When I’d spoken to Terry on the phone this week, I’d asked him about swimming.
Terry (I hope he doesn’t mind saying) isn’t a youngster any more, but he loves to exercise.
He lives on Armona, a little slice of paradise off the Portuguese coast, and makes the most of his life there, swimming whenever he can.
As I’ve mentioned before – we are now in a ‘State of Calamity’, having emerged from our ‘State of Emergency’.
The only problem is, I have no idea what this means…
“Terry, have you swum recently?”
“I swam this morning, yes!”
“Is that allowed?”
“I’m not sure. I was chased off the beach by the police last week… but then there were different rules.”
The fact he was chased off the beach seems a little bit over the top to me, when the only people currently allowed on Armona are the people who live there. I virtually guarantee that Terry was the only person on the beach that day…
The Maritime police had told him that he could only be there if he was with his dog. He has a dog. Could he swim with his dog? Who bloody knows…?
But swimming today? I think that he may now be OK. Under the current ‘State of Calamity’, I’m thinking that maybe, just maybe, Terry is now allowed to swim on Armona once more and I can hit the water in Fuseta.
Terry’s certainly given me something to think about.
So yesterday, I googled anything I could find on the new regulations. Maybe I’m stupid, but I couldn’t find any mention of swimming.
I could find the fact that you’re allowed to exercise on the beach (individually) or walk your dog.
I could find the fact that ‘nautical pursuits’ were now allowed. So you could go in the water to surf or kayak.
But I could find no mention of swimming.
So I simply thought: bollocks to this.
The reason I moved to Fuseta was to go in the sea every day. I don’t swim far, in fact, once I’ve powered my way through the first 50 metres, I float more than swim! I just want to enjoy the water.
Semantics suggest to me that exercise is swimming and water pursuits and beach exercise are allowed, so…
So I donned my swimming gear (which is fairly Victorian in appearance, long board shorts and a rashie), and headed down to the beach.
As I was walking along the quayside, I noticed a couple of gentlemen from the GNR… ooh… here we go. I walked past, hoping they wouldn’t notice I was in swimming gear.
They didn’t stop me! Phew…
I carried on to the beach and just before I reached it, there was Connie, her husband and a friend.
She shouted: “Hi!”
I wandered over and broached the subject of what the rules were.
Connie, her husband and his friend had all been kicked off the beach by the police earlier that day.
The friend (sorry, I don’t know his name) said that he was fed up with having to pretend he was doing press-ups every time the police arrived and found him on the beach. I think he was joking, but I totally understood where he was coming from – under the new regulations, exercising on the beach is OK, just sitting there isn’t.
As for swimming, they had no idea.
But looking at the beach right now? There were plenty of people there, including a couple paddling, and the two guys from the GNR didn’t seem too ready to kick everybody off.
It does all seem a bit mad!
To recap:
You can walk your dog on the beach, although you were never allowed to do so before the lockdown
You can’t go on the beach unless you’re exercising or walking your dog, but whether exercising includes swimming, we have no idea
You can turn up here with your paddleboard and go in the water, no worries
In fact, today there were 6 or 7 kite surfers, skimming across the water, flying 30 feet into the air, twisting, pirouetting, having great fun.
There were people standing watching, there were people sitting on the benches, there were people walking along the boardwalk, there were people working on the ‘Borda d’Agua’ café.
It seemed to me that the safest place to be was in the water!
So I headed onto the beach, dropped my rucksack, slipped off my flops, and walked into the sea. It wasn’t exactly warm, but it wasn’t so cold that I thought: bollocks to this malarkey!
Talking of bollocks, I only ever walk in up to bollock level – never go higher than that! It’s not comfortable!
So I walked in up to my bollocks, took a deep breath and dived in.
Aahhh… a gentle aahhh, not a screaming one… it was bliss! It was so nice to slip under the water, come up, power for a few strokes, breathe, power a bit further, slip under the water once more, and then drift back to the surface before simply turning over and floating.
I was home.
Was it allowed?
I have no idea and I didn’t give a toss. Still don’t.
There was no one within 50 metres of me – how can this be wrong?
After a few minutes, I headed back to the beach, picked up my towel and dried off. I then grabbed my flops and wandered back to my house, noting that the men from the GNR had left.
It had been so nice just to get back into the water.
I may well be back tomorrow…
If you want to read more about my experiences during the Coronavirus lockdown of 2020, click on the logo below – this will take you to viralchitchat.com
