I can’t believe I nearly died

The only way through was to swim, it didn’t look far and what could happen? You hear these stories about people dying in 2ft of water and you end up laughing. You think it could never happen to you, but this was close. I stripped off my clothes wrapped them around the bars and placed them on my head.

The idea was to take a few strokes and see if the weight was too heavy, if it was I could swim back and think of another plan. I set off.

This is fucking easy I laughed as I plunged into the gorge swimming head held high one arm holding the weight to my head one arm pulling myself through the water. But after 10 or 15 strokes I realised I was in the shit.