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'The sun had been shining on the water all day and I set off and swam comfortably into | 0:00:16 | 0:00:22 | |
'the amazing clear water, marvelling at the brightness of everything. | 0:00:22 | 0:00:27 | |
'The swimmer is content to be borne on his way full of mysteries, | 0:00:30 | 0:00:36 | |
'doubts and uncertainties. | 0:00:36 | 0:00:38 | |
'He is a leaf on the stream, free at last from his petty little purposes in life.' | 0:00:38 | 0:00:44 | |
For some people this would be the ideal swimming location - | 0:00:51 | 0:00:56 | |
clean and modern, with convenient changing rooms, big fluffy robes | 0:00:56 | 0:01:02 | |
and, best of all, hot water. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:05 | |
But a growing number of people across Britain are looking for a completely different kind of experience. | 0:01:05 | 0:01:12 | |
To a 'wild swimmer' secluded rivers, lakes and rock pools are where it's at. | 0:01:26 | 0:01:33 | |
And over the last few years there's been a steady flow of books, magazine articles and TV features | 0:01:33 | 0:01:40 | |
feeding a growing obsession with swimming in the great outdoors. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:45 | |
And if one book can claim to have rekindled our passion | 0:01:47 | 0:01:51 | |
in wild swimming, then surely this must be it. | 0:01:51 | 0:01:55 | |
Roger Deakin's Waterlog. | 0:01:55 | 0:01:56 | |
Roger Deakin was an environmentalist, broadcaster and writer | 0:01:59 | 0:02:02 | |
and worked for a variety of papers and wildlife magazines. | 0:02:02 | 0:02:07 | |
In Waterlog, his first book, he recorded a series of journeys | 0:02:07 | 0:02:12 | |
that he made in an attempt to swim in as many British rivers, lakes and pools as he could. | 0:02:12 | 0:02:20 | |
The result was an extraordinary, poetic discourse | 0:02:20 | 0:02:24 | |
on the joys of nature and the delights of swimming in the wild. | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
'I wanted to follow the rain on it's meanderings about our land | 0:02:30 | 0:02:34 | |
'to rejoin the sea, to break out of the frustration of a lifetime of doing lengths, | 0:02:34 | 0:02:40 | |
'of endlessly turning back on myself like a tiger pacing its cage... | 0:02:40 | 0:02:45 | |
'I grew convinced that following water, flowing with it, would be | 0:02:47 | 0:02:51 | |
'a way of getting under the skin of things, of learning something new. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:56 | |
'I might even learn about myself, too.' | 0:02:56 | 0:02:59 | |
Waterlog is one of my favourite books. | 0:03:01 | 0:03:04 | |
It's this beautiful, lyrical evocation of the importance of water to an island nation. | 0:03:04 | 0:03:11 | |
And it's also a bit of an inspiration and a challenge to me. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:16 | |
An inspiration because it makes me want to swim in wild places, | 0:03:16 | 0:03:20 | |
and a challenge because I want to understand that desire | 0:03:20 | 0:03:24 | |
and to find out more about the relationship between humans and water. | 0:03:24 | 0:03:30 | |
To do that, I'm going to swim in some of the wildest locations the country has to offer. | 0:03:32 | 0:03:38 | |
I'm going to examine the enduring fascination water has held for artists and writers. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:48 | |
And I'm going to look at how water has made its mark on myth and legend. | 0:03:48 | 0:03:55 | |
But, before I do all that, I'm going to have a cup of tea. | 0:03:57 | 0:04:01 | |
I don't actually remember learning to swim, which presumably meant I was very young when it happened. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:29 | |
But I do have some lovely memories of swimming from my childhood | 0:04:29 | 0:04:33 | |
and, in particular, this pool that we used to go to. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:37 | |
It was a friend of the family and we used to go down the garden into this dip. | 0:04:37 | 0:04:42 | |
And hidden away in the dip was this swimming pool with little huts to get changed in. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:47 | |
And it was like going back into the '30s, I think. | 0:04:47 | 0:04:50 | |
I remember really vividly that fantastic feeling of swimming outdoors. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:56 | |
The days of just turning up at the neighbour's with a costume and a towel are long gone. | 0:04:58 | 0:05:03 | |
For this trip, I'm packing all manner of wetsuits, costumes and spare changes of clothes. | 0:05:03 | 0:05:09 | |
And I'm also bringing some copies of radio recordings | 0:05:09 | 0:05:13 | |
that Roger Deakin made for the BBC after Waterlog was published. | 0:05:13 | 0:05:18 | |
Sadly, Roger died in 2006. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:22 | |
But, through his writings and recordings, | 0:05:22 | 0:05:24 | |
I hope to get a clearer insight into the man who's inspired me. | 0:05:24 | 0:05:28 | |
'The warm rain tumbled from the gutter in one of those midsummer | 0:05:31 | 0:05:36 | |
'downpours as I hastened across the lawn behind my house in Suffolk and took shelter in the moat. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:44 | |
'Breast-stroking up and down the 30 yards of clear, green water, | 0:05:44 | 0:05:50 | |
'I nosed along, eyes just at water level. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:53 | |
'It was at the height of this drenching in the summer of 1996 that | 0:05:53 | 0:05:58 | |
'the notion of a long swim through Britain began to form itself.' | 0:05:58 | 0:06:02 | |
There are more than 1,000 lakes and 8,000 rivers in the UK. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:10 | |
So, in terms of potential swimming locations, I'm more than spoilt for choice. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:16 | |
So, I've decided to start at one of the oldest river swimming clubs in the country, | 0:06:23 | 0:06:28 | |
the Farleigh and District Club on the River Frome in Wiltshire. | 0:06:28 | 0:06:32 | |
There is Rob. | 0:06:38 | 0:06:40 | |
He's got his towel with him. | 0:06:40 | 0:06:43 | |
'Giving me a guided tour will be Rob Fryer, club chairman and a vocal champion of river swimming.' | 0:06:43 | 0:06:50 | |
-Rob. -Good to see you. -Hello. | 0:06:50 | 0:06:53 | |
-Come in. -So this is the swimming club? | 0:06:53 | 0:06:55 | |
Yes, this is the Farleigh and District Swimming Club. | 0:06:55 | 0:06:57 | |
It's just a field. | 0:06:57 | 0:06:59 | |
Well, yes. It is just a field. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:02 | |
But that's the charm of it. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:04 | |
You've got to... | 0:07:04 | 0:07:05 | |
appreciate the simplicity of the pleasures of swimming in rivers. | 0:07:05 | 0:07:12 | |
Those simple pleasures are down to a pool, created by this weir, | 0:07:13 | 0:07:18 | |
which has given club members and visitors nearly a century's worth of enjoyment. | 0:07:18 | 0:07:23 | |
I don't know what I was expecting, Rob. But perhaps...some kind of pavilion? | 0:07:33 | 0:07:37 | |
Well, the swimming club pavilion, we call that the pavilion. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:39 | |
That corrugated iron shed? | 0:07:39 | 0:07:43 | |
-No, no, no. That's a swimming club pavilion. -Right, OK. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:45 | |
