St Tropez

Well we have ripped thru the summer and, following this week's "bank holiday Monday", a collective groan can be heard across the UK as traffic levels return to normal, kids go back to school and the adults, work. It is already autumnal and, due to dryness, following the dryest summer on record, the trees are turning early colour under duress.

The beginning of the summer started in the South of France as Sonnet took a break from her Elsa Schiaparelli exhibition, which opens in March 2026; from there I went to Spain to meet my coach and two Croatia camp friends to swim the Straight of Gibraltar, which did not happen due to wind and sea swell. Instead, we hung out in Tarifa, which is not a bad place to hang out, with perfect sunshine and Morocco in plain sight.

Gibraltar, while an Oceans Seven swim, is only nine miles - less than 4 hours of swimming. Instead, it was to be a warm-up for the Manhattan Twenty Bridges, a 29 miler circumnavigating the Manhattan island.