It’s always a long train journey to get to Cornwall but I know it’ll be worth it when I get there. However, this journey and day was not just any normal day.
On 8th July I was invited to London to take part in some filming in for Disney, yes, you read that right – Disney! I spent around an hour filming, had lunch and was then taken to Paddington train station so I could travel to Cornwall.
I was helped onto the train, and they put me in first class, which I will never complain about! It was a long journey, I had writing and work to do and had my laptop, but I was just too tired and ended up dozing off instead. I was woken by a train conductor asking where I was getting off, and we discovered I had been put in the wrong part of the train. As a result, I had to get off at Plymouth, shoot down the platform, and get back on again, which really didn’t help the exhaustion and pain levels.
I finally arrived and met my friend just before 7pm, it was back to hers for dinner and to try and plan my final week of sea swimming before my Bristol Channel swim in August!
Day 1
The weather wasn’t looking great for the week and we feared I may not get much swimming in so there was a bit of praying to the weather gods, which, sort of worked. The first day of training I met up with Jackie Cobell for a swim, for those that don’t know; Jackie held the record for the longest one way English Channel crossing until I beat it (unintentionally) last year. The weather was rubbish, it was grey with drizzly rain, but I didnt care; I was swimming in the sea with a couple of incredible people and swimmers!
I was still quite tired from travelling so after our swim we headed back to my friends house to rest because the following day I was hoping to do a 6 hour swim!
Day 2
On day 2, I had the delight of going and swimming at Porthpean. It was the perfect day for a 6 hour so we decided to go for it. I did the first 2 hours on my own and was really enjoying myself but on the 3rd hour Loretta decided to jump in for a swim with me. We swam round the coast a little way to some caves and had a bit of a nosey and explore. To our surprise as we came out of one of the caves a seal popped up to say hello. Sadly, I wasn’t quick enough to get a picture or video of it but never mind – I am always grateful that I get to encounter such a wide range of animals when im swimming that I may otherwise not see!
I did actually see the seal a few other times whilst I was swimming. It wasn’t until hour 5 that I began to struggle a little, I was tired, my rib was hurting (still recovering from falling out of my wheelchair) and I just started to lag. Luckily, I had a whole cheer squad though – there was a school trip going on with kids on SUPs and in Kayaks and they had been told what I was trying to do and every time they went past me they cheered and shouted encouraging words at me – it was so lovely, a huge boost and help! Thanks to them, I finished my 6 hour swim strongly, exhausted but proud that I had managed 6 hours with a healing rib fracture.
Day 3
Putting it bluntly, I was shattered. We decided that I would do a short 2km swim just so I could get my arms moving and stretch out a bit. I had also been asked by the people at Disney for some photos of me swimming so we headed to Ready Money Cove.
It was a beautiful spot and day for a swim, it was pretty busy at the beach and there were a lot of boats going past the end of the cove. We also managed to find some crystal Jellyfish that dont sting so you can pick them up and hold them; it felt a bit odd but reminded me a bit of those gooey aliens that came in an egg that I had as a kid!
Day 4
I knew day 4 would be busy, I wanted to get as many swims in as I could whilst by the sea. We started the day by heading to the north coast so that it would be a bit more bumpy and similar to the Bristol Channel. Our first swim was at Daymer Bay; it wasn’t a long one due to the tide going out so quickly that I wouldn’t have been able to walk far enough to get back to the car. It was great fun, lots of big waves, nice and bumpy and towards the end of the swim the sun came out too!
The second swim of the day was somewhere I had fancied going for a while but just never managed to, partly due to accessibility – Bude Sea Pool. I will admit; it is not accessible, I really struggled to get there and it was painful for me to get there, but worth it.
It was a lovely place to swim and totally unique. I swam laps of the lake as I wanted to do 2km to bring my total for the final day up to 3.5km. It was a little weird being in a pool and having to avoid rocks but you were able to be in the pool and look out over the sea and watch the surfers playing in the waves. I loved it!
I spent the evening packing and organising my things ready to get the train home the following day. I left Cornwall with a HUGE confidence boost and about 24km of sea swimming ticked off for my training; which I was both surprised and thrilled with.
A huge thanks, once again to Loretta for letting me come and stay with her and for ferrying me round so I could swim in different places, have different challenges and for feeding me too!