The Scilly-ist thing
Like all good stories these days the timeline needs to jump around a bit to make it interesting or is it just to confuse you. Though usually my poor spelling and bad English does that well enough.
However in keeping with the times, my time line will now bounce around
It T minus 5 weeks to holiday fun in the Scilly Isles. No doubt many people have played on the words of this beautiful place but without a doubt this is the silliest thing I have signed up for and more fool Sacha for being convinced by me too.
You cant just enter on a whim....first you have to know about it, seriously consider it as its not free and be ready to hit enter the moment it opens as it sells out in 10mins. This isnt the London Marathon ballot which I enter knowing its highly unlikely I win......and its just hitting me that I entered the swim equivalent of doing two marathons over two days near enough! Oopsy
Poop poop. So June I was 3 swim a week smashing along feeling like progress was being made....did a triathlon didnt drown wasnt the slowest. Then fell off the the training wagon got sick, went to Cowes Week- we snapped the rudder off and here we are trying to psyche myself up to putting a wet wetsuit on having lost my drink bottle on my first swim! I am hoping that will be easier when you really have to, are buoyed along by other swimmers and arent in the throws of 5th UK HEATWAVE!
In a bid to actually try and improve my swimming despite the incredible guidance of Instagram to this point, with a mere three weeks to go rather than at the beginning of deciding to do this I have had a swimming lesson. With a bit of video analysis it turns out I swim along with my head up so my legs sink and drag behind, I cross my arms so I zig zag everywhere and I extend from my shoulder not think tall through my head. Only three weeks to correct these years of inbuilt muscle memory swimming patterns. On the plus side I do breathe out properly underwater!
Trains planes and automobiles that's whats required to make our currently slight bumpy start to a land based water adventure on the Isles of Scilly
Sacha and I set off with a lift from my Dad (thank you) at 0830 to catch the train from Southampton changed at Reading.....had a slight run in with the train conductor about how network rail cards work....negotiation was tricky! Arrived in Penzance to take a taxi to Lands End airport. This is where the bumps began...due to circumstances out our control I got in the taxi and sacha was left to enjoy an out and back on the train and night in penzance.
Of all the taxis you can get I had a proper london black cab to the airport and a very chatty cabby who had done 7 marathons and his Dad was a really good swimmer but he had never been to the Scillys because he gets seasick and is scared of flying.
0700 Saturday morning wetsuits on walking through Manor Farm to swim up to at least the secret beach on the river and back. A big swim for us and then the plan is to do a couple more before we head off to the Scilly Isles. Neither of us had ever swum in the river up here before other than splashing around off my paddleboard and there was not a soul around, just us and the river.....well until secret beach territory where there were campers but all still tucked up in their beds. Initially not a great swim for me a missed breathe and some swallowed water while still struggling with a flemmy chest and I was breast stroking! This is my biggest fear especially in more choppy conditions a miss swallow of water or just not clearing this chesty thing. Eventually I found my feet and even had a brief moment of swimming fast and straight before promptly spearing off into the river bank......but there is hope.
Final swim and I am back at my little slice of peace of Andark Lake swimming in circles. This use to be my escape from the world it then got slightly ruined by the need to swim further. However today I swam enjoyed the ducks and birds and obviously a hot choc and lotus cake
Orange boarding cards comes the call for all 8 people in the entire airport and we scuttle into to a waiting room sit down and watch our safety video.
To be fair the plane is tiny....aside from maybe island hoping in the caribean or when I flew over the Great Barrier reef it was the smallest plane I had been on and it was fairly windy.....the ferry would not have been fun and if this was to be your first flight, like the taxi driver, it wouldn't do wonders for your fear. Touch down and about a 3 second walk to the terminal where rhe bags a pushed through a hole in the wall onto rollerbar carousel and then 2 second walk to the shuttle bus.
Welcome to the Scillys
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