I would correct you on that. | 0:07:45 | 0:07:47 | |
The club was started in the early '30s when a local landowner invited | 0:07:49 | 0:07:54 | |
a group of swimmers to formalise their activities. | 0:07:54 | 0:07:57 | |
What was this place like in the 1930s? | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
It was very much an important social hub of the whole community. And everybody knew each other. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:07 | |
There were all these events, like diving competitions for silver tea-spoons. | 0:08:07 | 0:08:13 | |
And then there'd be water polo. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:16 | |
The '30s were the heyday of river swimming. | 0:08:17 | 0:08:20 | |
But after the war these clubs went into decline, | 0:08:20 | 0:08:23 | |
as new municipal swimming pools sprang up across the country. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:28 | |
By the early 1990s, Farleigh was one of the few | 0:08:28 | 0:08:31 | |
river swimming clubs remaining - and even they were under threat. | 0:08:31 | 0:08:36 | |
I know that Roger came here, because he writes about it in Waterlog. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:41 | |
-Roger Deakin, yes. -And he met you as well. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:43 | |
-Yeah. -What was it like when he arrived? | 0:08:43 | 0:08:45 | |
Well, he came... | 0:08:45 | 0:08:47 | |
Quite honestly we were at a low point. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:50 | |
We felt embattled by public opinion and authorities. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:55 | |
And he was like a fairy godmother, giving us a standard to raise. | 0:08:55 | 0:09:00 | |
So he galvanised you to fight for the future of the club? | 0:09:00 | 0:09:02 | |
Absolutely, in a very clever way. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:04 | |
It's just simply the publication of his book. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
When he came we just felt inspired and we just changed overnight. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:13 | |
Since the publication of Waterlog, membership of the Farleigh club has steadily increased | 0:09:13 | 0:09:20 | |
and people come from far and wide to enjoy these beautiful surroundings. | 0:09:20 | 0:09:26 | |
It's not contrived. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:28 | |
It's not a part of the materialistic world. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:31 | |
If you can appreciate things that are non-materialistic, | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
you are then able to live a truer life and get true enjoyment. | 0:09:35 | 0:09:40 | |
Is there anything better than that? | 0:09:40 | 0:09:43 | |
To embrace Rob's enthusiasm and to begin to understand more of Roger Deakin's passion for wild swimming, | 0:09:45 | 0:09:52 | |
-I need to plunge in for my first ever river swim. -Fish in there. | 0:09:52 | 0:10:00 | |
-Oh! It gets deep quickly. -Oh! -SHE LAUGHS | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
Oh, no. I've got to get in now. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:09 | |
'The murky water is far from inviting and feels very cold, even through my wetsuit. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:21 | |
'But, despite that, there is a delightful feeling of breaking the rules and doing something naughty.' | 0:10:25 | 0:10:32 | |
This is wonderful. | 0:10:37 | 0:10:40 | |
I don't know. It feels like you're... in nature. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:44 | |
It's lovely. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:47 | |
'The river has always been a kind of escape route. | 0:10:47 | 0:10:50 | |
'It's a way into another world. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:52 | |
'And of course there is this secret network of ways into another world | 0:10:52 | 0:10:57 | |
'all over Britain and they are our rivers.' | 0:10:57 | 0:11:01 | |
-Well, how was that? -I feel as if I've been well and truly initiated. It was wonderful. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:17 | |
-Great, great. -I think I'm addicted. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
-I'm really glad you enjoyed it. -It was lovely. | 0:11:20 | 0:11:22 | |
So, Rob, I'd like you to give me some hot tips on where to go swimming. I was thinking about going down to... | 0:11:28 | 0:11:33 | |
'With Rob giving me advice on promising places to go, | 0:11:33 | 0:11:37 | |
'I'm ready to head off on the next stage of my journey.' | 0:11:37 | 0:11:41 | |
That was a rather wonderful experience, I really enjoyed it. | 0:11:45 | 0:11:50 | |
And Rob's right, | 0:11:50 | 0:11:52 | |
swimming isn't just about the physical act of doing it. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
It's what's going on around you. | 0:11:55 | 0:11:56 | |
And when you're swimming in a river, you've got those ripples you're creating as you're swimming, | 0:11:56 | 0:12:01 | |
and you have this world which is framed by the banks and all | 0:12:01 | 0:12:04 | |
the plants and the trees arching over you. It's just fantastic. | 0:12:04 | 0:12:08 | |
What I definitely want to do is to explore some other places to do wild swimming. | 0:12:11 | 0:12:16 | |
To get into rivers and lakes... | 0:12:16 | 0:12:20 | |
and maybe even underground rivers. | 0:12:20 | 0:12:23 | |
That would be fun. | 0:12:23 | 0:12:26 | |
The possibilities are seeming quite endless now. | 0:12:26 | 0:12:28 | |
And I'm going to start looking at maps in a different way. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:33 | |
I'm not just going to be looking for... | 0:12:33 | 0:12:36 | |
roads to places and interesting places in the landscape. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:40 | |
I'm going to be looking for those blue, snaking lines and wondering where I can get into them. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:45 | |
One thing that permeates Roger's writing is his love of wildlife and the environment. | 0:12:51 | 0:12:56 | |
And it's this aspect of wild swimming I want to investigate next. | 0:12:56 | 0:13:02 | |
'I've swum many times up this stretch of river. | 0:13:02 | 0:13:06 | |
'It's very, very deep. It's a lovely place to swim in the summer | 0:13:06 | 0:13:11 | |
'and a great haunt of the kingfisher. | 0:13:11 | 0:13:13 | |
'When you're swimming, kingfishers | 0:13:17 | 0:13:19 | |
'dive straight over you, | 0:13:19 | 0:13:23 | |
'just in a flash.' | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
I've come to the River Wye, upstream of Monmouth. | 0:13:28 | 0:13:32 | |
It's a stretch ideal for a long swim and | 0:13:32 | 0:13:34 | |
a chance to appreciate the river's renowned diversity of wildlife. | 0:13:34 | 0:13:39 | |
What the Wye not renowned for, however, is its warmth. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:45 | |
Oooh! SHIVERS | 0:13:45 | 0:13:47 | |
And, as I'm planning to be in the water for more than two hours, I need to dress accordingly. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:53 | |
Think of otters, they don't have to think about putting a wetsuit on in the morning. | 0:13:53 | 0:13:57 | |
They just jump straight in. | 0:13:57 | 0:13:59 | |
