By: Blonde Two
After hill walking, my second favourite moving around activity is swimming. This weekend was another Dartmoor overnighter for the Two Blondes and I knew that we were going to be camping by a lovely river with a very tempting swimming hole. What better opportunity to combine my two loves. I can’t possibly give away the secrets of our exact location but it was on the North moor and there were two cuckoos “cuck” and “ooing” at each other near by.
The first time we camped at this spot was a couple of years ago and, as this weekend, we arrived with 18 youngsters, some tents and some nice cheese to eat. For the first visit, the weather was balmy and the sun shone all day. It was a waiting around kind of day so some of the kids choose to swim. I desperately wanted to but had no swimwear and couldn’t face the chance of being caught in my undies by the young ones.
This year, I arrived with strong resolve, a micro towel and my bikini. The only thing that I forgot was to order the sunshine. It was not a particularly cold day but there was a breeze and wrapping up was more tempting than stripping off. Some kids had set off, only for some of them to come back again almost straight away (it was that kind of a day). I could feel my swimming resolve slipping and the privacy levels slipping as the morning went on but I knew deep down that I would have been disappointed with myself if I didn’t take a dip so I decided to sneak off with my towel and dip a toe in.
The toe dip didn’t deter me (it maybe should have done) so I found a rock to sit on as the grass in the area was full of ticks, and stripped off to my bikini. The water was so cold as I slid in that I thought that I wasn’t going to be able to take a breath. I swam about three strokes over to a waterfall, keeping my head above water to avoid “ice-cream head” (or sphenopalatine ganglioneuralgia to give it the correct name) and then back again. Within a couple of minutes, I was back on my rock attempting a discreet change and realising exactly how micro a micro towel really is!
It was a really lovely spot, deep enough for me not to touch the bottom and if I ever manage to see sunshine there again, I will definitely give it another try!
We have a perfect swimming hole at the bottom of our garden but since swimming doesn’t feature at the top of my list of activities I have never been tempted in.
My wife keeps on saying we should go swimming in there my reply is always maybe on a nice hot day.
Its never warm as it come down from the mountains so you need to be a wild swimmer to feel use urge!
I have (accidentally) swam in the Dart in December in full winter wetsuit and and waterproofs and that was quite pleasant. Stripping down to a bikini on a “not so warm” April day – not so sure! You’re much braver than me! I love swimming too but tend to stick to the sea or a pool. Have managed the pool a lot recently but haven’t even been in the sea – would’ve normally by now but still soooooo cold! I have a brilliant book on Wild Swimming in the sea http://secretwildswims.wordpress.com/ and am eager to try some of them out.
Maybe next time I’m on the North Moor I should try and find your swimming hole and give it a go – might wait for a hot sunny day though! I was a bit bothered the girls might’ve taken a dip in the Tavy as I sent them off rock hopping and they had the most mental game of giant pooh sticks!!! Fortunately they stayed dry!
It takes a wetsuit to get me in the sea or the lakes these days, you brave person you!
I haven’t heard a cuckoo yet. I wonder if either of yours was toting a satellite tag and antenna on its back.
Was either of them a female voice?
Not sure about the female voice but we christened them Noddy and Widgery after Great Nodden the hill and Widgery Cross on top of Brat Tor. There was one called Anthony at Anthony stile too.