The best spots in Britain to immerse yourself in wild swimming

Outdoor swimming is a year-round pleasure, but spring is the best time to start. Here’s how to ease yourself in and five beautiful places to try

Outdoor swimming can – and should – be a year-round pleasure. And now is the perfect time to make a start. January is a terrible month to try and muster willpower: too dark and cold. But start swimming now – when the sun has had a chance to warm our rivers and lakes – and the momentum can take you through to next summer.

Four years ago, I decided to swim right around the calendar. As the leaves fell and I stared suspiciously at the brown swimming pond in my local park, an older woman in rubber hat and neoprene gloves climbed casually down the ladder and into the water. Her strategy, she told me later, over a foot bowl of warm water, had been to simply keep swimming, at least once a week, for as long as she could bear it. Come rain, snow or wind, she walked down, stripped off, had a plunge and headed home again – just to see how long she would manage. Before she knew it, summer had arrived and she had done an entire year. As the Outdoor Swimming Society puts it, “It is easier to start your swimming career in spring or summer, at 16C and above, and then keep on swimming as the temperature drops.”

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from Health & wellbeing | The Guardian http://ift.tt/24bRbqu
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