But then, of course, they've got a wetsuit of their own, naturally. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:03 | |
Their fur traps air and acts as an | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
insulation between them and the cold water. | 0:14:06 | 0:14:12 | |
'It's not just the warmth of the wetsuit I'm going to be thankful for. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:15 | |
'This will be my first solo swim and along a stretch that's completely unknown to me. | 0:14:15 | 0:14:21 | |
'So the little bit of extra buoyancy it gives me will be also be reassuring as I venture out alone.' | 0:14:21 | 0:14:27 | |
'I tend to swim the naturalist's stroke, breast-stroke, in rivers, mostly, because... | 0:14:40 | 0:14:46 | |
'you just see more and you don't disturb things as much.' | 0:14:48 | 0:14:52 | |
The water is so still. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
Really beautiful. | 0:15:03 | 0:15:05 | |
It's like looking out across a mirror. | 0:15:05 | 0:15:07 | |
And occasionally this incredibly | 0:15:07 | 0:15:11 | |
still, mirror-like surface is broken by fish jumping up. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:16 | |
'These swans are very much in their element and seem to treat me with almost complete distain. | 0:15:22 | 0:15:28 | |
'They can glide upstream, apparently effortlessly. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:32 | |
'Unlike me.' It's quite a fast flowing current here. | 0:15:32 | 0:15:36 | |
I think swimming downstream might be easier. | 0:15:36 | 0:15:39 | |
'Around me I catch sight of all manner of life.' | 0:15:42 | 0:15:46 | |
Very beautiful. | 0:15:48 | 0:15:49 | |
BIRD CALLS | 0:15:53 | 0:15:57 | |
A buzzard! Wow. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:07 | |
I can feel some weeds around my feet, just here. | 0:16:07 | 0:16:11 | |
As the river gets shallower, these luminous plants abound, absorbing the sunlight. | 0:16:14 | 0:16:19 | |
I can feel their tendrils brush my body as I'm borne faster and faster downstream. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:26 | |
Well, that was a wonderful swim. | 0:16:34 | 0:16:36 | |
I saw a lot of wildlife and it's really lovely being at that level, immersed in the river, | 0:16:36 | 0:16:42 | |
feeling as though you really are in that environment with them, rather than watching them from a distance. | 0:16:42 | 0:16:48 | |
And I don't think I disturbed them too much. | 0:16:48 | 0:16:50 | |
I was just sharing their river for a few moments. | 0:16:50 | 0:16:55 | |
There's no doubt that wetsuits are wonderful things but... | 0:17:03 | 0:17:07 | |
but it does form a barrier between you and the... | 0:17:07 | 0:17:12 | |
experience of being in the water, I suppose. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:14 | |
Swimming in the river, when I was moving my hands through the water, | 0:17:14 | 0:17:18 | |
I could feel the silkiness of the water. | 0:17:18 | 0:17:20 | |
But I wasn't really getting that on the rest of my body at all. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:23 | |
I suppose there's only really one way to deal with that, and that's to, um, | 0:17:23 | 0:17:28 | |
leave the wetsuit behind. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:31 | |
Before I discard my wetsuit, I want to know exactly what I'm going to be exposing my body to. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:38 | |
So I've arranged to meet Professor Mike Tipton, | 0:17:38 | 0:17:40 | |
the country's leading expert on the effects of immersion in cold water. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:45 | |
Together with his assistant, Geoff, he's going to monitor what happens | 0:17:46 | 0:17:50 | |
to my body when I plunge into this open-air pool. | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
-Morning. -Hello, Alice. Nice to meet you. | 0:17:53 | 0:17:56 | |
-Hello, I'm ready. -You're ready to go? | 0:17:56 | 0:17:58 | |
OK. The first thing we'll do is take a picture of you using our infra-red camera. | 0:17:58 | 0:18:02 | |
-We'll see your surface temperature. -I'll look nice and warm against the background. -I'd imagine so. | 0:18:02 | 0:18:07 | |
Fresh out of the changing room, I'm still really warm | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
and my body stands out clearly against the cool of the water. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
But it won't stay that way for long. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
-You'll cool about four to five times faster in water than in air at the same temperature. -Right. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:22 | |
So this is why you get hypothermia so much quicker in water than in air? | 0:18:22 | 0:18:25 | |
So any reflexes, any changes in my heart rate or my breathing, that's | 0:18:25 | 0:18:29 | |
a reflex simply linked to what's going on on the surface of my body? | 0:18:29 | 0:18:33 | |
Absolutely. That's where we're sensitive. | 0:18:33 | 0:18:35 | |
We have four times more cold receptors in the skin than we have warm receptors. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:41 | |
And that drives our sensation of cooling. | 0:18:41 | 0:18:43 | |
'As I'm rigged up with a heart monitor, I feel more like a lab rat than a wild swimmer. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:50 | |
'So it's a relief to finally get into the water. | 0:18:50 | 0:18:54 | |
'The relief is short lived.' | 0:18:58 | 0:19:01 | |
'The water is 15 degrees Centigrade, | 0:19:01 | 0:19:03 | |
'the average summer river temperature in the UK. But it still takes my breath away.' | 0:19:03 | 0:19:08 | |
So, my breathings going very quickly. GASPS | 0:19:09 | 0:19:14 | |
-The heart-rate monitor is saying zero at the moment. -Oh, dear. | 0:19:14 | 0:19:17 | |
Well, that's well over a hundred. | 0:19:17 | 0:19:20 | |
There is goes, there it goes. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:22 | |
So, normally you get it up to about 120, 130. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:26 | |
But you very quickly get over that. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:28 | |
It takes about 30 seconds to a minute to get over from that cold shock response. | 0:19:28 | 0:19:32 | |
That's caused by that sudden fall in skin temperature. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
And that gasping? Is that normal? | 0:19:35 | 0:19:37 | |
That uncontrollable gasping? Yeah. | 0:19:37 | 0:19:39 | |
Of course, if you happen to have gone under the water, you've only got to take about a | 0:19:39 | 0:19:43 | |
third of a breath in and you've gone past the lethal volume for drowning. | 0:19:43 | 0:19:47 | |
'As I get my breathing under control I can appreciate other changes happening in my body.' | 0:19:47 | 0:19:54 | |
There's a stinging sensation as well? | 0:19:54 | 0:19:56 | |
Yeah, that's just the response of the cold receptors. | 0:19:56 | 0:19:58 | |
You've got lots of cold receptors just below the surface and you've given them an enormous stimulus. | 0:19:58 | 0:20:04 | |
They're sending lots of information into your spinal cord and brain. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:08 | |
Meanwhile, you're also shutting down the blood to the skin, as the body tries to conserve heat. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:13 | |
And slowly but surely the cold will anaesthetise all those receptors. | 0:20:13 | 0:20:18 | |
