By: Blonde Two

“I’m not sure all these people understand.”

So goes one of the lyrics of the R.E.M. song ‘Night Swimming’ (not to all tastes) and I am fairly sure that most of the night’s other beach visitors did not understand as I stripped down to my swimming costume, clambered inelegantly down the steps and disappeared into the grey, lumpy sea.

It was eerie, and disconcerting and my heavy breathing was not just due to the endeavour to stay parallel to the beach. Not confident enough to put my face into the opaque substance of the swell and tired of head-up swimming, I rolled onto my back. No relief there, no stars, no moon, nothing but another dull, inky sea-in-the-sky. No beginning and no end, maybe that was the reason I had come.

It wasn’t refreshing in the way that my cold morning swims or eccentric splashes with friends have been. Rather it was renewing, I emerged that little bit braver, that touch more accomplished. A step towards something maybe, who knows what.

Would I go night swimming again? Well yes of course, but next time it won’t be the same. It never is, the tide, the wind, the swell, the light, the company, all fresh each time.

I went to bed with a smile (and Mr B2 of course!)

Warning: swimming is much safer if you do it in company… and in daylight.