It isn't just on Christmas Day that mad Brits take to the beaches. At precisely 1pm on the first day of the year, a group of residents from Xàbia, mainly British, welcomed 2008 with champagne in the cold waters of the Mediterranean.
Rushton and Brenda Taylor started the customary swim twenty years ago with the aim of collecting money to buy toys for the children at an orphanage in Gandia. Hundreds of people go down to watch the spectacle each year and have donated thousands of euros to the cause. It is so well organised that they even have cafeterias open to serve hot drinks and food.
After initial greetings and jokes the 25 brave souls, including several Spaniards, prepared themselves with glasses of champagne. At 1pm, to the sound of a horn and with hundreds of people surrounding them, they raced into the sea. A second horn, ten minutes later, signaled the end of their chilling experience. They then dried themselves and put on some warm clothes vowing to return next year to do it all again.
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