....was not on my side during my recent trip to Ireland, but
the love of the Irish certainly was.
My journey started out on July 25th from my home
about half an hour from the Townsville airport, there was the usual hour or so
to wait after check-in before my long journey to Donigal in the North Western
corner of Ireland began. From Townsville there was a two hour flight to
Brisbane, a few hours to get from the domestic to the international terminals in
Brisbane and through customs and immigration. An eight hour flight to Singapore,
a couple of hours there and then a thirteen hour flight to London Heathrow, now
for the tricky part navigating my way between terminals in Heathrow airport with
very little sleep in time to catch my flight from Heathrow to Dublin.
Dublin is where I met Irish swimmer Nuala Moore who’d flown
up from Dingle in the South Western corner of Ireland to greet me and join me for the weekend at her friend
and fellow open water swimmer Anne Marie Ward’s home.
From Dublin we boarded a bus for a three and a half hour
ride up to Letterkenny where we were met by the friendly, wide open arms of
Anne Marie. This part of the journey proved a little easier than expected...I
had no luggage to carry since it (yes both my bags) had been lost somewhere
between Townsville and Dublin! Our first stop in Letterkenny was to buy some
new socks and undies to get me by until my luggage arrived over the following
two days.
Nuala, Anne Marie and I had a wonderful time over the next
few days before Nuala had to leave us and return home with the promise to come back
up to Bangor in Northern Ireland to help on my North Channel swim. Meanwhile
Anne Marie and I diligently trained twice a day in a bid to get me acclimatised
as quickly as possible for my 21 mile swim between Ireland and Scotland in
12-13C waters.
My North Channel swim was always going to be a battle of
time. Living in the tropics and following shortly after my Cuba – Florida swim
attempt in June, I knew I could only stay in water at these temperatures for a
limited amount of time, to be successful on my crossing I needed everything to
go right. Finally the weather settled and Anne Marie, her friend Brendan and I
drove down to Bangor and booked into a local hotel, while Nuala scooted across
the country using all resources, trains, planes and automobiles to be in Bangor
in time for my swim early the following morning.
The weather forecast was for winds from the North West in
the morning turning Westerly in the afternoon. This was looking good and I
hoped to have the wind behind me for most of my crossing. However on the day of
my swim the wind blew a cold North Easterly the entire day. The headwind slowed
my progress and I was unable to reach the Scottish coast before the tide
changed and began to push me back towards Ireland. I’d been in the cold
12.9-13.6 waters of the North Channel for around 11.5 hours, much longer than I
hoped my swim would take and my team made the correct decision to pull me from
the water.
The following day Naula returned home and Anne Marie,
Brendan and I drove back to Donegal. I had quite some time until my flight home
to Australia and changing my flights proved too expensive, Anne Marie and her
family made me very welcome, they had many visitors that week since there was a
Christening in the family, the entire family graciously made me feel welcome
and join all the festive activities before I bussed it back down to Dublin for
a little sightseeing a few days before my departure.
Whilst in Dublin I had time to dwell on all the training,
money, planning and efforts I’d ploughed into my swimming this year. My dreams
had been to swim across the Florida Straits between Cuba and Florida then
complete the Ocean’s Seven by swimming the North Channel. I’d been unable to
complete either of these two swims. I wrote to a friend that I was
overwhelmingly disappointed with the outcome of my swimming this year.
After returning home I saw a woman who loves to follow my
swimming and is always interested in my latest adventures, she asked about my
swim in Ireland and I told her that I hadn’t made it...her reply was “Never
mind I’m sure you gave it your best, did you have a good
time?”
Her question rocked me for a moment, my answer was definitely
yes! “Well, that’s what’s important then.” she said.
It’s so true, this year I’ve travelled to some wonderful
places, met some wonderful people, felt the love of the Irish and so many
others.
I fell down, I got up again and I brushed myself off.....with
the help of my friends - Thank You!
