"Nice, it's cold outside today!" said no-one ever, except my neighbour, when he messaged me on the Telegram app and proposed we take a quick drive to the nearby Maidla lake and torture ourselves with cold water. Well, can you really call it torture, when you half enjoy it? The hardest part is the brief moments between taking your clothes off and getting in the water, from there on, it's a walk in the park.
I had just finished most of my work for the day and so we hopped in his car and drove to Maidla. The thermometer was reporting 1-2 degrees Celsius, so the weather was foggy and muddy, but still cold. In fact, if it wasn't for the swim, I probably wouldn't have stepped outside for a moment, since it was dark with a soggy sky and little to none natural light. But I felt the familiar adrenaline rush deep inside, when I thought of a cool swim. The fear of cold water is always creeping deep inside me somewhere, but I would be telling a lie if I said I didn't like it. Makes you feel alive and have some moments to remember and talk about.
At the lake it didn't really feel like a cold winter day because of the mud, rain and lack of snow. But the lack of something else, namely people and families on the beaches, told us it's cold and nasty. Just the way we like it.
We left the car and walked to the bridge. As it was a degree or two on the + side, we had speculated that there would be no ice and we could have a nice swim, but getting closer our hopes were shattered like a block of ice... by ice! A smooth and thick layer of cold and thick glass lazied around on the surface of the lake, separating air from water.
But luckily, we were not the only lads looking for a dip, so someone had carved a good hole in the ice right at the bridge. Not sufficient for a swim, but perfect for a dip though. Probably the local lads. You can find ice swimmers in every part of Estonia these days, that's why we're so healthy while we're not being stressed out by some meaningless problems. But we balance it out with positivity here and there and it all works out in the end.
The water was barely above zero and the hole looked like something a polar bear would climb out of if we lingered around too long, So off with them winter clothes and into the pit! Goddamn, the nasty cold wind with rain lashing my body made the walk from the large tire, where we left our clothes, into the pit, a really nasty experience, but once inside, things started to shape up. 10 seconds past and I was feeling good already, cleaning blocks of ice that were floating around, trying to cut us with their sharp edges.
A still from the GoPro. I'm the fool with the block of ice
These near-zero degree waters really test you. My body was ready to sit in the water for a few more minutes, but my toes were screaming bloody murder, while I was quietly thanking myself for buying these neoprene divers gloves. A few weeks ago, I managed to get some frost damage from the cold pools at Trummi that left my fingers a bit numb for a week, but that's ancient history now, as I have the gloves. Already half ahead from my buddy, I can focus on enjoying the icy water. Need those neoprene socks too though soon.
We grabbed a nice overview shot of the lake as well as we left. Will be back soon here again.