So, you end up feeling numb and like you don't know where your arms are. | 0:20:18 | 0:20:22 | |
And that's what affects things like swimming. | 0:20:22 | 0:20:24 | |
So, now would be a good time for you to go for a swim. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:27 | |
Moving would be a great idea. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:29 | |
Go for it. Go for about four lengths. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:31 | |
After sitting still for so long, it's a relief to be moving and the exercise starts to warm me up. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:39 | |
But after experiencing the delights of my first river swim, | 0:20:43 | 0:20:46 | |
these surroundings feel particularly unnatural and artificial. | 0:20:46 | 0:20:51 | |
-How's it feel? -It feels quite warm, actually. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:06 | |
I mean, I'm aware I'm in a cold environment. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:09 | |
Can I get out? | 0:21:09 | 0:21:11 | |
Yes. Can you manage? | 0:21:11 | 0:21:13 | |
I've got a tingling sensation | 0:21:13 | 0:21:15 | |
on my arms... | 0:21:15 | 0:21:17 | |
No, I can't manage... Oh, that's strange. | 0:21:17 | 0:21:19 | |
'After just a few minutes, the numbness in my limbs has | 0:21:19 | 0:21:23 | |
'made even simple tasks like climbing out of the pool a real challenge.' | 0:21:23 | 0:21:28 | |
The comparison between the earlier image from the infra-red camera and | 0:21:31 | 0:21:35 | |
my current one shows the dramatic change in my skin temperature. | 0:21:35 | 0:21:40 | |
But as I climb out of the water, I feel far from uncomfortable. | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
How are you feeling? | 0:21:44 | 0:21:45 | |
Well, actually, I feel good. My skin feels tingling. | 0:21:45 | 0:21:50 | |
It feels quite warm and glowing. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:52 | |
'That feeling is a result of the contrast when I emerge from the cold water into the warmer air. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:57 | |
'Blood returns to the skin as it warms, | 0:21:57 | 0:21:59 | |
'and that effect is clearly visible, given how bright my arms are, within a minute of leaving the pool. | 0:21:59 | 0:22:06 | |
'And it's this sensation of exhilaration that's probably prompted | 0:22:06 | 0:22:10 | |
'so many people to extol the virtues of cold-water bathing.' | 0:22:10 | 0:22:15 | |
This form of hydrotherapy, which reached its zenith in | 0:22:19 | 0:22:23 | |
the Victorian age, has encouraged thousands of people over the years to visit spas, springs and the seaside | 0:22:23 | 0:22:29 | |
to treat a variety of ailments from arthritis to depression. | 0:22:29 | 0:22:34 | |
Its advocates included such luminaries as Charles Darwin, | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
Florence Nightingale and Lord Tennyson. | 0:22:37 | 0:22:41 | |
But were they right? | 0:22:41 | 0:22:43 | |
Are they any benefits to bathing in cold water? | 0:22:43 | 0:22:47 | |
Clearly, you get this incredible stimulation to the body. | 0:22:47 | 0:22:51 | |
But there's no evidence to suggest it improves your immune function | 0:22:51 | 0:22:56 | |
or makes you live longer, or healthier. | 0:22:57 | 0:22:59 | |
Even if it's not beneficial, I am going to be immersing myself in cold water quite a bit. | 0:22:59 | 0:23:03 | |
-Have you any advice for me? -Yes. | 0:23:03 | 0:23:06 | |
Get used to the cold so you take out that cold shock response, the most dangerous of all the responses. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:11 | |
If you get a cold shock response, allow it to disappear before you start swimming. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:16 | |
So you're not trying to swim with your breathing out of control. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
If I'm to relinquish my wetsuit and plunge into the cold embrace of a | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
British river, then I need to prepare myself for this alien environment. | 0:23:27 | 0:23:31 | |
I'm determined to respect nature and take the proper steps to acclimatise. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:37 | |
Which is why I'm doing this... | 0:23:40 | 0:23:43 | |
'Subjecting myself to a series of cold showers.' | 0:23:45 | 0:23:48 | |
Oh, that's really cold! | 0:23:48 | 0:23:50 | |
'But over the next few days, this regime seems to be doing the trick. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:55 | |
'I no longer gasp uncontrollably at the first touch of cold water.' | 0:23:55 | 0:24:00 | |
I'm now ready to recommence my wild swimming odyssey, but this time on the edge of Dartmoor. | 0:24:02 | 0:24:08 | |
'My only purpose was to get thoroughly lost. | 0:24:08 | 0:24:14 | |
'To disappear into the hills and tarns and miss my way home for as long as possible. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:18 | |
'If I could find a string of swims and dips, each one surpassing | 0:24:18 | 0:24:23 | |
'the last in aimlessness, so much the better.' | 0:24:23 | 0:24:27 | |
Dartmoor is a spectacularly watery part of the country. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:33 | |
No less than nine different rivers from the Taw and the Teign, to the Dart itself, | 0:24:33 | 0:24:39 | |
rise from its peaty ground. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
But it's not just water that wells-up from this area. | 0:24:44 | 0:24:48 | |
The literary output inspired by Dartmoor's rivers is truly impressive. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:53 | |
Tarka the Otter frolicked in the River Taw. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:56 | |
Charles Kingsley's novel The Water Babies | 0:24:56 | 0:25:00 | |
was prompted by growing up here. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:02 | |
And Ted Hughes' book of poems, The River, | 0:25:02 | 0:25:06 | |
was sparked by the Dart and the Taw. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
But there's one piece of poetry that is particularly relevant for my next swimming spot. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:17 | |
Alice Oswald's long poem, Dart, | 0:25:17 | 0:25:21 | |
which paints a beguiling picture of the river from its source to its mouth. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:27 | |
"Listen | 0:25:27 | 0:25:29 | |
"A lark spinning around one note | 0:25:29 | 0:25:33 | |
"Splitting and mending it | 0:25:33 | 0:25:35 | |
"And I find you in the reeds | 0:25:35 | 0:25:37 | |
"A trickle coming out of a bank | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
"A foal of a river | 0:25:40 | 0:25:43 | |
"One step-width water of linked stones | 0:25:43 | 0:25:48 | |
"Trills in the stones | 0:25:48 | 0:25:49 | |
"Glides in the trills | 0:25:49 | 0:25:52 | |
"Eels in the glides | 0:25:52 | 0:25:55 | |
"In each eel... | 0:25:55 | 0:25:56 | |
"a finger-width of sea." | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
The poem weaves together a collection of characters, | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
from fishermen to lock-keepers and the river's own water spirits, | 0:26:04 | 0:26:08 | |
to create it's own unique vision. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:11 | |
