Holiday day 8: Benodet beaches and the big swim

Peaceful night with girls. The weather was looking promising, so we drove back to the region of Ile-Tudy to Benodet. Benodet is one of the most touristy beaches in the region and being a sunny day it was busy along the main stretch with no parking.

We drove along outside the bay, parked up and had a walk around as there was no obvious spot to set up camp. We walked along right around to the inlet with the view of the spit of sand across the water.

It was a lovely beach, the sand was really abrasive but heavy so the water was so clear. We all had a good wander around.

There were thousands of blue mussels nestled in the rocks, they made fantastic shapes in the sunlight…

We tried out the big carrier for the first time, lent by Mr Z a very kind person from work. M saddled up…

No – it isn’t Fidget taking this picture – she can just be seen peeping out from behind M…

We then tried out a big Challis totem…

We drove round back to the main drag to find somewhere to eat and found a nice creperie…

We walked back down to the main beach…

The plan had been to have a quick paddle then to head back for a swim, bath, bed etc. But it was shaping up to be a really nice afternoon, and M and I spotted a diving platform off the shore. So up went the beach shelter, and in a not so elegant set of manoeuvres we were into our swimsuits…

it was pretty cold in the water…

I set off swimming then realised M wasn’t following me, so used up quite a lot of puff laughing and screaming at him to get a move on. He said he was doing it intentionally (though he only told me his plan when we got to the dive platform). As he is a much faster and stronger swimmer he wanted to let me go first so he could keep and eye on me and be behind me. As I said, I would have preferred it if he had shared this plan with me beforehand!

We reached the platform and I was cream crackered, I wasn’t prepared for all the green growth around the steps and so it was a shaky moment climbing out, but I was really elated to be there!

We had a sit down, it was really peaceful. We just sat for a while (while I got my breath back!) watching the girls play on the beach, and the boats come and go while the platform bobbed up and down.

Then it was time for the swim back, I didn’t want to jump in as the water was murky and I was pretty scared (though putting a brave face on it), so there was nothing for it but to brave the green stuff and go back down the ladder. M stayed on the platform to watch me down and start my slow puffy breast-stroke back. After what seemed an age I heard him jump in and within seconds he was swimming next to me and we were back in our depth again.

Time to chill on the beach…

before returning to the beach shelter for another difficult change.

We packed up and drove home. On the way to Ile-Tudy and home and on the journey out that morning we had passed a mysterious looking stone entrance along the road in a wood. We were talking about how it looked like something from a film, and decided we would make our own movie introduction…

After a quick tea everyone else went for a swim while I packed up our stuff.