As an outdoor swimmer, I’ve lost count of the times that someone has said “ Ooh that’s not for me!” after I’ve enthusiastically regaled them with tales of my latest swim exploits. This is never truer than when the tale is about my latest swim at sunrise.

My sunrise swimming habit came about quite by accident. I had morphed from life-long night owl into a lover of early mornings due to my busy lifestyle and my alter-ego as a swim-mum.

For the uninitiated, parenting a swimmer means that you get dragged, kicking and screaming into a world where your alarm is always set for times that are the wrong side of 5 am. But, dear reader, there is a pay-off….early alarm calls become a cinch!

My schedule, due to the swim-mum thing, has become more hectic, so getting my outdoor swim fix means being creative with time and potential swim opportunities, and one night in late September last year, I posted on our swim group about the fact that I fancied a swim at sunrise.

Our swim group is populated by enthusiastic lovely folk who swim for all kinds of reasons and one of them just happened to be training for a channel relay swim. “I’m bang up for this!”, came the reply and it wasn’t long before we were giggling along the path to the beach in the pre-sunrise gloom, like a pair of One Direction fans upon hearing about an upcoming reunion tour.

Ten minutes later, the giggles were replaced by silent appreciation and murmurs of “Wow”, as the sun came up and bathed our Welsh beach in golden hues. The water had been transformed into a magical kingdom of sparkles and ripples that looked like molten precious metal.

There is something quite intoxicating about being at the point or ‘in’ the point where the sky meets the sea at sunrise. I am equally addicted to sunsets but where I swim, they are nowhere near as splendid as the sunrises.

My initial foray into the sunrise swimming world kickstarted a habit of scanning the tide and the weather forecasts for optimum sunrise swimming opportunities and  I can now confidently predict a decent Barrybados Swimrise (disclaimer: neither of these terms are my creation).

I have been joined by a merry band of folk who also enthusiastically embrace the wonder of an outdoor swim, with added vitamin sea, while bathed in golden first light.

We even had a hard-core group of swimmers who joined us on the longest day of the year at summer solstice. The longest day means that it’s the earliest alarm call, but it was cheerfully endured and rewarded with a fabulous pay off.

To the sunrise swimmer doubters, I always say “Don’t knock it until you try it” and once they do, they realise that there really is no better way to start your day!

If you like what you read, why not try it for yourself. And to see more of Keri’s fabulous sunrises, you can follow her on Instagram – she’s @waterlili_71

Kery Hutchinson ,Barrybados bather, Outdoor and cold water swimmer, Coffee addict, Occasional blogger, Very amateur, Ice mile hopeful 2020, Cardiff, UK.