But it's the passages that relate to a swimmer that tempt me into to the Dart's icy embrace. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:19 | |
GASPS | 0:26:19 | 0:26:23 | |
Oh, that's cold. | 0:26:23 | 0:26:26 | |
"Menyahari, we scream in mid-air | 0:26:32 | 0:26:36 | |
"We jump from a tree into a pool | 0:26:36 | 0:26:38 | |
"We change ourselves into the fish dimension | 0:26:38 | 0:26:42 | |
"Everybody swims here, under still-pool copse on a Saturday | 0:26:42 | 0:26:47 | |
"Slapping the water with bare hands It's fine once you're in | 0:26:47 | 0:26:51 | |
"Then I jumped In a rush of gold to the head | 0:26:51 | 0:26:55 | |
"Through black and cold Red and cold, brown and warm | 0:26:55 | 0:26:59 | |
"Giving water the weight and size of myself in order to imagine it | 0:26:59 | 0:27:03 | |
"Water with my bones | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
"Water with my mouth and my understanding." | 0:27:05 | 0:27:08 | |
It is extremely cold. I think this water's probably, I don't know, about 10 degrees. | 0:27:14 | 0:27:19 | |
GASPS | 0:27:19 | 0:27:21 | |
I'm standing up in goose bumps all over, but it's also lovely. | 0:27:21 | 0:27:25 | |
My body's tingling all over. | 0:27:25 | 0:27:28 | |
It feels wonderful. | 0:27:28 | 0:27:30 | |
Looking down at my arms, they look golden under the peaty water. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:40 | |
"Where salmon swim with many a glittering | 0:27:48 | 0:27:51 | |
"And herons flare and fold Look for a race of fresh water | 0:27:51 | 0:27:56 | |
"Filling the sea with gold." | 0:27:56 | 0:27:58 | |
-James. -Ah, hello! | 0:28:01 | 0:28:03 | |
'I'm not the only one to be beguiled by Alice Oswald's lyricism and magic.' | 0:28:03 | 0:28:08 | |
-It's a marvellous place to be. Shall we go and have a look at the river? -Let's do that. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:13 | |
'West Country poet and writer James Crowden is another big fan of the poem Dart.' | 0:28:13 | 0:28:17 | |
What she's done is very cleverly intertwined lots of different lives, | 0:28:17 | 0:28:21 | |
different people living by the river, people visiting it. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:24 | |
And it flows from one person's take on the river to another. | 0:28:24 | 0:28:29 | |
And one of them, which I didn't know at the time, | 0:28:29 | 0:28:32 | |
the swimmer was Roger Deakin, and that's magic | 0:28:32 | 0:28:34 | |
because I knew Roger and loved his slightly rebellious streak. | 0:28:34 | 0:28:38 | |
His love of freedom, always wanting to challenge things. | 0:28:38 | 0:28:41 | |
If somebody says no swimming, he'll go in there. | 0:28:41 | 0:28:44 | |
Like it's almost his birthright to go swimming in the rivers. | 0:28:46 | 0:28:51 | |
James, what do you think it is about water and rivers in particular that inspires poets and writers? | 0:28:51 | 0:28:58 | |
I think there are many things. I think there's the... | 0:28:58 | 0:29:00 | |
visual nature of the river, which is what you first see, when you come through the woods as we did, | 0:29:00 | 0:29:07 | |
and you stumble on a river, sometimes literally. | 0:29:07 | 0:29:10 | |
There's a sort of vitality about rivers, they're always moving. | 0:29:10 | 0:29:13 | |
And there's also a sense of not knowing, a sense of mystery. | 0:29:13 | 0:29:17 | |
You see half the river, you don't often see below the surface. I think it's the unseen-ness of it. | 0:29:20 | 0:29:26 | |
What you can't see is analogous to the subconscious, the unconscious. | 0:29:26 | 0:29:32 | |
It's the forces that poets are instinctively drawn to | 0:29:32 | 0:29:34 | |
by not knowing and they want to explore that with language. | 0:29:34 | 0:29:39 | |
Roger Deakin here says, "Water is the most poetical of | 0:29:39 | 0:29:42 | |
"elements allowing of no sudden or awkward movements. | 0:29:42 | 0:29:46 | |
"Even a stone, dropped in, sinks gracefully." | 0:29:46 | 0:29:50 | |
I think it's this gracefulness which | 0:29:50 | 0:29:53 | |
you associate with rivers, and then there are rapids, | 0:29:53 | 0:29:57 | |
and then there's gracefulness, which is like life itself. | 0:29:57 | 0:30:00 | |
And you met Roger. What was he like as a person? | 0:30:00 | 0:30:02 | |
Oh, he was great fun. He was always sort of enthusiastic and very keen. | 0:30:02 | 0:30:07 | |
He just felt there was a freedom about rivers, which he identified with. | 0:30:07 | 0:30:11 | |
He identified with that, not just by watching it, but by being in the medium, in the river. | 0:30:11 | 0:30:17 | |
And that's when you really experience it. | 0:30:17 | 0:30:19 | |
It's no good just observing it from the outside, you've got to go in and experience it. | 0:30:19 | 0:30:24 | |
And it's a very good maxim of life to dive in and see what it's like. | 0:30:24 | 0:30:28 | |
Just a little quote here, which I think is very appropriate. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:34 | |
He says, "I know of few people | 0:30:34 | 0:30:37 | |
"and no poet for whom water is not a first love. | 0:30:37 | 0:30:40 | |
"We all spend the first eternal dreamtime of our lives in the same internal Mother Ocean. | 0:30:40 | 0:30:47 | |
"So even after we have lost our gills and dived into the world, | 0:30:47 | 0:30:52 | |
"we are forever water babies." | 0:30:52 | 0:30:54 | |
That quote of Roger's really captures my imagination, | 0:31:06 | 0:31:10 | |
partly for its eloquence, partly because I'm four months pregnant | 0:31:10 | 0:31:14 | |
and carrying my very own water baby with me on this journey. | 0:31:14 | 0:31:18 | |
And together we're off to that other Mother Ocean - the sea. | 0:31:22 | 0:31:26 | |
This part of the North Devon Coast is noted more for its rocky coves than for sandy beaches. | 0:31:35 | 0:31:41 | |
And this secluded bay is no exception. | 0:31:43 | 0:31:45 | |
What it does boast, however, is a wonderful tidal pool. | 0:31:47 | 0:31:52 | |
'I could think of no better prospect than to enhance the day | 0:31:56 | 0:31:59 | |
'with bathing and walking on one of the best beaches I know... | 0:31:59 | 0:32:03 | |
'One of the great joys is to swim in the lagoons that appear as the tide goes out. | 0:32:05 | 0:32:12 | |
'They can be very warm | 0:32:15 | 0:32:17 | |
'and I once stepped on a Dover sole in one. | 0:32:17 | 0:32:21 | |
'As I swam back and forth in the clear saltwater, lulled by the rhythm of my own breathing, | 0:32:23 | 0:32:30 | |
'I felt myself sinking deeper into the unconscious world of the sea.' | 0:32:30 | 0:32:36 | |
The rock pool is teaming with life. | 0:32:36 | 0:32:39 | |
And as I swim round, I'm aware of all sorts of different colours in the water beneath me. | 0:32:41 | 0:32:46 | |
And the play of light on the water's surface. | 0:32:51 | 0:32:54 | |
It's these aesthetic qualities that have drawn so many artists to use water as a subject. | 0:32:54 | 0:33:00 | |
And I'm no exception. | 0:33:03 | 0:33:05 | |
I like the contrast between the sharp, craggy rocks, which are... | 0:33:19 | 0:33:24 | |
set in stone, | 0:33:24 | 0:33:27 | |
and then this moving element that reflects them, | 0:33:27 | 0:33:30 | |
and is giving back the light from the sky. | 0:33:32 | 0:33:34 | |
It's very dynamic. It's incredibly difficult to capture it. | 0:33:36 | 0:33:41 | |
I don't think I'll do it justice, | 0:33:41 | 0:33:44 | |
but I think that's what draws artists to water - | 0:33:44 | 0:33:48 | |
