Largest natural lake in England? 

Needs to be swum ...

 regardless of the weather - of course!

 

The Lake District is beautiful, no question.

For me there was no hesitation when I got invited to be support rower for an attempted crossing (lengthwise, of course) 

of England' s largest natural lake

 - the Lake Windermere -

in the heart of this beautiful National Park. 

Having never been so far up to the Northern regions of England I was astonished by the instability of the local weather (well, I am in the UK, so what the hell did I expect?). 

But: 

There was no way out, and the challenge was arranged months and months before the day - which unfortunately turned out to be very rainy, foggy, dark and cold.

Nonetheless, there were about 10 swimmers plus their support rowers, facing the challenge that day: 

Being a "true" open water swimmer with an addictive love for cold water, 

one can easily guess 

for whom I was crewing ... 

(Yes: The skinny, "naked" one, all in the middle).

Some like to fight "with" ...

... others "without" ...

... some even with one forearm less than the rest:

But as we are in the UK, everyone does it -

for charity:
http://www.chect.org.uk/cms/

http://www.love2donate.co.uk/latest/windermere/ 

With the lake being 10.5 miles long, a slight shoulder injury, an average water temperature of 13 degrees and a totally clouded and rainy day

(with high local inhomogeneity in water temperature), 

of course, this mission was "fatal", 

but romantically beautiful ...

... From the water the landscape just looks like in a fairy tale ...

 ... 

sounds get swallowed and one is totally alone, surrounded only 

by this one beautiful element
...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back to reality:
Being into the water it feels damn cold!

After three hours in the swim, we decided to turn the solo-crossing into a relay and loosen up some further rules, deciding we would come up for the "real crossing" on a better day and try once more. 

This gave me the opportunity to join into the swim: 

... which I happily did and enjoyed a lot ...

... intermittently trying to scare swans and other lake animals away:

Only semi-successful though. But we are all still alive!

The next day we woke up (long ago reheated of course), 

just to discover that days at the Lake District can also be a little bit less cloudy and the lake 

then even more beautiful: 

Definitively more motivation to come back again!

Let the Sea be my Harbour

or Roadtrip Southern English Coastline 2013 

Escaping from London 

to explore the very different parts of England 

was one of the projects I worked upon with high priority this summer ...

In the end 

- as so often - 

travelling England was easier than thought 

and chosing reasonably from the vast amount of promising destinations 

was probably the toughest part of the journey ...

Finally

- of course -

a lot was about 

the sea and wild swimming, 

while exploring the English National Heritage along the Southern Coast ... 

Perfect match! 

You can try and track our official route here (:

or get a personal version and travel-recommendations from me directly.

- - - 

The English coastline is just too beautiful 

and the water too tempting ...

     

                

to miss out on any single

...

                    

(how ever cold) 

swim.

Hikes and climbs were used for warming up ...

 

           

 

... where sunset 

brought cold 

       


             

                             

but romantic

  nights.

Sights along the way ...

... were examined with deadly precision

and being in constant proximity to the sea 

...

and to its companions 

...

was again very liberating:

However obscure 

the future will display itself 

(in London and around) 

...

I am going to be out there 

looking forward to it.