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!