Sunny Saturday island hopping
With our movements being so restricted in recent months, we count ourselves really lucky to have some amazing swimming spots right on our door steps. Regular trips to Barcraigs Reservoir and Abies Loch have kept up our enthusiasm for swimming outdoors. As well as a husband, we have introduced a number of local friends to the joys of cold water.
As we (hopefully) move closer to having our freedom fully restored and being able to travel further afield, we decided to take advantage of the calm waters and positively tropical temperatures (9 degrees today) and swim back out to the island closest to where we enter the Barcraigs Reservoir.
Having swum to the island for the first time last week and experiencing a bit of a wobble half way, I was determined to best the wobble and get back in there and do it again.
Emboldened by two friends (who are strong swimmers due to a blend of water polo and swimming for Scotland respectively) we decided to go for it and I’m so glad we did.
I have to say, I wasn’t completely wobble free this time (purely mental and quickly overcome thanks to my supportive friends) but we got there and back in a little over 40 minutes, a good 5 minutes faster than last week.
Having viewed the island from the vantage point of where we get changed for the past 3 months, it was great to finally climb ashore the island and look back across to where we came from. I was going to say that I now understand how the astronauts who landed on the moon felt when gazing back towards the Earth - but there’s clearly no comparison - our achievement is obviously far more impressive!
All kidding aside, it felt great to swim to the island and back again. Definitely not one to be attempted solo and for stronger, more experienced swimmers. We had also thoroughly investigated the topography and currents in the reservoir and were never more than an easy swim from shore. Due to the number of anglers using the reservoir, we were also careful to look out for barbs as we were entering and leaving the water.
We thought the island might have been a small eminence known as Wallace’s Knowe, where William Wallace is said to have defended himself against a party of Englishmen, but following a little more research we now think that might be located at the other side of the reservoir. Any local knowledge gratefully received on that one!
If you’ve caught the wild swimming bug or are thinking about giving it a go and would like a chat about it, get in touch at wildswimmingwomen@gmail.com.
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Happy Swimming
The Wild Swimming Women xx