David Wilson
Contributor
I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd start a new thread about snorkelling closer to home. I'm a big fan of Swimming free by Geoffrey Fraser Dutton, who lived in the Scottish Highlands in the 1970s and wrote:
Here under our noses - not in the distant tropics, but in our rivers, lakes and sea, even in pond and ditch and flooded meadow - is hidden a new and unsuspected world, now accessible for the first time to the ordinary careful swimmer: and he needs no more than flippers, face mask and snorkel, and - in winter or for those who hate cold water - an inexpensive rubber suit for warmth.
Here in the UK, wild swimming in open waters is growing in popularity. There have been TV programmes with wetsuited celebrities trying out open-water swimming for the first time in the country's lakes and rivers. I am also familiar with the tradition of the "swimming hole" on the other side of the Pond. Having spent a few days in San Diego more than a decade ago I can recommend what back then seemed to me to be the snorkeller's paradise of La Jolla Cove.
I've been a snorkeller for over 50 years and I love snorkelling for a variety of reasons, not least for its spontaneity. I can wake up at home, stick my head out of the bedroom window and decide whether the weather warrants a drive to the coast eight miles away for a dip in the North Sea with my mask, fins, snorkel and suit. No need for advance planning, air fills, intensive training, expensive gear or long-haul flights. Just the prospect of a relaxing and refreshing morning swim in natural surroundings a short hop from where I live.
Does anybody else share my enthusiasm for local snorkelling? Can you recommend snorkelling spots a short distance from where you live and tell me, and anybody else interested in following this thread, why and where you enjoy snorkelling as an everyday pastime rather than a vacation activity in a faraway location?
Here under our noses - not in the distant tropics, but in our rivers, lakes and sea, even in pond and ditch and flooded meadow - is hidden a new and unsuspected world, now accessible for the first time to the ordinary careful swimmer: and he needs no more than flippers, face mask and snorkel, and - in winter or for those who hate cold water - an inexpensive rubber suit for warmth.
Here in the UK, wild swimming in open waters is growing in popularity. There have been TV programmes with wetsuited celebrities trying out open-water swimming for the first time in the country's lakes and rivers. I am also familiar with the tradition of the "swimming hole" on the other side of the Pond. Having spent a few days in San Diego more than a decade ago I can recommend what back then seemed to me to be the snorkeller's paradise of La Jolla Cove.
I've been a snorkeller for over 50 years and I love snorkelling for a variety of reasons, not least for its spontaneity. I can wake up at home, stick my head out of the bedroom window and decide whether the weather warrants a drive to the coast eight miles away for a dip in the North Sea with my mask, fins, snorkel and suit. No need for advance planning, air fills, intensive training, expensive gear or long-haul flights. Just the prospect of a relaxing and refreshing morning swim in natural surroundings a short hop from where I live.
Does anybody else share my enthusiasm for local snorkelling? Can you recommend snorkelling spots a short distance from where you live and tell me, and anybody else interested in following this thread, why and where you enjoy snorkelling as an everyday pastime rather than a vacation activity in a faraway location?
