Great North Swim

What a fabulous day!!

I sent a text to Dermot on radio2 this morning to say I was off to do the Great North Swim and he read it out...yay.

I picked Victoria up (in my new car) and we whizzed up to Windermere for the swim. I’d pre booked a parking space at Brockholes and it was the best thing I’d done. The traffic was good and it was great to just pull into a car park and not have to search for somewhere on a sunny day in the Lakes.

We were the pink wave at 13:30 and it was blue skies and 18 degrees in the water. It was quite choppy and I swallowed some when big waves smacked me in the face. I lost Victoria soon after getting in. Everyone looks the same in a pink hat so I just swam on. I stopped for a quick photo at the half way point. Swimming out to the half way buoy was tough in choppy water and swimming back wasn’t much easier, but swimming across was brilliant as I felt like a torpedo as I whizzed with the waves...brilliant.

When I got out Victoria was there! It had been too choppy for her and the waves made her quite nauseous so she was taken back by a rescue boat. The mile was too much and so next time she will be far more confident doing the 500m course.

There was a woman on the floor when I got out, I don’t know what happened, but St. John Ambulance were with her. Anyway the air ambulance arrived for her. She must have collapsed as she got out of the water.

We had a picnic in the sunshine and soaked up the whole atmosphere before heading home. What a fabulous day, I’m still on a high.

Yes I have a new car. I went with Terry to look at cars last Sunday and ended up buying one which I picked up on Thursday. It was wonderful to drive up to the Lakes in it today.