The Solstice Skinny Dip

It happened like this….
Bev – “Well I have just agreed to do a sunrise skinny dip at the lake for summer solstice.
See you 4.30am Wednesday 21st. Xxx”

Not an invitation, an instruction. There were various weak and feeble objections, but they were ignored: Bev’s health requires her to plan her days very carefully, it is therefore rather difficult to object on the grounds of “That’s a bit bleedin’ early!”

Nobody actually objected on the grounds of it being a bit public to be swanning around starkers. Clevedon Marine Lake may be in the middle of a town, next to The Salthouse pub, the carpark, local amenities, a lot of residential housing, a favourite dog-walking path… but who is out at 4.30 am?
Who indeed, of course there will be nobody around…. Unless it’s the summer solstice and a favourite swimming spot.

Quite a lot of people were there already.

We gave them sidelong glances, but in the end there is only one way to do this: you cannot sidle past a group of people, looking like you foolishly forgot your cossie. The only way to do it is to stride, naked as the day you were born, like THEY are the ones behaving oddly.

We did. We even got a couple of cheers.