and particularly to the coast. | 0:33:48 | 0:33:50 | |
It's endlessly changing, it's challenging | 0:33:50 | 0:33:54 | |
and there's always drama there. | 0:33:54 | 0:33:57 | |
Around the end of the 19th century, | 0:34:06 | 0:34:09 | |
paintings like Ruby, Gold and Malachite by Henry Scott Tuke, | 0:34:09 | 0:34:13 | |
which featured young men bathing, became very popular. | 0:34:13 | 0:34:17 | |
They were thought to celebrate the great outdoors and encourage the taking of physical exercise in a time | 0:34:17 | 0:34:23 | |
when industrialisation was moving people from the land to the cities. | 0:34:23 | 0:34:28 | |
These images also provided an excuse to celebrate the sensuality of the human body. | 0:34:30 | 0:34:35 | |
Paintings like Thomas Eakins' Swimming celebrate leisure, | 0:34:38 | 0:34:42 | |
life, | 0:34:42 | 0:34:44 | |
and sex. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:45 | |
But artists are also drawn to water's more sinister aspects. | 0:34:49 | 0:34:53 | |
John Millais' Ophelia, | 0:34:53 | 0:34:55 | |
one of the most famous pre-Raphaelite paintings, | 0:34:55 | 0:34:58 | |
records the drowning of its subject in uncannily accurate detail. | 0:34:58 | 0:35:02 | |
John Waterhouse's Hylas And The Nymphs has a naive but handsome Hylas | 0:35:06 | 0:35:11 | |
being seduced to an early grave | 0:35:11 | 0:35:13 | |
by a group of water nymphs - | 0:35:13 | 0:35:15 | |
a scene that captures both the attraction and the danger of water. | 0:35:15 | 0:35:19 | |
This contrast, this duality that water has, on the one hand | 0:35:22 | 0:35:26 | |
we need it to sustain life, and on the other it can kill us, | 0:35:26 | 0:35:30 | |
has driven successive cultures to worship water deities since the dawn of time. | 0:35:30 | 0:35:35 | |
The Greeks worshipped Poseidon and Triton, the Celts had individual river deities, | 0:35:37 | 0:35:43 | |
and even today Hindus hold rivers sacred, | 0:35:43 | 0:35:46 | |
none more so than the Ganges. | 0:35:46 | 0:35:50 | |
But no civilization better encapsulates the veneration of water than the Romans. | 0:35:50 | 0:35:56 | |
Right along Hadrian's Wall, the largest example of Roman remains in the country, one can find buildings, | 0:36:01 | 0:36:08 | |
statues and carvings that attest to the spiritual importance water has had throughout human history. | 0:36:08 | 0:36:16 | |
To understand water's mythological significance, I've come to | 0:36:35 | 0:36:40 | |
the Chester's Fort Museum to see at first hand some of the evidence the Romans left behind. | 0:36:40 | 0:36:45 | |
My guide, on this showery day, is one of the country's leading experts | 0:36:50 | 0:36:54 | |
on folklore and mythology - Professor Ronald Hutton. | 0:36:54 | 0:36:58 | |
Please come this way. | 0:36:58 | 0:37:00 | |
The museum is home to a range of pieces collected from along the wall. | 0:37:00 | 0:37:06 | |
But the most significant one for my purposes comes from a nearby spring. | 0:37:07 | 0:37:13 | |
It's the carving of a Roman water goddess, Coventina. | 0:37:13 | 0:37:17 | |
Coventina, this is Alice. Alice, this is Coventina. | 0:37:17 | 0:37:20 | |
The introductions are important because the Romans would believe she'd look after you. | 0:37:20 | 0:37:25 | |
If you were nice to her. | 0:37:25 | 0:37:26 | |
Coventina's actually reclining on a pitcher and the water's flowing out. | 0:37:26 | 0:37:31 | |
That's the water which becomes the spring itself. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:34 | |
So, would they make offerings to her? | 0:37:34 | 0:37:37 | |
Oh, good grief, didn't they just! | 0:37:37 | 0:37:38 | |
13,482 coins are known to have been found in that spring, | 0:37:38 | 0:37:44 | |
all thrown in in order to get Coventina on your side. | 0:37:45 | 0:37:50 | |
That's largely because the water up here is so moody, | 0:37:50 | 0:37:54 | |
you can turn from a normal stream to a flash flood within a few minutes. | 0:37:54 | 0:37:59 | |
And to have the spirits on your side was extremely important. | 0:37:59 | 0:38:03 | |
So, this is much more than just a wishing well, then? | 0:38:03 | 0:38:05 | |
It's far more, it's a matter of life and death. | 0:38:05 | 0:38:08 | |
If you're going to swim in this neighbourhood, she's a useful friend to have. | 0:38:08 | 0:38:11 | |
The ancients' belief in the power of water can also be seen in the buildings they constructed. | 0:38:19 | 0:38:25 | |
Water is purifying. It washes away sin, it washes away guilt, it washes away care. | 0:38:30 | 0:38:36 | |
Cleansing yourself spiritually is one of the greatest single ritual acts of humanity, | 0:38:36 | 0:38:40 | |
known right across the ancient world. | 0:38:40 | 0:38:42 | |
And that translates into ideas of baptism as well, I suppose. | 0:38:42 | 0:38:46 | |
Absolutely so. You are washing away your old self. | 0:38:46 | 0:38:50 | |
Talking to Ronald, it's clear that water's significance | 0:38:50 | 0:38:54 | |
goes far beyond religious symbolism, even now in the 21st century. | 0:38:54 | 0:38:58 | |
Water is the moodiest of all elements and the most ubiquitous. | 0:38:58 | 0:39:04 | |
It comes from the sky and it rises from the earth. | 0:39:04 | 0:39:06 | |
It connects Heaven and Earth in a way that nothing else quite does. | 0:39:06 | 0:39:10 | |
And throughout the world's languages, so many of the terms we | 0:39:10 | 0:39:15 | |
use for emotion, for fury, for hate, for pathos, are related to water. | 0:39:15 | 0:39:20 | |
Pouring out your heart, | 0:39:20 | 0:39:22 | |
going with the flow, welling up with emotion. | 0:39:22 | 0:39:26 | |
It can change in a moment, from being smiling and cheerful | 0:39:26 | 0:39:32 | |
and embracing and playful, to being angry, turbulent and lethal. | 0:39:32 | 0:39:37 | |
Water is the mirror of our soul. | 0:39:37 | 0:39:42 | |
It's with some trepidation that I leave Professor Hutton behind | 0:39:55 | 0:39:59 | |
and head west along Hadrian's Wall. | 0:39:59 | 0:40:02 | |
My destination is one of the remote loughs that lie within sight of the Wall - | 0:40:07 | 0:40:11 | |
bodies of water the Romans themselves must have used. | 0:40:11 | 0:40:15 | |
Now, if it was a gloriously sunny day, I would consider going into this lough in a swimming costume. | 0:40:20 | 0:40:26 | |
But it is cold and it is windy, so I've opted for a wetsuit. | 0:40:26 | 0:40:29 | |
Nevertheless, it is an auspicious day to be communing with the ancients because, as Ronald Hutton reminded me | 0:40:29 | 0:40:36 | |
this morning, today the hours of daylight equal the hours of darkness. | 0:40:36 | 0:40:40 | |
It's the Autumn Equinox. | 0:40:40 | 0:40:42 | |
'You might, if you wish, imagine as you dive in, | 0:41:02 | 0:41:05 | |
'that you're encountering millennia of human experience, of hope, of fear, of passion, of reverence. | 0:41:05 | 0:41:13 | |
'That you could be entering the source of life itself. | 0:41:13 | 0:41:18 | |
'You'd be entering the entrance to the realm of death.' | 0:41:18 | 0:41:21 | |
I'm not sure if I've come out of the water a different person, | 0:41:47 | 0:41:50 | |
but certainly as I was swimming around I couldn't help thinking about what Ronald was saying | 0:41:50 | 0:41:56 | |
about water as a gateway to another place. | 0:41:56 | 0:41:58 | |
And again this water has this wonderful peatiness, so that as your hands go through, they disappear. | 0:41:58 | 0:42:06 | |
You almost lose sight of yourself in its depths. | 0:42:06 | 0:42:09 | |
