Wednesday 19th January, Burton Bradstock

After what seems like weeks of rain we have a perfect day. Blue sky, warm sun and just a light northerly wind. Sheltered by the cliffs we could bask in the sun and look forward to not-to-distant long summer swims.

Amazingly, between our schedules and the weather, MG and I have not managed to swim together since our snow swim back in November. We seem to be at opposite ends of the country at opposite times. And when we are both in Dorset, its stormy. Given todays weather luck we both jumped at the opportunity of a sea swim.

The beach was deserted and glorious. Low tide revealed a huge expanse of shingle and feeling brave thanks to the warm sun we got changed by the cliffs so giving us a short walk to the water (when its really cold we change almost at the waters edge to reduce our exposure to the minimum... then we have to juggle minimum exposure with all our stuff getting wet in a large wave...).

We were both a little slow getting into the water, static at waist deep in the hope of acclimatising. When this failed to happen and instead we just started to go numb we got brave and swam out. Beautiful, the sun warming our faces while the water froze our bodies. We were on the beach again in a few minutes but then, surprised by the fact we were feeling fine, returned to the water. This time I dived, not very wise as brain-freeze followed - I did not think it could be much colder under the surface. By now however the water felt fine. We thought we could stay in for ages only we both had busy afternoons and could not risk the need for a hot bath or return to bed which has happened to some of us in the past after staying in too long... but before we could go, MG could not resist one more quick dip and her own brain freeze.

A quick change and a hot chocolate. The sun warmed us and we were able to sit chatting bare footed and coatless at the base of the cliff. We could barely believe it was January. Bliss.

SW