Swimming Spot Marathon

 Hullo!! Rose was here on her second visit of the summer... and the humans decided to do a swimming spots marathon. Last summer they visited 5 swimming holes in one day. On this day, they wanted to visit 10 in one day! Strap on your water shoes, we are off!

#1 Rathtrevor Beach - Parksville - a beautiful beach with a very, very shallow inter-tidal zone. This means that at low tide you have to walk for ages to get to the water. We timed our visit for the low high tide at 7 am... (each day has a high-high tide and a low-low tide as well as a low-high tide and a high-low tide... confusing, no?)

Even though it was a high tide... the water was only knee deep but... Rose still managed to hit all of the qualifying aspects of a swimming hole. Submerge whole body and head!

Right then... off to the next place!

#2 Eaglecrest Beach

This one was recommended to us by a friend. It's apparently better at low tide... more sand exposed. As it was, it was quite rocky to get into the water...

But the waves made it fun!!

See... lots of rocks!

But pretty, nonetheless....

Right then... onwards...

#3 Cameron Lake 1 - Here we are at Cameron Lake!  This turned out to be one of the favourite spots of the day... it's got a bit of a beach... is sandy in the water, and not too deep...

Plus, it's darn pretty...

Probably prettier without stuffie heads in the way... 

There's Rose!!

#4 Cameron Lake 2

A short way down the lake is a tiny picnic area with a pebbly beach... The interesting thing here is that the water gets deep super fast! Like, 10 feet away from shore, you are already over your head! Even less, if you're a stuffie...

There was a paddleboarder here... we think they were headed across the lake to see the old railway trestle bridge... that would be a fun hike some day.

Snack Break at Goats on the Roof

Of course, athletes need to keep up their strength... we did get some comments about how ice cream was the breakfast of champions at 9:30 am but... when you've already been swimming for two hours... hmph.

#5 Englishman River

This was the dreaded Englishman River swim. It is a beautiful place, just downstream from a waterfall...

It's not running hard right now with the lack of rain but it is all glacier fed...

The pool below is a beautiful blue-green and beary deep in spots. It is also chillingly cold!!

Will our competitors manage to get into the water and submerge entirely??

Can they do it???

Yes!!! It took a bit but... Rose made it in! (So did Mama, by the way). It was brisky to say the least...

#6 Neck Point

An ocean swim... it was easy peasy compared to Englishman!! There were some scuba divers and paddleboarders here...

#7 Pipers Lagoon

A perennial favourite, especially when it's wavy! No waves today...

We are getting pooped... 

#8 Shack Island

We think it has a real name but... it's an island with old fisherman's shacks on it, that are now summer cottages...

This was the ugliest spot to get too, mostly because it was low tide. At high tide, it would have been way better!

Whew... and because of low tide, Departure Bay was skipped and the humans settled for Long Lake (#9) but no pics were taken... and then... after lunch, there was the local lake as well for spot #10!

It was Epic but Rose is now talking about doing 15 spots in one day... oh dear!