No major Swims but A Truly inspiring weekend
This last weekend saw me taking a trip down to Dover for a couple of reasons. The first was to take a shirt from the Zurich Swim, given to me by Vasanti, to give to the Channel General. Freda Was very Appreciative and a big thanks to Vasanti for giving it to her. She was wearing it the following day.
The second reason was to meet up with a Channel swimming Friend that I have gotten to know over the last couple of years. I think he is probably the most prolific endurance swimmer South Africa has ever seen - well, in such a short space of time. Roger Finch, has completed,
The English Channel, (England)
MIMS, (America)
Catalina Channel, (America)
Rottnest Swim, (Australia)
Zurich Swim, (Switzerland)
SCAR swim, (America)
quite a few Robben Island swims, (South Africa)
and, I am sure, a few that I have forgotten to mention. One of the amazing things is that he has pretty much done all of those since 2011. His most recent Swim being an attempt of the Tsugaru Channel in Japan.
The point was to go down and meet up with him, as I have not seen him in while. The reason he is over here is to support Dr Otto Thaning. A Pre-eminent Cardiac surgeon, also from South Africa and based in Cape town. I briefly met Otto last year when he was over here with Lewis Pugh to have another attempt at the English Channel, sadly the weather gods were not kind to him. Now, at the tender age of 73, having done the Channel 20 years ago, and various other marathon swims over the years, he had quite an interesting take on why he was doing it again. It was not to become the oldest person to ever do it, but, more importantly it was to highlight the fact that you do not have to be a young person to do some pretty extreme things.
Audra and I drove down on the Satruday to meet up with these two Aquatic Africans. We arrived late as we had a few things to do in the morning. We met them after their moring swim. As they are there for a couple of weeks - or until Otto gets to go over, they had befriended another Aspiring Channel swimmer who is the youngest Swimmer this year (I Think) Charlotte Samuels, From Some Place called America, is an extremely accomplished open water swimmer, whom, at the even more tender age of 16, has Swum Both Catalina Channel and MIMS - This year.
So After meeting them all and having a coffee with them, it was off to a late Lunch with Otto and Roger, with the plan to meet at the beach in the morning for a swim. After a hearty lunch, it was off to check into our B&B and then off to meet Roger for the night. We met at Varne Ridge and then went off to the Royal Oak for Dinner. we had only eaten about 4 hours before but, with Steaks at £6 -- we just HAD to have dinner - where in the Britain do you get such great steak at that Price?? Audra, Roger and I had a very good catch up, accompanied by more Amber nectar than I have consumed this year.
it was in this pub that we experienced something you do not experience every day. At about 9ish in the evening an couple of elderly gentlemen came into the pub - it was their local pub. they pop in regularly for an evening tipple. you would say, nothing odd there. But, upon chatting to them, their story was quite amazing.
They both live in the area, this, as mentioned, is their local Pub, But how long have they lived in the area? Well, a photo was collected off the wall of the pub, it was a standard framed photo , one which you might find in several pubs in the area, of Army Cadets assembling in the car park of the very pub we were in, prior to going off to fight in World War 2.The photo was taken in 1941. There, in the photo were these two guys and, 73 years later they were sitting in the pub chatting to us. Quite amazing to be in the presence of some veterans from the 2nd world war.
Sunday Morning
After getting to bed at about midnight with the world spinning a little faster than I am sure it should, I awoke at 6 to go for a walk and try and clear my head from the previous nights foray. We then had breakfast and checked out of the B&B and then headed to meet this utterly mad, but pretty phenomenal bunch of swimmers for a bit of a dip. The day was lovely and both Charlotte and Otto are sitting around waiting for their swims so don't do any really big swims so normally just do 1 - 2 hours a day whilst waiting. We all got ready and then the four of us went off to the water, with our photographer - Audra in tow.
Otto, Me, Roger and Charlotte.
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The amazement did not end there. I knew I was in the company of some pretty phenomenal swimmers, whom all know our way around a bit of endurance swimming. Otto however really amazed me. he has the stoke of a swimming god. SOOOOOO effortless. Otto is nearly double my age, swims nearly as fast as I do, BUT, he achieves that speed and gracefullness doing just 40 strokes per minute. I have to do 68 - 70 strokes per minute to get the sort of speed I am used too. Roger and Charlotte are more on a par with me at about 65 strokes and above.
Swimming with Roger is quite entertaining as he pretty much knows everyone in the water and chats to pretty much all of them as they pass.
Charlotte is a wonderful person and a good swimmer, with her swimming CV, I beleive she will fit in perfectly with this truly unique bunch of Open water swimmers
After taking some video Footage - which I will post in the near future, of the weekends Wallow, it was a fabulous time had by both Audra and I. I wish Both Otto and Charlotte the very best of British luck for their up and coming swims to France. I have faith that they will both be successful and with Roger to entertain them I also have faith that their Trip to Blighty will be a memorable one. Thank you guys for a great weekend
My thoughts for the day. I am by no means a famous author or any good with words but what I have to say is based on my weekend away and what I learnt.
Never let age interfere with Aspirations.
Inspiration can be garnished from anyone,
no matter where they are on lifes Rocky Road.
