This time last year myself and a friend went down to Bigbury on Sea for a swim round Burgh Island. If you didn't read about it on the blog you can do so here.
We both decided that we wanted to go and do the swim again so that we could see all the things we missed the previous time due to poor weather and rough conditions. This time the sun was shining, birds were singing and we were in good spirits. Even the drive down was quicker than the previous year so things were looking great before we even arrived. The swim is pretty short and takes you anti-clockwise around the island and back into the bay.
We both decided that we wanted to go and do the swim again so that we could see all the things we missed the previous time due to poor weather and rough conditions. This time the sun was shining, birds were singing and we were in good spirits. Even the drive down was quicker than the previous year so things were looking great before we even arrived. The swim is pretty short and takes you anti-clockwise around the island and back into the bay.
There is always a short safety briefing before the swim where everyone is asked if they are swimming in wetsuits, like last year I was the only one who wanted to swim without one.
Starting out from the beach it was really noticeable that the conditions were better than the previous year, you could swim and breath as normal not to mention that you could see the bottom (well until it got rather deep). After about 5 minutes I saw my first jellyfish, I've been sea swimming for a while now and this was the first time I've ever seen anything bigger than my head swimming in the sea. I wasn't sure at first that it was a jellyfish it was so large, lucky it was quite a way below me so I only freaked out a little bit. I tried to take a photo of it but it was too far away and quite frankly I didn't want to get any closer to it. I carried on swimming and by the time I'd swum a few hundred meters more I 'd seen about 20 jellyfish, with the majority of them being rather deep and large. As usual there were a few exceptions, the girl swimming next to me nearly had a head on with one swimming near the surface - it was massive. Luckily she saw it, stopped and got out of the way. I would have stopped and taken a photo but it was the last thing on my mind.
A few minutes later I swam over another one, if I'd have stretched my arms downwards I would have just been able to touch it. This one was different, it was much smaller and had some rather ominous markings. Needless to say I didn't make an effort to touch it...
It took a good 10 minutes to get through the jellyfish gauntlet, no one was stung. However for the rest of the time in the water I noticed that most people made the decision to float on the surface of the water and not put their feet down.
Starting out from the beach it was really noticeable that the conditions were better than the previous year, you could swim and breath as normal not to mention that you could see the bottom (well until it got rather deep). After about 5 minutes I saw my first jellyfish, I've been sea swimming for a while now and this was the first time I've ever seen anything bigger than my head swimming in the sea. I wasn't sure at first that it was a jellyfish it was so large, lucky it was quite a way below me so I only freaked out a little bit. I tried to take a photo of it but it was too far away and quite frankly I didn't want to get any closer to it. I carried on swimming and by the time I'd swum a few hundred meters more I 'd seen about 20 jellyfish, with the majority of them being rather deep and large. As usual there were a few exceptions, the girl swimming next to me nearly had a head on with one swimming near the surface - it was massive. Luckily she saw it, stopped and got out of the way. I would have stopped and taken a photo but it was the last thing on my mind.
A few minutes later I swam over another one, if I'd have stretched my arms downwards I would have just been able to touch it. This one was different, it was much smaller and had some rather ominous markings. Needless to say I didn't make an effort to touch it...
It took a good 10 minutes to get through the jellyfish gauntlet, no one was stung. However for the rest of the time in the water I noticed that most people made the decision to float on the surface of the water and not put their feet down.
There were a few things that I learnt on this trip round Burgh Island, the first being that I can now tell the difference between Barrel and Compass jellyfish. For those who are interested they look this, Compass on the left, Barrel on the right. Photos taken from www.devonwildlifetrust.org and www.wildlifearticles.co.uk
The second is that I don't like things surprising me while I'm swimming. Having a jellyfish suddenly appear at eye level just to the right of you while you are swimming isn't something I like. The last thing is that having a tyre blowout on the way home isn't the best way of finishing off a day out at the sea side, it took rather a long time to get back...