Night time swimming…
While autumn brings us colder weather and water and darker nights, it also gives us something else…the chance to have moonlit swims without having to stay up long past our bedtime!
Night swims bring a whole new dimension to our swims and to the swimming spots we’re so familiar with in the day time. They bring up a whole lot of additional safety concerns that we need to consider in our risk assessments.
Last autumn we attempted what we thought would be a lovely, and very simple, night swim at Abies Loch in Mugdock Country Park. It’s a place we’re really familiar with so we thought we’d manage it no problem. We were very wrong.
Despite our head torches we quickly found ourselves disorientated in fog, wandering around a familiar field that was anything but familiar in the dark autumn night. We realised that we definitely needed fog lights on our head torches as we couldn’t see a thing and that we had no chance of making it anywhere near the water. We finally called it a night when we almost walked into a highland coo!
Since then, we’ve done quite a few (more successful!) night swims and have realised the importance of checking the weather and ensuring that your entry point isn’t a half mile trek from your car / the main road! Night swims are beautiful, exciting and scary at the same time.
We can’t emphasise enough the importance of risk assessing your swim and ensuring you have a torch, head torch, back up torch, back up head torch… (you get the idea!)! It’s so important to stay close to your swim buddies and close to shore…as well as making sure you can clearly see your exit point at all times. With night swims, having someone on shore to spot and guide (or going with a supported and organised group) is hugely beneficial.
On the plus side, it’s lovely to experience your favourite swimming spots in a different way. Swimming under the moon and stars is beautiful and it’s such a nice experience to share with your swimming buddies! Also, it’s far easier to get dressed than usual as no one can actually see you!
Our recent swim at Barcraigs Reservoir was freezing cold but absolutely beautiful. We realised that although it was a spot we knew well, the lower water levels meant that in the dark it was quite difficult underfoot. We saw stars, satellites and space stations but also realised the impact of light pollution and the regular planes flying overhead.
Swimming outdoors at night is amazing…it makes us realise how lucky we are to have access to such beautiful swim spots. They look and feel so different during the day and at night and we’re lucky to be able to experience both. It also emphasises the importance of properly risk assessing your swims as darkness makes you that bit more vulnerable to the dangers that open water (and wandering about in the great outdoors!) presents.
