Night Swimming

I was listening to REM tonight and I thought their lyrics just about summed up the experience.

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
I'm not sure all these people understand
It's not like years ago,
The fear of getting caught,
Of recklessness and water
They cannot see me naked
These things, they go away,
Replaced by everyday

It's all true. I have been swimming many times at night. The first I remember was camping with my parents when I was about 16 and we were partying together in a club in N. Wales and my parents said "goodnight" I think I'd dropped hints that a few of use were going to go for a swim.

It was great, swimming off the coast in the sea for about an hour before heading back to shore and going to bed. I was caught out the next day when Mum found my footprints covered in sand over the kitchen floor.

The most memorable swim was at an Open University summer school in East Anglia, a couple of us had obviously been eyeing the lake up all week, and come friday we goaded each other to swim its length. Well after a somewhat boozy night we both ran down to the lake side, stripped off and went into the water. Damn it was good! If I'd known how good it was I'd have done it every night. We swam together about a mile up the lake and a mile back to our clothes and got one hell of a bollocking from our course tutor the next day. Yes, he grassed us both up "just in case anyone else reported us". I think it was the best swim I've ever had.

Other swims I've had at night was in lake Fraser in northern Canada - damn it was cold, but ones ardire keeps you going when following a woman lol, lake Lucerne (don't tell anyone I was under-age when I did this swim) when I went on a school visit to Europe, river Severn a few times, always at night under the moon.

I've done a few others, but these stick in my mind as being special. REM just got the mood right, it's cold, dark, scary, and others do not understand.

Thanks to my parents for making sure I was safe in the water.

Any other swimmer will understand the lyrics.