Different perspective

This morning's swim was so marvellous I've been grinning like a lunatic all day. I had been trying to gently persuade Heather she needed to get herself back to the loch. That wasn't working, so I resorted to threats. At 5.15am I got a text from her "I'm up!". It seems like threats are the way to go. There had been all sorts of discussion over where we were meeting since our usual spot is closed courtesy of planning for tomorrow's Great Scottish Swim. All I can say is if it is anything like today it will indeed be great.

We met up in the Lomond Shores car park and walked round to the beach; a rare starting point for us since it is a few minutes walk away but has the benefit of not having to pick your way gingerly over stones. This is the Maid of the Loch from the beach just as the sun was rising and a few ducks got out of our way. I just knew it was going to be special. The loch had a load of extra marker buoys in place for tomorrow's course, so that gave us some options for different routes. The three guys headed off on a wander and the three girls made our way to Cameron House where we waited for Dave and Jenny returning from Jenny's first swim to Duck Bay. She has had a great season's swimming and what a great achievement.

At Cameron House, Heather and I decided we had to go and touch the big orange buoy which was back towards our starting point. The size of the loch makes perspective difficult to judge; when we got to it the buoy was massive.

We then headed back to the beach arriving at the same time as Dave and Jenny who took a different route along shore and as the guys who had braved a short dip without their suits. They wanted to see what I had that they didn't or what I didn't have that they did... there are some obvious answers to that.

A beautiful sunrise, great swimming companions, perfect conditions, a new buoy to touch and laughs over breakfast afterwards. It doesn't get better than that. And I'm still smiling 10 hours later after a full day meeting.