Ty Powdwr - The Ogwen Ooogh (4 Llyns & no river)

Present: The swimmers; Michelle Harvie, Mark Garrod, Midge Castick, Graham and Sue Harkness, Joanne Heslop, Laura Collier, Dave Wylie, Dave Shotton.

Walkers and support team; John Castick , Roger Dyke, Iain McCallum, Keith Williams, Mark and Rosie Heslop, Ian Crook.

Guests; Emily Hulley.

There was no shortage of water after a week of downpours; it was still raining when we set off from Ogwen on Saturday morning. The KMC synchronised swimming team had varied training programmes and little lottery funding for this event; Joanne was 3 months post labour, Midge has had a very busy 3 months and confined to base, most training had been in the bath, Mark had damaged ribs after falling off his bike, and Dave W had not ventured in wild water or put on his wet suit since last years wild swim meet!

Up to the beautiful Llyn Clyd (550 m 14.3 0C); swimmers, LC (first in), MH, MC, JH, DS.

Up over Y Garn and down to a windy misty Llyn y Cwn (720 m 160C) Swimmers: MH, MC, JH, and DS.

The synchronised swimming team became decidedly Unsynchronised from here, as we all found different ways of enjoying the sun which had appeared:

Team A. Midge, Joanne, Sue and Roger descended the Devil’s Kitchen and headed down for a dip in Idwal (Swimmers MC, JH), and a final sunny dip in Llyn Ogwen where they encountered Ian Crook and Emily Hully (Swimmers MC, JH, SH, EH).

Team B. Michelle, Mark, Iain, and Keith headed over Glyder Fawr and Glyder Fach before descending to Bochlwyd.

Team C. Dave W, Dave S, Laura C and Graham descended from Glyder Fawr down the Gribin ridge to Bochlwyd.

Team B and C synchronised at Bochlwyd where we had 6 swimmers (MH, MG, LC, DW, and DS) including a birthday swim for Graham, with a few exclamations. There was no official temperature as Midge had the thermometer.

Back to the hut for a few high adrenalin games of bananas (high speed scrabble) which Dave W seemed to win every time, Graham’s birthday cake and a glorious sunset which we shared with 10,000 hungry Welsh midges. Baby Rosie Heslop secured her wild swim tick by having a dip in a plastic bath.

Being inspired by the Olympics and government calls for competitive sports I am pleased to announce the medal winning participants. On the podium at the end of the day were:

Gold medal jointly awarded to Joanne and Midge for achieving the most dips of the day (4 each).

Silver medal for Laura for being the first in Llyn Clyd; even beating Michelle in!

Bronze medal to Graham Harkness for the biggest scream when entering the cold water

Missing but not forgotten were Dave Shotton’s retro swimming trucks and Mark Ashley and his wet suit and Marigold gloves. Hope to see them back in action next year.

Thanks to all who came, swam and walked. See you next year.