Swimming with Pike - 15th July

First swim in the River Witham (keeping it low profile so as not to alarm the authorities) at last on Friday night. Thankfully the weather was hot and humid(ish) so a refreshing dip was inviting. And it was pretty cool water - guessing 17 centigrade maximum. Interesting that the gravel lake was much warmer earlier in the week. There was quite a bit of weed but there was a handy, rusting rake / manual weed cutter left on the jetty - or maybe it was an art installation featuring heritage Lincolnshire tools?

After a small hesitation I followed Sandra's dive in and then went back to the jetty to retrieve my glasses - so many bends and creeks to get lost in aren't there on this stretch of water?

A bit spooked when the chap fishing off his narrowboat pulled in a large 'baby' pike. If that is the size of a baby then I don't want to meet the parents. Seems they are attracted to shiny surfaces, including paited toe-nails - eek! Formidable teeth in large mouth - some might say that could be a description of me. No dead deer floating by though.

Yeh, the spell is broken, the river is conquered this year and we'll be back for more.

Gravel Hills to Gravel Lake

Seemed appropriate, having grown up in Gravel Hills, Billinghay Fen that I try a swim in a gravel lake. Last night found me at the gravel pit lake on Thorpe Lane, South Hykham thanks to an invitation from Jack to try the waters here.



Well it was a bit on the 'industrial' side - lots of bricks and mortar to navigate getting in. But the side slopes really quickly so you're soon in and away. Water was a balmy 21 degrees C - now that's considerably warmer than the River Cam and the sea recently and even some of the 'heated' pools I go to. It was really rather nice, once I blocked out the sound of the traffic on the by-pass! There's acres of space and nothing to get in the way of a leisurely back stroke - fabulous.



Monday night is 'Tri' club night so I was a little out of place as a strictly leisure and pleasure swimmer with my two-piece costume rather than the uniform of wetsuit and swimming hat. Hard core training activities going on for the wetsuited group but Jack and I had a relaxed swim (head up and glasses on) out to the middle of the lake. Apparently it's 12 metres deep (really?) Crikey what's at the bottom of that then.



Wednesday nights are for leisure swimmers so I'll be getting a group together for a re-visit.



Seems I need some practice with the self-portrait - a bit grimacy:

Nothing new to report...

Just more of me ranting on about the uplifting effects of a cool solitary swim ... anyone who suffered one of my grumpy messages last week will be pleased to see that the swim under stormy skies did the usual wonders for my mood...

...then I went and watched Terms of Endearment - AARGHH! Toxic film - don't go there unless you're feeling 1000% emotionally calm - a place I rarely visit of course!!!

If This Were the South Coast ..

Then Cleethorpes would be more like Brighton. Yep - what does Brighton have that Cleethorpes doesn't? Cleethorpes has a pier with lovely wrought iron work oh and original 1905 roof - in the affluent south there would be a 'save our pier' campaign raising money to restore this truncated pier back to its glory days. There's a promenade, boating lake, sweet little paddling pool (with anti-vandal, anti-climbing security fencing surrounding it; but, oddly, no water in it); chippies by the hectare; tatoo parlours; tatoo removal parlours; dogs lots of dogs; fabulous sunsets.

Sunday night, and finally a warm summer evening, found me in Cleethorpes enjoying a stroll in the refreshing sea breeze. (I'm sounding all lyrical here like Sandra.) The tide was in; so far up it was lapping up to the promenade. And there were kids swimming in the brown murky water:: how great is that? I didn't have my cossie so couldn't join them: secret relief. The sea container shipping and P+O ferries in the background just added an edgy north-east Lincolnshire grittiness to the scene. Ah - you don't get that in Brighton.

But what you do get up the road from Brighton is the beautiful - and now Grade II listed - Saltdean Lido. I've yet to visit it but it's on my list of must do's.

Of course Cleethorpes at one time (until the 1950s?) had a MASSIVE outdoor bathing pool. The biggest in Europe I've heard. How sad that it's gone. There was no obvious sign of its whereabouts but I have my suspicions about the indoor 'leisure centre' 1980s ugly box of a place on the edge of the sea and could be built on the original bathing pool location. It's just the sort of humid, noisy, chlorine-smelling place that Sister Sandra so loves.

Now if this were the South Coast there would be a campaign to 'Resurrect Our Lido' .

But then if it were the South Coast it wouldn't be Cleethorpes and the cup of tea with my fish and chips would cost more than the 60 pence I paid.
How inviting does this look? What a loss.










Yep it really was big.

The Paddling Pool - but no water? : (