Splash

A grand day off and day out.

I collected Aie from her house at 9am and we made good time up to Berriedale where we parked outside the River Bothy before it opened (and there were other people in the car park waiting for it to open). It had been a lovely run, on a generally quiet road, although we were chattering away. Our table was booked for 10.30, but we were soon joined by H, C and L, and later by T and M. Brunch followed. I mean, it's the obvious thing to do before you go swimming.

Afterwards, we drove down to park near the mouth of the river, got changed, and walked over an exceedingly wobbly suspension bridge to reach the river beach where we could swim. Well, 'swim'. There was a very strong current heading down the river, so actually staying in the same place in the current in order to avoid being swept out to the rather rough sea was quite a feat. We waded out, paddled around, tried to swim upstream, and generally had fun before beating a retreat, getting dried and dressed and heading back to the River Bothy for round two (unbooked this time), minus H who was driving down to Edinburgh in the afternoon.

Tea and cake followed, and then we shed another couple, T and M, before the remaining four drove down to Loch Brora, which was looking lively in the wind which had got up (see blip). Of the four of us, three dipped again. I had, with foresight, brought along fresh swimming gear, so the only wet items I had to put on were my water shoes and gloves. My first double dip. The water was pretty lively as the blip shows, and I would love to come to Loch Brora in the summer for a pancake flat dip. [C later on went triple dipping at Shandwick, hoping for a sight of the full moon, and she struck lucky. The photos were gorgeous. We saw the full moon out of our front door later on in the evening].

Another quick change act back into ordinary clothing, although the sun was out so I certainly didn't get cold, and then I drove Aie back, learning a lot about the challenges with her sons, and dropped her off, before discovering I couldn't get in to our parking space because the fibre optic laying crew have now reached our road. Luckily, our neighbour was happy for me to park outside her house.

The jollifications for the day were not finished. After Mr A and I had been to the supermarket to pick up a few snacks and some wine, I used some herbs from the garden to make a pesto to have with some crostini. I love a home made pesto.

Our visitors for evening drinks were A and N (of mad dog Elmer fame). Like us they are recent incomers to Tain, so it was a great opportunity to find out more about them. They told us all about their training efforts with Elmer, which are slowly paying off. They are also great travellers and have been to some interesting places I would love to go to, like Georgia. They also liked my herb pesto, and between us we finished it off, whereas I thought it would probably do for a small serving of pasta as well. I must make it again. So easy.

A satisfactory and pretty exhausting day. I'll sleep well after all that.