A friend (yes, I do have some) and I went down to Devon on Friday for a sea swim that was organised by a company called SwimTrek. The swim itself was only about 2km but it was the experience of swimming round an island that we both wanted. After a late night and a very early alarm we set of on our way from Oxford to Devon. I've done a bit of sea swimming before but my friend hadn't. I like to think he was a little bit nervous like I was before my first swim in the sea but in reality he was very calm on the way down in the car so I don't think he was.
Burgh Island at low tide is connected to the mainland by a sandy causeway, at high tide you can only swim across or get the sea tractor. On the island itself there is a 1920s style Art Deco Hotel which in the 1930s was a bolt hole for some of London's rich and famous, including Noël Coward. The island itself has links to Agatha Christie and served as the inspirational setting for the Hercule Poirot mystery Evil Under the Sun. However we weren't there to see the hotel, we were there to swim round the island.
We arrived at the car park in good time and pretty much wanted to turn around and head straight home. According to the weather report it was supposed to be 29℃, sunny, the start of a heatwave. However it was gray, misty, rainy and the sea looked as rough as. None the less we got ourselves ready for our mini adventure. The sea was so rough the organisers were thinking of not letting us swim round the island.
Burgh Island at low tide is connected to the mainland by a sandy causeway, at high tide you can only swim across or get the sea tractor. On the island itself there is a 1920s style Art Deco Hotel which in the 1930s was a bolt hole for some of London's rich and famous, including Noël Coward. The island itself has links to Agatha Christie and served as the inspirational setting for the Hercule Poirot mystery Evil Under the Sun. However we weren't there to see the hotel, we were there to swim round the island.
We arrived at the car park in good time and pretty much wanted to turn around and head straight home. According to the weather report it was supposed to be 29℃, sunny, the start of a heatwave. However it was gray, misty, rainy and the sea looked as rough as. None the less we got ourselves ready for our mini adventure. The sea was so rough the organisers were thinking of not letting us swim round the island.
A short acclimatisation swim out to one of the safety boats showed how rough the sea was. Breathe at the wrong time and you'd get a mouthful of water. Luckily our guides decided it was OK to attempt to swim round so off we went. Once we rounded the tip of the island it got much worse, breathing was a real problem, you'd think you were on top of a wave only to have another one hit you in the face. There was one time where I swam freestyle under water, not something I recommend. If you want to swim under water, breaststroke is the best stroke. The waves were massive, I've never been in the sea when it was so rough.
We all pushed on, a couple of us through fireweed (it is like swimming through stinging nettles), trust me it really does sting. It was so hard to see the safety escort you had to guess where he was and when he did finally appear between waves he would be somewhere significantly different to where you thought he would be.
It wasn't long before we rounded the last part of the island and ended up back at the submerged causeway. Success was ours, we had completed our swim round Burgh Island.
A big congratulations to my friend Stuart, as a first sea swim it was incredibly tough and he made it round just behind me beating all of the other swimmers!
We all pushed on, a couple of us through fireweed (it is like swimming through stinging nettles), trust me it really does sting. It was so hard to see the safety escort you had to guess where he was and when he did finally appear between waves he would be somewhere significantly different to where you thought he would be.
It wasn't long before we rounded the last part of the island and ended up back at the submerged causeway. Success was ours, we had completed our swim round Burgh Island.
A big congratulations to my friend Stuart, as a first sea swim it was incredibly tough and he made it round just behind me beating all of the other swimmers!