The idea that water is a gateway, a route to another world, | 0:42:15 | 0:42:21 | |
is a particularly enthralling and romantic one. | 0:42:21 | 0:42:23 | |
It's especially relevant when I consider my next swim. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:28 | |
I'm in the beautiful Yorkshire Dales, and I'm really excited about today | 0:42:41 | 0:42:46 | |
because I'm going to be doing a wild swim that's quite unlike any that I've done so far. | 0:42:46 | 0:42:51 | |
I'm expecting to meet my fellow swimmers... | 0:42:53 | 0:42:57 | |
Oh, there they are. | 0:42:57 | 0:43:00 | |
Wearing quite unusual gear for swimming. | 0:43:00 | 0:43:02 | |
-Hello. -Is it Alice? | 0:43:05 | 0:43:07 | |
-Hi, I'm Daniel. -Hello. And Joe? -Hi. | 0:43:07 | 0:43:10 | |
-Here to do a bit of caving, then. And cave swimming? -Yes. | 0:43:10 | 0:43:13 | |
-I need to get proper caving gear on? -Probably a wetsuit as well. | 0:43:13 | 0:43:17 | |
-OK, lovely. I'll do that, then. -See you in a minute. | 0:43:17 | 0:43:21 | |
This part of Yorkshire, close to the border with Cumbria and Lancashire, | 0:43:24 | 0:43:28 | |
is one of the country's principle areas for caving. | 0:43:28 | 0:43:32 | |
The limestone rock that gives this area its distinctive look | 0:43:32 | 0:43:36 | |
is riddled with miles of caverns and passageways. | 0:43:36 | 0:43:39 | |
And attracts cavers from across the UK. | 0:43:39 | 0:43:42 | |
Daniel's interest isn't caving. | 0:43:45 | 0:43:47 | |
He's one of the country's pre-eminent wild swimmers, | 0:43:47 | 0:43:50 | |
having written not one, but two guidebooks on the subject. | 0:43:50 | 0:43:54 | |
But even he hasn't tackled a swim like the one that awaits us. | 0:43:54 | 0:43:58 | |
I kind of think this is where water begins its life. | 0:43:58 | 0:44:01 | |
It percolates down into the mountain, and then collects down under the hills. | 0:44:01 | 0:44:05 | |
And we might as well go down and see where it all begins in the dark, very feral, maybe Gollum-like. | 0:44:05 | 0:44:11 | |
-So, I think it'll be quite an exciting experience. -Fantastic. | 0:44:11 | 0:44:14 | |
We head down the gorge here, don't we? | 0:44:14 | 0:44:16 | |
Joe and his caving colleagues have set up this whole expedition. | 0:44:20 | 0:44:24 | |
But even though I've been caving before, I still feel a slight nervousness. | 0:44:24 | 0:44:29 | |
Lights on. Check like that. | 0:44:31 | 0:44:33 | |
Great stuff. | 0:44:36 | 0:44:37 | |
As we crawl in, I'm aware of the insidious presence of water. | 0:44:45 | 0:44:49 | |
Whether it's falling as rain, flowing as a river or seeping through rock, | 0:44:49 | 0:44:54 | |
it occurs to me that water seems to permeate every aspect of the world around us. | 0:44:54 | 0:44:58 | |
'Geologically, the tunnelling of the limestone | 0:45:06 | 0:45:09 | |
'probably began at the end of the last Ice Age, 11,000 years ago, | 0:45:09 | 0:45:14 | |
'when the melt water from above | 0:45:14 | 0:45:16 | |
'burst down a weakness in the limestone layer | 0:45:16 | 0:45:20 | |
'and bored out the gorge by dissolving the rock.' | 0:45:20 | 0:45:23 | |
The surroundings are both oppressive and inspiring. | 0:45:23 | 0:45:28 | |
You OK? | 0:45:28 | 0:45:29 | |
Yeah. | 0:45:29 | 0:45:32 | |
It's quite deep here. Bit of a cavern. | 0:45:32 | 0:45:34 | |
Not too far, though. | 0:45:37 | 0:45:38 | |
It's a relief to be able to walk upright, | 0:45:38 | 0:45:41 | |
but it occurs to me that this cave must flood completely at times. | 0:45:41 | 0:45:46 | |
When it rains, the stream must swell into torrent of water - | 0:45:46 | 0:45:49 | |
not an encouraging thought. | 0:45:49 | 0:45:51 | |
-It suddenly gets deep. -Look at this! | 0:45:59 | 0:46:01 | |
It's like a river of silver stretching down there. | 0:46:01 | 0:46:05 | |
-It's like something from fairy tales. -Very special. | 0:46:05 | 0:46:09 | |
'Enchanting it may be, but crouching on the edge of the pool, | 0:46:09 | 0:46:13 | |
'there's also something unnerving about the prospect of a swim here in the bowels of the Earth.' | 0:46:13 | 0:46:19 | |
Are you going to go first, Daniel? | 0:46:19 | 0:46:21 | |
Well, I was going to say ladies first, but I'll give it a go. | 0:46:21 | 0:46:25 | |
You go first, Daniel. | 0:46:25 | 0:46:27 | |
This is real wild swimming. | 0:46:27 | 0:46:29 | |
It is so beautiful. I mean, the way the rock is all rippled, | 0:46:29 | 0:46:33 | |
as well as the water. | 0:46:33 | 0:46:36 | |
This is the entrance to the Underworld you're now entering, Daniel. | 0:46:36 | 0:46:39 | |
-HE GASPS -Woo! Here I go! | 0:46:39 | 0:46:44 | |
As Daniel slips away from me, I don't know which of us is the more uneasy. | 0:46:48 | 0:46:52 | |
I can't help but wonder just how deep it is beneath me. | 0:46:56 | 0:46:59 | |
I'm too scared to go all the way down. | 0:47:04 | 0:47:06 | |
I'm just going to stay closer to you. | 0:47:06 | 0:47:09 | |
It's like swimming down inside the belly of a whale. | 0:47:09 | 0:47:14 | |
Up at the top, where the water droplets are shining, it's like little silver stars. | 0:47:19 | 0:47:23 | |
'I can't put it off any longer. | 0:47:26 | 0:47:29 | |
'It's my turn to sink into these inky black depths. | 0:47:29 | 0:47:33 | |
'My heart thumps in my chest and I fight back thoughts of monsters rising from the deep.' | 0:47:34 | 0:47:40 | |
This is that strange mixture of being scary and beautiful at the same time. | 0:47:42 | 0:47:46 | |
That's really spooky. | 0:47:51 | 0:47:53 | |
I'm not thinking about what's down there. | 0:47:53 | 0:47:56 | |
'Concentrating on the beauty of the moment helps keep my fears at bay.' | 0:47:56 | 0:48:02 | |
It's stunning. | 0:48:04 | 0:48:06 | |
'There is something atavistic about all swimming. | 0:48:06 | 0:48:10 | |
'But this was so intensely primitive it was visceral. | 0:48:10 | 0:48:15 | |
'It was like a dream of being born.' | 0:48:15 | 0:48:18 | |
'The shining stream beckons me on and I'm drawn further and further away from my companions.' | 0:48:21 | 0:48:27 | |
Don't go too far! | 0:48:27 | 0:48:29 | |
I think the cave continues underwater. | 0:48:29 | 0:48:32 | |
It's so deep! I can't feel the bottom at all. | 0:48:33 | 0:48:36 | |
'Swimming here in the darkness with just the odd shimmering of light playing on the cave walls, | 0:48:41 | 0:48:46 | |
'it feels like I could carry on - | 0:48:46 | 0:48:48 | |
'right into the centre of earth or into the Underworld.' | 0:48:48 | 0:48:53 | |
It's quite strange because I'm not entirely sure I believe this is real. | 0:49:02 | 0:49:07 | |
Swimming down towards the end, you just think, "Am I dreaming it?" | 0:49:07 | 0:49:11 | |
Wow! It was like you disappeared into another world down there. | 0:49:26 | 0:49:29 | |
It felt like it. | 0:49:29 | 0:49:31 | |
I think that more than anywhere I've swum, felt like what Ronald Hutton was talking to me about, | 0:49:31 | 0:49:36 | |
when you enter water and it takes you from one dimension into another. | 0:49:36 | 0:49:40 | |
I mean, that just really felt like I could carry on swimming into the darkness. | 0:49:40 | 0:49:45 | |
Oh. | 0:49:45 | 0:49:47 | |
-It's chilly, but amazing. -Totally surreal place, isn't it? | 0:49:47 | 0:49:50 | |
Yeah. Really, really beautiful. | 0:49:50 | 0:49:52 | |
The dreamlike feeling stays with me, and even the damp glade we return to seems to retain a peculiar magic. | 0:49:57 | 0:50:04 | |
