TOTM Touch Down!

After an indecent amount of travel time, TOTM has touched down in London! We were in the air for a total of 25 hrs travelling via Sydney, Brisbane, Brunei (3hr stopover)and Dubai. Dubai was a short and intense experience-we arrived at midnight, left the plane in 34c heat, were herded onto a bus, hurried through a magnificent terminal (try dragging teenage girls through a luxurious and vibrant shopping complex full of bright and shiny objects and not letting them stop!) and loaded back onto the bus back to the plane!

Arriving at Heathrow at 6-25 am we were all desperate for a shower! Transferring to Terminal 4 we lined up and 30 minutes later felt much more human (at least, as human as you can be suffering from severe sleep deprivation!). We would like to say THANKYOU to a woman we got chatting to while waiting to shower (Elizabeth) who after asking what it was we were doing, promptly handed the girls a 10GBP donation!

Onto the Underground, we travelled into our hotels and spent the remainder of the day walking around the Tower of London and across the Tower Bridge. The girls had amused themselves during all of the travel by inventing a game called "Hotto Spotto"...and continued it in London!

Managing to keep them awake long enough to eat a meal at the Minories Pub, we fell exhausted into bed around 8pm-having had a maximum of 4 hours sleep in the past 36hrs...

Today we are continuing to see the sights-watch out London, here we come!

Dee (Team Manager)

TOTM takes off!

TOTM is on the way to the UK! "Bunny hopping" up theEast coast of Australia we landed in Sydney yesterday, where we met 'murph' (Michael Renford) and Gabby Hollows (The Fred Hollows Foundation), for a quick chat and a couple of photos.

Not only did we spend a couple of hours talking and having photos but we also got to swim with 'murph' at Coogee beach.Sydney turned on a storm-torrential rain and good size swell."Murph" took us home to meetJess (his gorgeous wife)and Lilli (his beautiful baby girl!) We then flew to Brisbane,where we collected travelling pal Yvette and made our way to Brunei- currently being 34 degrees is a massive change from our chilling 11degrees at home! We arrived in Brunei at 4:30 rugged up in our warm matching marshmellow pink jackets- Amelia, Chloe, Dee and Michelle walked off the plane only to find it extremly hard to breath- sweating and wasting away we made our way into the Brunei airport .

Next stop Dubai-then London here we come!

Dee does it!

Pictured above: A number of the South West swimmers heading to Dover to attempt crossings (and their support "crew")!
The past few weeks have seen a number of exciting events as the TOTM countdown continues. In Australia, Amelia has spent a few days in Warrnambool to complete her final training swim in the ocean. On Saturday July 12th, South West swimmers attempting their relay double crossings in July were joined by Amelia and a number of well wishers for their final "hitout"! The water was 10c and conditions were wonderful-large breaking swell to swim out through and then rolling nicely once you were in the bay.Considering the fact that "Meals"hadn't been in the ocean for 3 months, her 30 minute swim was outstanding- as was the nice wave that she bodysurfed in to the beach on! Chloe was playing netball and couldn't make this session-although after hitting the aspalt netball court and taking off a bit of skin, she probably would have prferred the swim!

Meanwhile, in the UK the most exciting news of all! Jersey coach Dee Richards has finally attempted her solo crossing of the Channel. After twice before been disappointed by inclement weather stopping her attempts, this time she entered the "Ditch". Showing true guts and determination, she swam for 22hours and 6 minutes to land east of the Calais harbour. The stories to be told....Well done Dee- you are now a Channel swimmer!