In pursuit of swimming
I didn’t think I would get to swim this year. Spring was spent in corona lockdown back home in Bristol, and although measures started easing as summer rolled around, traveling was still off the table. And you do need to travel if you live in Bristol and want to swim. There’s nowhere to swim close to the city.
May was warm, June was even warmer. Realising that we probably weren’t going to make it to Norway this year, I began to feel desperate and started googling “places to swim near Bristol”. Maybe there were ponds or lakes I didn’t know of nearby? It didn’t take long before I came across the Facebook group “Bristol Wild Swimming”.
Wild swimming! I was familiar with the expression, of course, having lived in the UK for 5 years, but I wasn’t prepared for the strange world of the British “wild swimmers”. I came to realise that in Britain, “wild swimming” is considered to be a highly specialised hobby or a even an eccentric lifestyle choice. It’s also seen as a little dangerous. The people posting in “Bristol Wild Swimming” are very concerned with safety. Even if someone posts a picture of a placid pond, someone will comment and ask: “Did it feel safe?”
There are also discussions about “swimming wild” alone (“should it ever be done?”) and anxious posts from people who are ready to “start their wild swimming adventure” and worry about the risks that they might be taking when they “venture into the wild waters for the first time”.
A lot of Brits seem to be have been giving “wild swimming” a go for the first time during the last couple of years, and especially during this lockdown period. Newspapers have been writing articles explaining “what wild swimming is” (along with a long list of possible dangers), they’ve been covering the “rise of wild swimmers” there have been feature interviews with “experienced wild swimmers”, and a little over a month ago The Times ran an article with the following headline: “Wild swimming? It’s all gone a little mainstream”.
British people probably have no idea how incredibly odd this sounds to a lot of Europeans. In Scandinavia, I think most people would be puzzled by the notion that outdoor swimming can even be considered mainstream or non-mainstream. Outdoor swimming is simply something people do, without making a big song and dance about it. It doesn’t need a name, and people are certainly not seen as daring for doing it!
There is of course a sad reason why outdoor swimming is seen as a Super Special Hobby in Britain. It’s simply not accessible for large parts of the population. Unless you happen to live by the seaside, it’s likely that you don’t have access to clean swimming spots. This is especially true for England. Almost all the rivers are highly polluted, and a lot of lakes are made inaccessible by private water companies. No wonder there’s a need for a FB group like Bristol Wild Swimming! You can’t just go out and jump in the nearest pond or river - you need to plan and prepare and stake out the best spots. However - there are no good spots. Not really. A lot of the discussion in the group is based on posts where people enquire about the current pollution levels in a handful of pretty dismal places.
In the beginning of July, I couldn’t take it anymore - I had to swim, almost regardless of the conditions. My husband and I got on our bikes and cycled two or three hours each way to Layde Bay, to swim in the silty waters of the Bristol Channel. When we got back, I posted a picture from the beach in the wild swimming group. “But was it safe?” people wondered. “Were there waves?”
Layde Bay. Muddy and safe.
Only a week or so later, Norway eased the restrictions on travel to and from the UK, and we booked a spontaneous trip to Oslo. It turned into a very long stay for me, as I have some work commitments here in Norway in the coming month (unnecessary travel is clearly not a good idea these days), so now I’ve spent 5 glorious weeks swimming everyday. I can’t think of anything that makes me feel happier or healthier than swimming - and I’ve never felt as sorry for Brits as I do now. There is growing pressure to clean up UK rivers, but I fear the change will be slow. Besides, Brexit will make it easier for the UK to roll back environmental standards. (And remember - the UK had to be forced by the EU to clean up their polluted beaches back in the 90s.)
I’ve just had my last swim of the season. I would have liked to continue well into autumn, but I just got a fresh tattoo and have to stay out of the water. At least I made up for those long, hot weeks of no swimming in Bristol! And I’m definitely sure I can call myself an Experienced Wild Swimmer!