It's very difficult to make these choices, but I think that was my favourite wild swim so far. | 0:50:04 | 0:50:10 | |
It was a really intense experience and stunningly beautiful down there. | 0:50:10 | 0:50:15 | |
And it really felt as if we were going into another world. | 0:50:15 | 0:50:18 | |
How did you find it, Daniel? | 0:50:18 | 0:50:20 | |
Oh. It was mesmerising, wasn't it? | 0:50:20 | 0:50:22 | |
There's no other words for it. Otherworldly. | 0:50:22 | 0:50:24 | |
It's the most amazing place I've been wild swimming, for sure. | 0:50:24 | 0:50:27 | |
As I've made my odyssey from one swim to another, | 0:50:29 | 0:50:33 | |
I've developed a deeper appreciation for the soggy British countryside. | 0:50:33 | 0:50:37 | |
I'm sure Roger, whose environmental concerns put him years ahead of his time, would have agreed. | 0:50:37 | 0:50:44 | |
'I climbed into the river where it ran through a miniature ravine | 0:50:44 | 0:50:47 | |
'full of the heather, bracken, stonecrop, thyme, and gorse. | 0:50:47 | 0:50:52 | |
'A little further on, a solitary sycamore | 0:50:52 | 0:50:55 | |
'stood sentinel over a sheep-nibbled lawn of buttercups and daisies. | 0:50:55 | 0:51:00 | |
'Here I made delicious tea with the river water, | 0:51:00 | 0:51:03 | |
'devoured pennywort leaves, and fell into a deep sleep.' | 0:51:03 | 0:51:09 | |
In the years since his death, Roger's legacy seems to have grown | 0:51:09 | 0:51:12 | |
in importance and his books have sold all over the world. | 0:51:12 | 0:51:18 | |
His last book is a collection of notes from his diary. | 0:51:18 | 0:51:23 | |
It was put together by one of his friends and his partner, Alison Hastie, who shared | 0:51:23 | 0:51:28 | |
many of Roger's concerns about the environment and his love of swimming. | 0:51:28 | 0:51:33 | |
I can't ask Roger what he thinks of my journey, so I've arranged to meet | 0:51:36 | 0:51:40 | |
Alison to see what she makes of my own Waterlog. | 0:51:40 | 0:51:44 | |
Alison, what was Roger like? | 0:51:47 | 0:51:49 | |
Well, he was fantastic fun. Yeah, really good fun. He was very energetic. | 0:51:49 | 0:51:52 | |
Every day was an adventure, there was no doubt about it. | 0:51:52 | 0:51:56 | |
It was a wonderful time that I knew him and that we spent together. It was great, yeah. | 0:51:56 | 0:52:01 | |
And had he always enjoyed swimming or was that something he particularly got into in later life? | 0:52:01 | 0:52:06 | |
I think he's always liked it. It was a passion for him. | 0:52:06 | 0:52:09 | |
And it was just a way in which he immediately was able to transport | 0:52:09 | 0:52:14 | |
himself literally and change his mood and made him feel good. | 0:52:14 | 0:52:19 | |
And I think that's why people love swimming. | 0:52:19 | 0:52:22 | |
It shifts you into another dimension, just instantly. | 0:52:22 | 0:52:27 | |
And then also has that fantastic reverb afterwards when you come out. | 0:52:27 | 0:52:32 | |
I loved reading Roger's books. | 0:52:32 | 0:52:33 | |
It made me want to get out and go swimming in wild places. | 0:52:33 | 0:52:38 | |
Why do you think it's had such an inspirational effect on people? | 0:52:38 | 0:52:42 | |
I think it's Roger's writing. | 0:52:42 | 0:52:44 | |
I think it was from the heart, it was very genuine and the way it's written is so infectious, | 0:52:44 | 0:52:49 | |
he would be encouraging anybody and everybody to have a go at swimming. | 0:52:49 | 0:52:53 | |
It's not something that you have to have a special gift or have money or be in a particular place. | 0:52:53 | 0:52:58 | |
It really is available to everyone. | 0:52:58 | 0:53:01 | |
I think that's the sort of exciting secret adventure that you can have. | 0:53:01 | 0:53:06 | |
As a relative newcomer to this, have you got any advice for me? | 0:53:06 | 0:53:09 | |
Well, I think you've definitely got to go skinny dipping. | 0:53:09 | 0:53:14 | |
-Right. -I'm sorry, Alice. It's got to be done. | 0:53:14 | 0:53:17 | |
Because then that's such a secret adventure. | 0:53:17 | 0:53:20 | |
The water just licks around you and that's a beautiful, beautiful sensation. | 0:53:20 | 0:53:26 | |
And it's a lovely, lovely thing to do. | 0:53:26 | 0:53:29 | |
And you'll do it more than once! | 0:53:29 | 0:53:31 | |
A skinny dip has been at the back of my mind for a while and Alison's advice has convinced me to do it. | 0:53:35 | 0:53:41 | |
The only question has been where. | 0:53:41 | 0:53:43 | |
I want to go somewhere as wild as possible, a secret place, | 0:53:46 | 0:53:50 | |
somewhere that is remote and beautiful. | 0:53:50 | 0:53:54 | |
I'm drawn to one of the wettest places in England, the Lake District. | 0:53:58 | 0:54:02 | |
'Searching the map I had seen some promising upland streams, a waterfall and a tarn. | 0:54:16 | 0:54:22 | |
'So I hiked off uphill through the bracken. | 0:54:22 | 0:54:25 | |
'I went there to be a long way | 0:54:27 | 0:54:29 | |
'from all those powerful stimuli Wordsworth said prevented us | 0:54:29 | 0:54:34 | |
'from doing any proper thinking.' | 0:54:34 | 0:54:38 | |
Wow. That looks beautiful. | 0:54:41 | 0:54:44 | |
Well, this is it. | 0:54:47 | 0:54:49 | |
This is where I've chosen to do my ultimate wild swim. | 0:54:49 | 0:54:52 | |
It looks beautiful. It may not be the best weather, | 0:54:52 | 0:54:55 | |
but what a fantastic place to go for a dip. | 0:54:55 | 0:54:58 | |
As I dive in, I feel a tingling on every part of my skin. | 0:55:24 | 0:55:28 | |
It's partly the cold water against every inch of me and | 0:55:28 | 0:55:33 | |
partly the excitement of indulging in a truly illicit pleasure. | 0:55:33 | 0:55:37 | |
The gentle currents from the waterfall eddy all around me. | 0:55:41 | 0:55:44 | |
The feeling of freedom is intoxicating. | 0:55:49 | 0:55:51 | |
Cares and concerns are washed away. | 0:55:53 | 0:55:55 | |
It feels like it's just me and the water. | 0:55:55 | 0:56:00 | |
That's really intense. | 0:56:41 | 0:56:43 | |
Absolutely wonderful. | 0:56:43 | 0:56:46 | |
I'm just bathing in the afterglow at the moment. | 0:56:46 | 0:56:48 | |
The adrenaline is rushing round my body. I feel glowing. | 0:56:48 | 0:56:53 | |
I feel really warm, fantastic. | 0:56:53 | 0:56:56 | |
For me, the last two weeks have been immersive, literally. | 0:57:02 | 0:57:07 | |
I've had some quite other-worldly experiences. | 0:57:07 | 0:57:12 | |
But as several of the people have said, that sense of going to | 0:57:14 | 0:57:17 | |
another place is at the heart of wild swimming's attraction. | 0:57:17 | 0:57:20 | |
Whether the journey has involved looking at the world from a different perspective | 0:57:23 | 0:57:27 | |
or completely forgetting about my usual pre-occupations, | 0:57:27 | 0:57:33 | |
the swims I've experienced have all transcended the simple physical pleasure of the act itself. | 0:57:33 | 0:57:40 | |
And then finally - | 0:57:42 | 0:57:44 | |
getting to swim somewhere like this, so beautiful and wild, | 0:57:44 | 0:57:49 | |
you don't just feel close to nature, you feel part of it. | 0:57:49 | 0:57:54 | |
And it's a world away from swimming in a man-made pool. | 0:57:54 | 0:57:58 | |
I feel as though I can understand what it is about wild swimming | 0:58:00 | 0:58:07 | |
that so inspired the man who set me off on this journey, Roger Deakin. | 0:58:07 | 0:58:12 | |
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd | 0:58:46 | 0:58:49 | |
E-mail [email protected] | 0:58:49 | 0:58:52 |