Swimhiking Blog March and April 2009

This blog is becoming a bit of a burden. I imagined that as spring arrived and the swimhiking increased so I would want to boast about things more on the blog, but now I find that the last thing I want to do is to sit around on the computer writing about it. Also I have not bothered to have any more photos taken.

March Highlights
Seasoned Alpine swimhiker Matt and I pioneer two new routes on the River Wear, one above and one below Durham and both linking in to natural loops. The river is rather shallow and we spend a lot of time humping over rocks a bit like seals.

April Highlights
A package holiday in South East Cyprus provides for fantastic swimhiking, or rather snorkelhiking. The nasty little mauve stinger jellyfish that now infest the Med in summer are entirely absent; the nasty big jetskiers--considerably more dangerous than anything else in the water-- have not yet arrived in large numbers; the water is wonderfully warm a (at least by English standards), the fish are fab.
A particularly nice snorkelhike is a simple loop from Protarus Beach to the island at Fig Tree Bay. Here the sharp volcanic rocks means shoes are a must for exploring the island, and then dive in from the southern side of the Island and swim back to the shore and along the coast.

Back in North East England, the sea is warming up for swimming, with the tide sweeping up over warm sand on Druridge Bay on Easter Sunday.

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MAY
May 5 2009
An early morning swimhike begins in rain and ends in sunshine. Matt and I do a double crossing of the Wear around Durham. The first crossing is an expermient in a new spot...which turns out to be only knee deep. But on the second crossing, we swim about a hundred yards downsteam. This is the first time this year for me to swim downriver without a wetsuit (as opposed to just swimming across). So the summer swimhike season has begun! Later Matt and I are chased by cows. For some reason, I always seem to end up being chased by cows when out with Matt.


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