Alex, Rowan, Laura, Rhys, Simon, Guy and I swam. Tess volunteered with doggie, who was first to meet and greet us outside the warm up tent! Tess was the OTSer who worked the hardest and longest with a 5.45am start and 3pm finish. We were all done in under 2 hours!
The calm waters and fast tide hurled us up the river in super quick time - in an hour quicker than the Dart 10k for some of us. The water was initially 13 degrees which was warm enough in double swim cap and booties, but the temperature went down to 11 once we hit river water from the hills further upstream which meant some pretty numb hands for the last 15 minutes or so.
At some points if you didn’t quite follow the current, you found yourself jogging along the shallow water sand banks at lower tide. Great for taking in the absolutely stunning views in the sun, as well as leave with some great silty beards.
Some would say it wasn’t hurly and burly enough this year.
Some of us made the most of the Welsh weather and countryside to hike Snowdon on the Sunday or Cader Idris (another peak nearby) on the Friday.
Report by Izzy