A little over a year ago, Cam and I experienced our first taste of open water swimming - he had been talking about it for a while - I was mildly reluctant, but prepared to give it a try under the right conditions. The last thing I expected was for those conditions to be a Scottish Loch, in Autumn, with no additional accessories other than standard swimwear.
We had been away for the week, and had made our way up to Skye having booked a tour of the Talisker distillery. The afternoon we arrived was glorious for late October - Blue skies and mild temperatures. The website where we found our van spot had mentioned that people would drive up there to take a dip in Loch Harport from the pebble beach on the outskirts of the village of Carbost right next to the distillery.
We arrived before our tour, and after a short ride up and down the harbour, I felt sufficiently warmed enough to chance a dip. We preheated the van (all praise the diesel heater) and nipped down to the beach in swim wear - with additional leggings and t-shirt for me.
It was a quick dip, but enough to get bitten by the bug. And when I'd warmed up - long after the tour and halfway through dinner - I was contemplating our next swim and whether it would be warm enough in the morning.
I'd also regretted leaving my beach shoes at home, and begun researching other accessories - tow float, dry robe etc.
The van was tropical enough to stop the shivering and the whisky tour did most of the rest before dinner in the pub opposite.
On returning home, Cam and I did our research and for Christmas I received a dry robe, tow float and 3mm neoprene top. I kept looking for places to swim over the winter but nothing came up (although Secret Santa at work brought me a lovely swimmer survival gift set - hat, hand warmers, hot chocolate, energy bars and a great wild swimming book), and it wasn't until a trip to North Wales in April that we swum again.
Despite it being April and Wales, rather than Scotland in October, the water in the little private lake was desperately cold and the sauna on site was a delight for warming up - as well as the steep walk back up to the lodge we were staying in. (no swimming image for this one as Cam took it)
As well as being frigid, the bed of the lake was deep, sticky mud and plenty of weeds - it was invigorating but not top of my swim list.
We also enjoyed the log fire in the accommodation, and lugging wood up a hill to a sauna is a great way to warm up.
Having enjoyed our two swims so far, I felt like I was beginning to be a wild swimmer, but still in the novice stages I was determined to swim more regularly, this prompted a couple of months of of open water swimming, as we spent the weekends of late April, May and June 2024 swimming from Thorpe Bay, the swim is a tough one against the tide of the Thames, and bad weather can make the water less appealing, so that combined with the business of July and August meant that we didn't continue swimming during the rest of summer..
We had a brief dip in the sea at my niece's wedding on the last weekend in June - a dreary, soaking wet day in which wedding guests were invited to take a dip with the bride and groom after their beach wedding. No photos due to abysmal weather.
Our next opportunity to wild swim came in our Swedish tour (see last three blog posts for further details) and we are truly bitten by the bug. Cam now has his own neoprene for the Autumn / Spring / Scotland swims and we are planning our next swim outings as well as taking our gear on every van trip.
Recommendations welcome for where to swim! Feel free to comment below.
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