Guernsey 2014

There has been talk of the Mermaids going to Guernsey (where I’m (manda) from) for a while now and even talk of a Guernsey to Herm swim. So whilst Kate is training for her channel relay and me and katie training for Windermere, it seemed like a great time not to pack the wetsuit and head to the island with fellow ‘Murm’ Suz.

Unfortunately after many conversations with my dad re tides (still no idea, sorry Dad) and consulting Guernsey tri and my former swim club, Guernsey Swimming Club, we realised that the suitable weekends for a Guernsey-Herm swim weren’t going to work for us, so that was off the cards.

What we did instead was a lovely high tide swim a Pembroke / Lancresse on the Friday evening. The first thing that hit me was the salt. After becoming urbanised after spending too long in the lidos of London or the various lakes within London reach, diving in was a shock and ensured there was plenty of nuun quaffed afterwards. It was a short but sweet swim.

Next day we headed to Herm http://www.herm.com for a chilled out walk around the island and stopping at each of the kiosks for a tea / ice cream. We didn’t swim, despite taking our swim stuff and instead enjoyed just chilling out on the beaches.

In the afternoon we headed out for a kayak adventure with outdoor Guernsey around Portlet. Kate went in a solo and me and Katie opted for the ‘easy’ option of a 2 person kayak. I thought we would be good at this, being swimmers, er no! Apart from my total inability to steer, we also went very very slow and my arms burned after about 30 seconds. Lesson learnt. After 90 minutes of kayaking through the various rocks around Portlet, it was time to head to shore.

On the Sunday we got up and headed for a walk from the bathing pools

To Fermain.

We went for a chilly dip at Fermain, much to the on looking tourists’ delight. It was such a peaceful swim and reminded me why I enjoyed swimming when I was younger and probably why I stopped as soon as I left Guernsey.