Three swims for Chris!

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It was a great challenge to swim in the Channel, Lake Geneva & The Med all in one day, but Chris did it & we are so proud of what he has achieved & for the money he has raised for our mosquito net programme!  Thank you!!  In his own words!!

'Hello all you wonderful supporters!

Word is getting round that we succeeded in making the trip from Dieppe to Varazze on the Italian Mediterranean, via Lake Geneva on Saturday 19th June, in one day and completing 3 swims, this is the edited story:

 We started at 5am, before it was completely light and putting on all the clothes I possessed as it was seriously cold and windy, we went for a delightful dip in the English Channel, which needless to say was grey, choppy and extremely chilly. I did manage a good plunge (wearing a rather fetching red swim cap) with Jane as photographer, it was her turn next! . We  staggered back, snivelling a bit, changed into our leathers, yes really, to get on the bike by which time it had started to rain. We had always said that we would postpone the trip if the weather was not reasonable, however madness had already set in by this stage so off we set. We went via the outskirts of Paris with a couple of pit stops, and finally got to Geneva at about 3pm. We were frozen, soaking wet. While I had a Triumph all in one wet weather suit, Jane had my eldest’s son Alastairs red waterproof jacket which had last had an outing at the Glastonbury Festival, over her leathers). We rode through the Mons Jura region in sleet, (and all I could think of to cheer things up were that there were some rather interesting wines from that area, unfortunately not on offer at the time).

We found a little beach on the lake- and talked ourselves in and out of getting in, the water was again grey and rough, it was cold and still pouring with rain and all our kit was getting soaked. However, a bridal party arrived along with swans and ducks so we felt obliged to add to the surreal situation and take another cold plunge. Then off through the Montblanc Tunnel to be greeted by two inches of blue sky and the first bit of dry road. At this stage my Tiger was overjoyed to see dry road and decided to stretch its legs, the top speed of the journey was reached on this bit of motorway J. Less than an hour later though we had driving wind and rain and our hopes of a warm welcome in the Med faded. Rather despondent, we arrived in this little Italian seaside resort, already getting dark so we thought,” no one will mind if we swam the next day”. This was not to be however, as fuelled by a large plate of frito misto and sharing pizzas and a bottle of wine, we completed the mission by 11.55pm and splashed about for a while much to the amazement of the locals.

So we completed our mission. We covered 707 miles and were on the bike itself for 12 whole hours, on the go for the best part of 19 hours that day. We are thinking of applying for honorary membership of the "Iron Butt" Association, really there is such a thing! Jane was brilliant sitting on the back hanging on while the bike and I grappled with the weather, that can’t have been easy for someone who had never ridden on a bike before and had no idea what to expect

Thank you all so very much for your truly wonderful support and messages which spurred us both on - despite scary cross winds and wet roads (and French and Italian drivers) we never once lost our sense of humour! 

I cannot thank you all enough. Thank you again.'

What an adventure!!  Its not too late to sponsor Chris his page is www.justgiving.com/3swims