Wow!! It's been a long time! We have much to discuss, old friends! Since the last entry, a lot has changed. Many swimming-related events have taken place, and it is now less than a week until Seb and I part ways for the best part of a year:
"Flotsam and Jetsam shall be carried wherever the current takes them, but always on the same ocean they shall remain." - Confucius*
I went to Devon on holiday for 2 weeks in the summer with my family. We have been doing so for the last seven summers, to the same place, where we meet up with friends. It is unfailingly the most fun-packed fortnight of the year. My brother has recently bought a superb book named "Wild Swimming" by Daniel Start, which lists places to swim in rivers, lakes, tarns and waterfalls across the UK. I went on my first wild swim at a stop in Somerset on our way down to Devon. This is what it was like:
Friday 24th July 2009
I had a dream in the night that I was on a ship/ferry on a beautiful sunny day, on which there was a big tank of water, something like a swimming pool, and some people were introducing us to whales and sharks swimming around in it - spectacular, it was! I sat on the side railing of the boat-like vessel, and a fella who was very strong and muscly (who looked afraid of nothing and bore a passing resemblance to my old friend, one Mr Burly McRepface) said something to the effect of "I'll swim however long I want in any swimming pool, anywhere in the world, but ask me to go in there," he motioned towards the sea surrounding us. "And I just won't. Ever." I can't remember exactly what happened then, but I dived either into the big pool or into the sea, and in the distance swam a giant Blue Whale, with its beautiful calf, which was a shimmering white for some reason.
Then I woke up, and thought to myself that the muscly guy represented me in my mind, and my latent fear of swimming over unknown habitats. Anything could be down there! Also, that I need to see a Blue Whale before I die, but anyway, later today, it turned out , I confronted my fear of the unknown when we stopped at Castle Carey, near Lydford on Fosse in Somerset, in the pouring rain. My brothers and I explored the churchyard of St Peter's church, its luscious green grass and brown river, edged by willows and wildflowers. We sheltered under the dense dark foliage of an ancient Yew, then, after getting ready (in both body and mind), I clambered into the river from the bank, watched by an old couple down here for their holiday. "Do you mind if we take photos?" they asked us. We told them we didn't mind. It must be nice to be in some anonymous photo album somewhere, after all.
The water was quite brown, visibility less than 1 foot, due to the recent rains, according to the Environment agency people who turned up later, simply to watch us frolick (not to tell us off, as we initially thought). We swam under the bridge, pretending we were pirates and jumped from the top of it into the water as well!!! It was so much fun!! My brothers joined me in the river, and we revelled in the beauty of the natural world. "Immersion is sublime!!!" I shouted to my parents on the bank as I surface-dived to the bottom of the River Brue. The sporadic, though quite heavy rains added to the natural, primordial, adventurous atmosphere as we explored the river, and repeatedly clambered out to jump from the bridge, using thick roots to pull ourselves out, epic adventure style!!
"This is my first wild swim, and my favourite!" I said, fairly unnecessarily. "It's like Zelda!!" I went on to observe.
"Yeah, when you go under the bridge at Lake Hylia to get the jar!!" said Brother the Elder.
We swam down the river, comparing the experience to Coral Island, The Wind in the Willows and The Odyssey (Starring Armand Assante). We climbed out at the weir, and we (the whole family) walked through the churchyard and across another bridge. Younger Bro and I picked 5 apples from the orchard there, when the rain poured down again, as we revelled in our bare-footed adventure, making us feel like our long distant hunter-gatherer ancestors. We changed back into our clothes in the church porch.
What an adventure!! My first wild swim made me feel so alive, so refreshed, and so spiritually enriched!! Hopefully the first of many!!!
*Legal Disclaimer: My little Confucius, there's no place like Ponyland!!
"Flotsam and Jetsam shall be carried wherever the current takes them, but always on the same ocean they shall remain." - Confucius*
I went to Devon on holiday for 2 weeks in the summer with my family. We have been doing so for the last seven summers, to the same place, where we meet up with friends. It is unfailingly the most fun-packed fortnight of the year. My brother has recently bought a superb book named "Wild Swimming" by Daniel Start, which lists places to swim in rivers, lakes, tarns and waterfalls across the UK. I went on my first wild swim at a stop in Somerset on our way down to Devon. This is what it was like:
Friday 24th July 2009
I had a dream in the night that I was on a ship/ferry on a beautiful sunny day, on which there was a big tank of water, something like a swimming pool, and some people were introducing us to whales and sharks swimming around in it - spectacular, it was! I sat on the side railing of the boat-like vessel, and a fella who was very strong and muscly (who looked afraid of nothing and bore a passing resemblance to my old friend, one Mr Burly McRepface) said something to the effect of "I'll swim however long I want in any swimming pool, anywhere in the world, but ask me to go in there," he motioned towards the sea surrounding us. "And I just won't. Ever." I can't remember exactly what happened then, but I dived either into the big pool or into the sea, and in the distance swam a giant Blue Whale, with its beautiful calf, which was a shimmering white for some reason.
Then I woke up, and thought to myself that the muscly guy represented me in my mind, and my latent fear of swimming over unknown habitats. Anything could be down there! Also, that I need to see a Blue Whale before I die, but anyway, later today, it turned out , I confronted my fear of the unknown when we stopped at Castle Carey, near Lydford on Fosse in Somerset, in the pouring rain. My brothers and I explored the churchyard of St Peter's church, its luscious green grass and brown river, edged by willows and wildflowers. We sheltered under the dense dark foliage of an ancient Yew, then, after getting ready (in both body and mind), I clambered into the river from the bank, watched by an old couple down here for their holiday. "Do you mind if we take photos?" they asked us. We told them we didn't mind. It must be nice to be in some anonymous photo album somewhere, after all.
The water was quite brown, visibility less than 1 foot, due to the recent rains, according to the Environment agency people who turned up later, simply to watch us frolick (not to tell us off, as we initially thought). We swam under the bridge, pretending we were pirates and jumped from the top of it into the water as well!!! It was so much fun!! My brothers joined me in the river, and we revelled in the beauty of the natural world. "Immersion is sublime!!!" I shouted to my parents on the bank as I surface-dived to the bottom of the River Brue. The sporadic, though quite heavy rains added to the natural, primordial, adventurous atmosphere as we explored the river, and repeatedly clambered out to jump from the bridge, using thick roots to pull ourselves out, epic adventure style!!
"This is my first wild swim, and my favourite!" I said, fairly unnecessarily. "It's like Zelda!!" I went on to observe.
"Yeah, when you go under the bridge at Lake Hylia to get the jar!!" said Brother the Elder.
We swam down the river, comparing the experience to Coral Island, The Wind in the Willows and The Odyssey (Starring Armand Assante). We climbed out at the weir, and we (the whole family) walked through the churchyard and across another bridge. Younger Bro and I picked 5 apples from the orchard there, when the rain poured down again, as we revelled in our bare-footed adventure, making us feel like our long distant hunter-gatherer ancestors. We changed back into our clothes in the church porch.
What an adventure!! My first wild swim made me feel so alive, so refreshed, and so spiritually enriched!! Hopefully the first of many!!!
*Legal Disclaimer: My little Confucius, there's no place like Ponyland!!
