April 30 2010
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In response to pleas of legions of blog-readers, I reluctantly return to the keyboard to resurrect my swimhiking diary. However, I intend to do so only in an intermittent, desultory kind of way; certainly not every month.
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So what has been going on for the last four months?
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I have not worn a wetsuit this year, satisfying myself instead with popping in and out of some of our favourite spots on the local rivers Browney and Wear. Matt has been coming too. Most of these trips have been very early in the morning and for the first three weeks of the year they were in snow. This was Matt’s idea, He kept seeing features on telly of people frolicking in frozen lakes and insisted that we did the same. His instincts were quite right. swimming the dark with the world illuminated only by snow has been quite memorable.
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In March we began using our swimsacs for crossings, but it is only this week that we have begun swimming downstream on our hikes. The river is very beautiful if you can see past all the detritus. Yesterday we saw deer, jumping fish and five swans in flight. Our best morning for wildlife was when we saw three mink, including one swimming upriver and then climbing a tree, where Matt took a photo.
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