Kas, Turkey - Swimming Holiday

Me Lagging Behind! Photo (c) Strel-Swimmming

Well, I arrived back safe and sound and, believe it or not, I even felt rested!

I don’t know if we’re having an exceptionally beautiful autumn this year or if it’s just because I haven’t seen an autumn for two years, but I’m often struck these days by the oranges and reds of the trees around me. It’s wonderful. When I took off from Zurich airport, it was great to see all the hillsides with splashes of different colours down below.

I changed at Istanbul to fly on to Dalaman and then, from Dalaman, I’d arranged to share a 2-hour transfer with a woman who was also on the same holiday as I was. I didn’t get into Dalaman until 21:20, so it always was going to be a late night. I was a bit nervous about sharing a two-hour transfer with a stranger, having to chat when I was tired, and then having to swim after a short night’s sleep but it was too late to do anything about that.

Anyway, it all went – err – swimmingly. That’s despite the fact that I arrived at Dalaman in the warm air, enchanted to see bougainvillea flowers around me, but then to find that my bag hadn’t arrived with me. However, it transpired that what they meant was that my bag was in the international terminal and I’d arrived in the domestic one. A short bus ride reunited me with my belongings and, for once, I’d taken my mobile phone with me and had it switched on, so I was able to text my transfer companion to let her know what was happening.

She turned out to be the same age as me and she’d been on two of these holidays before, so she was able to answer some of my questions as we drove along through the dark Turkish roads. She was great company, so it was all a bit of a relief. We didn’t arrive until 1am, and we had to be up at 8am for our induction, so that stressed me out a bit and I didn’t sleep too well. There was a list of participants handed to us, so it was good to have that to remind myself during the week.

Anyway, I got up to bright blue sky and sunshine and a view over the sea. I immediately felt better about things.

We had a short swim before breakfast so that they could group us into slow, medium, and fast swimmers. It was already clear at that point that I was by far the slowest swimmer; some people managed to see some turtles even on that first swim, but I was too busy trying to catch up or turning round early so that I wouldn’t be the last back.

There were nine of us altogether so it was a nice-sized group; there was one Australian couple, one Canadian couple, a Dutch woman, and the rest of us were Brits. Most of them were around my age, with just two who were probably quite a bit younger.

The routine was to have breakfast at 8am, which wasn’t too bad a time at all (much to my relief!), then on the boat by 9.15am, sail for a while, then we’d go on our mid-morning swim of over 2 km. After that, we had a rest on the boat or would play in the sea while they cooked our lunch. Lunch was served on a long table on the boat where we sat and passed round the dishes and chatted while we ate. We would then sunbathe, read, or talk on the boat for 90-minutes, and then we’d be taken on a shorter swim of just under 2km. We swam 23km in 5 days. I feel quite proud of myself.

The weather was fantastic – sun, blue skies, air temperature in the high 20s, and sea temperature around 25 degrees. The water was a swimming-pool blue and crystal clear. It couldn’t be better.

I did end up swimming quite a bit faster than I would do given the choice, since I was always far behind the others. I was the only one swimming breast stroke. They asked me to wear a bright orange buoyancy tag so that they could spot where I was and be sure I wouldn’t drown. I felt a bit of a plonker, but I could understand the rationale. Although I swam faster than usual and felt I was racing – that was me pressurizing myself, I hasten to add – I was quite pleased that actually the distances were fine and I wasn’t even out of breath by the end of it. I could feel my arms starting to ache a bit towards the end of each swim, but that’s a good thing (I think).

There was the main boat and 2 dinghies following us to see if we needed water or help. I felt fortunate to have gone with Strel Swimming as I heard that another, similar company tends to have competitive people on their trips all trying to swim faster than each other and you’re in the water by 7.30am. For me, that’s not a holiday! This was very relaxed and no-one minded me being slow.

Everyone in the group was friendly and encouraging. The Australian guy said his mother was still taking part in 3km swimming competitions at the age of 88 years old.

It turned out that the Canadian guy held the Guinness World Record for chin-ups; I can't remember how many he did now, but it took him 12 hours! Actually, the founder of the company has Guinness World Records for open-water swimming, including swimming the Yangtze where dead bodies were floating down the water in the darkness of the night. I can't say I have any ambition to do that.

I guess they have the privilege of saying that they had the author of 25 New Year’s Resolutions—For Fish! on their trip, but somehow I don’t think that’s quite so impressive.

Anyway, it was great. We had time to ourselves during the day if we wanted it, we swam in beautiful water in stunning scenery, and in the evenings we’d meet up and go out for a meal together. Kas was a lovely town. I wasn’t exhausted by the end; I’d felt I’d had a rest and with all that exercise I felt I’d managed to totally switch off.

It did make me miss Egypt a bit – that kind of lifestyle really is my idea of perfection.