Back in the summer of 2016, we took our first tentative steps into the world of wild water swimming. After reading an article in the Times regarding ‘the best places to wild swim’ we realised there was one near to where we both live in the Midlands, it was The River Trent at Ingleby.
Five of us (all women of a certain age!) bravely set out, following some kind of map, with our swim bags in hand. Across fields, we eventually found the spot, riddled with cow pats, and undressed at the side of the Trent, not really prepared for the coolness of the water, or the strength of the current.
We mainly managed a sit down or a kneel down in the river, but from then on we badged ourselves wild water swimmers! We probably actually spent more time getting dressed after our swim, than we spent in the water, much to the amusement of some mens rowing club, who possibly got more than an eyeful of something not usually seen from their boat!
It wasn’t until New Years Day of 2019 that we swam in our first lido, and that was at Hathersage, in Derbyshire. We say our first lido, that’s not counting the lidos that were part of our childhood, the local ones to us, that have all now disappeared, or have been filled in, and sadly built on.