful swim - one that you have to do at high tide (if it's a neap tide) or near high tide (on a spring tide) - and one that it's probably advisable to do on a relatively calm day! I'd thoroughly recommend it to anyone...
We finish off our weekend with a stop for a fresh crayfish sandwich from a stall on the beach, and a swim, at Budleigh Salterton, in East Devon. An amazing long long shingle beach. Always a bit wild, but easy to swim along for a good few hundred metres without ever having to go out to sea.
A perfect weekend of swimming adventures.
I would recommend going down by train rather than car next time. After Exeter the train sweeps down through Dawlish, Teignmouth and so on skirting the sea until it veers inland towards Plymouth and on to Cornwall.
Posted by: buy cheap viagra | February 17, 2010 at 05:49 PM
Well done - you are brave! I've windsurfed there and been worried about being swept around the island, let alone voluntarily choosing to swim around it.
You didn't both reward yourselves with staying at the Burgh Island Hotel? http://www.burghisland.com/ The rooms are all in different art deco styles I think but the hotel is pretty snooty about letting you in unless you are staying there.
I would recommend going down by train rather than car next time. After Exeter the train sweeps down through Dawlish, Teignmouth and so on skirting the sea until it veers inland towards Plymouth and on to Cornwall.
Or you could do it in style next time and take advantage of the hotel's helipad.
Interesting to read about the lido there. Must try and visit some time.
Posted by: Ewan | June 12, 2009 at 04:11 PM
cool, you are two brave swimming dudes yourselves! What a lovely adventure....you did it!
Cath
Posted by: cath | June 11, 2009 at 10:22 AM