Nature's wild medicine
THERE is something life enhancing about being knocked off your feet by a huge wave rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean and crashing onto the shore. It is an almost primal feeling as the churning sea washes over you and you are tugged in 10 directions at once by the bubbling, hissing tide. Scrambling to my feet I turn and wait for the next one, wallowing like an excited child as again I am knocked flying by the breaker and dragged down to be tossed about under water. Much has been written in recent years about the healing properties of sea water but there is also something psychologically liberating about swimming in the wild. The beach I am on is in a particularly wild place off the coast of Co Clare where layers of limestone seem to flow off the Burren and into the ocean. When I last swam here on a sunny say at the start of the summer the beach at Fanore was packed, but now as autumn is setting in it is much quieter and there are just a few others enjoying the freedom of swimming ...