Lanzarote is like that, its clear and a few meters deep then descends into darkness. Gives me the heebee jeebbes . We saw some barracuda there, but they little tiny fuckers.
My favourite story about barracuda is from Ian Fleming. When he lived in Goldeneye in Jamaica, which had a private beach, people would come a stay and swim in the sea. A massive barracuda decided that area was his and was scaring the guests. So one morning he got up early, had a Bond style breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast, coffee, orange juice and then went out with his harpoon and hunted the fucker down. Took him ages. Nut job.
Coniston you can’t see much except past peel island where it is shallow. Towards the other end the reeds appear from the depths below. I am more worried of a body appearing in Consiton that bity fish. Enjoy yourself wont you,
Dive-bombed by a very territorial bird whilst out cycling in Noosa once. Initially thought it was someone throwing stones at my helmet. Australian wildlife seems far more aggressive to humans than most of the critters we have in Europe.
So that’s my swim in the lake cancelled tomorrow…think I prefer the hair, piss and chlorine of the local shit hole pool, with the odd kick in the ribs by the bastard breaststroker.
Where I swim in the local river now and then there’s a turn with a shallow bank and despite knowing it’s there I always seem to get too close and touch my hand on the riverbed, you think you’ve touched a piranha or shark and the HR goes into the red for a 100M sprint before I remember I’ve done it before.
Sometimes manage to catch the zipcord as well which can be unnerving.
Apologies if I’ve inadvertently given anyone the heebie-jeebies. I’ve been back in open water again twice since the ‘incident’. First time in Semer water again and second time at Sundowner middle yesterday. No more nibbles but a week on and my foot is still bloody sore!
Your own 260 m round lake is quite an asset for any triathlete !
Being a commercial fishery it was very heavily stocked with carp up to 25 lbs, twice one of the “ lumps” swam into or very close to me, usually when I went off course and ended up near the shallows/ side.
I spent most of my OW swims in the Scillies wondering about what might be lurking just a little further out of sight. Some of the beaches are very shallow, but the one south of Hugh Town drops away rapidly (Porthcressa). By 300m off shore at high tide it was very deep; but at least the seaweed was below the surface at that point, looking like a mini jungle about 15ft high. Pretty much all my solo sea swims involve swimming with a little tension in the pit of my stomach. I usually swim parallel to the coast in the sea; had hoped to swim between some of the islands, but the boat traffic was too frequent in most cases (especially Tresco>Bryher).
I was sort of ok in the sea in the scillies, mainly because you could generally see well around you. I was a bit nervous of the Man o wars during the Otillo but thankfully didn’t see any, plus I was half chucking up and wishing to die on the last swim of the sprint last year so being killed to death would have been a blessing
