Ready....

 On Saturday 21st March I take on my first five kilometer open water swim (competition) I am not out to come first or even be in the top 10, my goal is to finish the distance in one hour fifty minutes to two hours.

Today I headed to Doddi's Beach, Halls Head, Mandurah to have a look at the conditions and the area where the swim will be held. Here are the photo's I took while I was there. It was a beautiful warm morning to be down there. The trip to Doddi's Beach from my place is 50 minutes one way, but totally worth it this morning.

 The beach for me is a place where I can feel completely relaxed and feel the deep inner peace. I have always had a connection to the ocean and its surroundings. I spent many a holiday with my grandparents at the beach in Perth over the road from their house, days that I miss now and remember with such fondness.

Standing with my feet in sand with the water running up and over them and then back out to sea, is just so therapeutic and relaxing.


We are so lucky here in Perth to have so much coast line that is amazing to swim in, play in and so much more.  The change in colours from blue/green where there is sand underneath, to dark blue as it gets deeper and coral reefs.


Swimming at Doddi's Beach will be interesting as it will be the first time I would swim there. I can't wait to see what sort of marine life will be swimming underneath us.

After an interesting incident yesterday while swimming at Cottesloe Beach with my training partner, we were 400m into our 5km swim when in murky water I noticed a grey shadow pass by me quickly. I suddenly stopped, swore and cracked up laughing so much. I can say it was a dolphin thank goodness. After managing to calm ones heart rate down enough to continue swimming we only made another 400m and being stung by so many jellyfish. As I am allergic to them I decided to pull the swim short as my stings were so sore. We walked back via the beach and believe me the marks were so sore and the feeling that parts of your body was burning until we made it back to the showers.

With our swim on the 21st I am hoping for no stingers and clear waters. Though I am expecting some stingers, I will have put on a lot more sun cream and some zinc cream in the areas I got stung this past weekend, as they seem to be vulnerable to being stung again.

Have an awesome week...

Hayley xx