Saturday 6pm - Parliament Hill Lido

By the time we reached Parliament Hill Lido the sun was breaking through the clouds and glittering off the calm water. We were all so cold that none of us hung about instead racing through the changing rooms and jumping in as quickly as possible. Although we were all concentrating on the warm showers in store for us once we’d swum our 400m it was impossible to ignore how beautiful the pool was. With a metal floor the sun glitters in all directions and the art deco pool is stunning especially when it’s almost empty as it was for us. After the heavy rain only minutes earlier no-one else in London was thinking about jumping into the freezing Lido. Just like the Lido we had started in the water at Parliament Hill is icy and we all agreed that the metal flooring although stunning was sapping the pool of any warmth the sunlight might have provided. As we finished our final few strokes and took a celebratory photo Dorrie entered the Lido. She had joined us earlier in the morning at London Fields and had promised to join us later in the day. Since our other friends had politely excused themselves it was even more special to see Dorrie again especially when she produced bubbly and hot chocolate from her bag. It turned out later that she had been delayed joining us since she had been baking celebratory Lido themed cakes for our party later that evening. As Dorrie swam her 400 meters in a deserted pool the rest of us warmed up in the showers and headed back out to sit by the pool and drink prosecco in the fading sunlight. After the heroic feeling afternoon it was an amazing way to finish the challenge. Thanks Dorrie!

In total we swam 3300m at Parliament hill and thanks to the support of the Lido we were able to add the £40.50 we saved on admission fees to the sponsorship pot.