Morning dip in Bantham

Today we woke up at Farthings. Looking out of our bedroom window we realised that the tide was high.

So a quick breakfast for the girls and a family dash to the quay for a refreshing dip in the Avon. It was blustery but magical as always. I always feel a bit sorry for our girls as they sit in their pram and watch their nutty parents strip off and jump in to various rivers, seas, lidos and lakes but they don't seem to mind too much, well as long as we are armed with raisins and books!


Stuart went first and Freda, Etta and I watched as he swam out into the estuary. The view from where we watched was lovely, a redish tint to the sky you can see where the estuary meets Bantham beach and it looks powerful but always beautiful. It's such a wonderful place. Burgh Island sits beyond the mouth of the estuary. You can't see it from where we swim but you can see the cliffs of Bigbury, this morning Bigbury looked like a welcome place to be. More welcome that the water but we still managed to get in and have a swift refresher.

As Stuart returned I executed a quick change into my cossie and we had a nippy changeover. The water was cold but not cold enough to give me an ice-cream headache and infact I didn't even get cold today. Either I've got a higher fat content than I used to (very possible - I do like cakes!) or I'm just hardening up (not quite so likely!)

Either way it was a lovely start to the morning and we strolled slowly back to Farthings for a leisurely breakfast of toast and coffee followed by a sad departure, back home to the real world.

Bye Bye Bantham, see you again soon x

Impulsive morning dip

My drive to the local swimming pool takes me over the brow of a hill that always reveals a different seascape. Some days it's grey, choppy and uninviting others it's flat calm and shouting at me to swim in it. Usually I ignore it as I'm on my way to the pool and if I'm dipping outside it feels wrong to do it without Stuart. But for the last few weeks I've been staring longingly at the sea and the Dart wanting to get in and get cold. So this morning when I saw how wonderful the sea looked I couldn' t resist and the swimming pool didn't stand a chance.

Rather than turning right into the concrete world of the leisure centre I drove straight past and along the coast to Broadsands. It's a beach that I'm learning to love, it's easy to get in and out of the sea and it has beach huts with the same multicoloured doors as the 'Lido' and for that reason I love it. It isn't that picturesque on approach but once you're in the sea it's lovely. If the tide is high it's the best swimming spot I know as you can go from one side of the bay to the other and it's like it was designed to be an enormous outdoor swimming pool.

I expected it to be really cold and I was really hoping it would be. I braced myself for numb toes and an ice cream headache but as soon as I dipped my toes into the water it felt luke warm. It wasn't luke warm but in comparison to what I'd been imagining it really wasn't cold at all. It's the 4th of November and I could have swum a mile. I'd bet money that people have successfully swum the channel in water colder than this.

It was a very enjoyable swim, grey on entry but as I swam across the bay the sun came out and I swam with the sun on my back. The sea was flat calm and fluid, it was easy to slice through the water. It felt as if somehow the water was wrapping around my arms as I swam, it was silky smooth and I enjoyed every stroke. It was just as it should be.

I will do these impulsive dips more this winter. It was a great way to start the day and very exciting to be swimming outside first thing in the morning, in November. It's how it used to be!

It's November! Time for a dip in the delicious Dart

The Dart is beckoning me. Every time I walk past it or see it while I walk I hear it calling me. Come on in Olivia, it's cold in here. It was a little frosty this morning and I felt my toes tingle at the thought of putting them in the Dart.

The thought is exciting, putting on just my swimming costume my hat and my goggles I must submerge myself in the River soon and preferably under the frosty darkness of an early morning.

The River down by Duncannon is one of the most beautifully secluded and picturesque parts of the river between here and Totnes. It's a secret dipping spot that isn't easy to access unless you are prepared to wander through fields and down an old wooded pathway and down the steps built especially for King Charles II, according to local legend. I wonder if he too craved a chilly dip or if his corset and gown simply wouldn't allow!?

Edward Lovesey's delightful Otter

According to a local artist and recently published in the Stoke Gabriel News there has been an Otter spotted in the Dart recently. So it's clear that local swimmers of all shapes and sizes agree that now is the time to be diving into the Dart.

So, the next time that we have an early morning high tide I will wander down to the frosty river and submerge myself in the gloriously chilling waters of the Dart.

My lovely River Dart, here I come....I'll let you know how I get on.