A trip to the Scottish Winter swimming championships

Last year saw the inaugural Scottish winter swimming championships which were held at the marina on Loch Tay in Perthshire. I wasn't fully aware of them till after the event when I saw loads of posts on social media which looked fantastic.... So last November when entries opened for this year's event I got a …

Waterfall chasing (again)

There was a post on Facebook recently about Gastack Beck at the head of Deepdale which whetted my swimmers appetite. Our group of wild swimmers - The Dales Dippers - have regularly swum in a waterfall plunge pool by the roadside, but a couple of us suspected there may be more offerings from a dipper's …

Scratching an itch….

Many moons ago, Ria and I did a fair bit of wild camping and self-supported multi day walking trips which we thoroughly enjoyed. I have watched quite a few Youtube vlogs from folks doing solo trips and it has always appealed to me but I have never had the opportunity to actually put it into …

Chasing Roger’s pool

Some years ago I stumbled across a book by Roger Deakin (who was a writer, passionate enviromentalist and documentary maker) called Waterlog. It charts his travels round the British Isles seeking out and swimming in all sorts of locations and has subsequently become a revered tome in the wild swimming community. The book rekindled my …

A tremendous week of wild swimming

It was my tumpty tumpth birthday last week, so we decided to have a few nights away (our first opportunity to do this on our own for quite some time) and stayed at Ravenglass on the Western edges of the Lake District. We were blessed with the most spectacular weather (Sunny, cold & breezy but …

A multi-dip day in Rydal Beck and Buckstones Jum

A group of fellow wild swimmers from the Dales and I have started having informal and occasional meet ups after getting together via Facebook. We had a successful and fun (but rather windswept) meet up last weekend in a cave resurgance pool on the edge of the Dales not too far from Dent. One of …

A special Sunday afternoon

I have a book by Daniel Start called "Wild Guide to the Lakes and Dales" which I would highly recommend to anyone looking for mini adventure locations which are a bit off the beaten track. This book mentions some fabulous waterfalls on Leck Beck on the Western edge of the Dales not too far from …

Wild Swim locations – Summer 2018

  After my earlier post saying I'd swum in more places than ever this summer, I started to think where exactly? So, after a bit of head scratching, here is a list of all the places I have dipped or swum this summer (with photos) - or at least, all the ones I can remember.... …

Waterfall Inspections

If you have clicked on the "about" tab on my blog, you'll have seen a picture of me up to my neck in a Dales river... This is a not uncommon occurrence! From being a teenager I have loved pratting about in streams and rivers (or the sea when near enough), but haven't practiced it …

A tale of a camera or two

I really enjoy messing about taking photos of places and landscapes then cropping and tweaking in photoshop to try and re-create EXACTLY how I felt the scene looked when I was in the original location. I've had various cameras over the years which always saved the files in jpeg format and have coped with the …