Mid-winter

Today is the shortest day of the year here. On Friday we had blizzards all day and everywhere is still white with probably about 6 inches of snow on average in the garden. The main road into town is now reasonably clear although there are odd icy patches but our road is like an ice rink.


Saturday dawned quite bright and not too windy and we headed down to Surf Bay to register for the mid-winter swim. Because the main MPA road was closed to military vehicles because of the snow there were a lot less people participating than last year.


We had time to walk along the beach and back before it was time to strip off, run down the beach and plunge into the sea. There were some big waves this year and being knocked over by one helped me to get the required head under the water! It was very exhilarating but I wouldn't have wanted to stay in for long.


The air temperature was 1 degree C but the water is probably a couple of degrees warmer. The worst thing was standing in snow on the beach with bare feet whilst undressing and dressing.
I didn't manage to give our camera to a non-swimmer this year so no pictures to prove that I was actually in the South Atlantic in mid-winter in a bikini!


On the way home I took this photo of the Lady Liz and the view up the harbour to Mount William and Tumbledown.


Yesterday afternoon we went back to Surf Bay with the sledge and had great fun sledging down the snow covered dunes. As the sea has eroded the sand at the top of the beach there is a small drop off before you land on the beach amongst the kelp.