I love hot weather so having a free Saturday on a 33C/91F meant wearing my skinny gear out and about and search of a chance to get wet elsewhere than the usual bath or shower. I pit on a top in a colour that shows up any wetness the most. It looked promising when some unexpected rain drops started to fall while I was gardening I went out for a walk immediately and enjoyed feeling the drops on my shoulders and the spots gathering on my top. Some strange people started putting up umbrellas. The rain faded back out again. I went to a couple of places in my local park where you can sometimes 'accidentally' get wet from hosepipe sprinklers, but none were on.

Come early evening it was still hot so I set off to the largest and my favourite park which has a lot of ponds, some boggy areas and a river. I almost got into a boggy ditch that I hadn't noticed before but some people showed up on a path close by so I continued to the river. It's down quite a deep bank so is fairly concealed from the paths, but when down there, you can't see people approaching. There are ways down the bank which are formed by the deer who drink and bathe in the river. When I arrived, some deer were in the water about 100m away and I went down the bank to enjoy observing them at the water. I didn't want to disturb them so was thinking about finding another place along the river, but then they all went up the bank and wondered off into the long grass.

I took that as a cue for my turn to cool off, just as the sun was setting. Stepping into the soft mud I felt the cool water flood into my shoes and walked out to where the water was well over a ft. deep. I really wanted to cool off properly, so decided to wait no longer and lay right down in the water. I loved feeling of the water flooding though my clothes (the only ones I had with me), and the feeling of lying on the river bed in contact with the silt, mud and stones. The water was just deep enough to wash over my whole body with full immersion. I got up, loving the feeling of the water washing off but noticed a tiny dry spot on my top, so lay right back down in the water again. I wanted to stay there longer but got up fairly soon. My top, shorts and shoes shone with the lovely saturation. I was on the bank and the excess water had just run away as someone came along to sit on a bench a short distance away. Well timed. He did stare a bit as I got on my bike in obviously soaking clothes.

Although the immersion was fleetingly short, I was excited by being sodden in the clothes I'd be going home in. Cycling along, feeling of the warm wind on my arms and legs in combination with riding in saturated gear was perfect. My skin was dry by the time I went through the park gates but my clothes were still heavy and clingy as I rode through the streets and felt the contrasting warmth coming up from the asphalt. As I think I said before make the most of a hot day!