Downstream

nightmare: two big swans
with a group of cygnets.
We’re told to keep to the left
now and my heart is
pounding. I feel so vulnerable
down at water level, but we
swim past the swans without
any problem and carry on.
The front-crawl people have
caught up now and soon they
overtake us. I relax again,
enjoying the scenery and the
blueness of the sky, even the
thick, sticky reeds that wrap