Call of the wild: swimming in the sea

There’s something delicious, addictive even, about sea swimming. In her new book, Wild swim, Kate Rew, founder of The Outdoor Swimming Society, explains its appeal. Here, she takes us on four UK dips, each one peculiarly inviting

Fishing Cove, Gwithian, Cornwall

Swim rating: Easy to advanced

A great, secluded swim. Research has yet to be done into people's favourite swims as a personality guide but a dashing man recommended the dashing rocks at Fishing Cove.
Lively, elegant, audaciously good looking and liable to do your head in at any moment, he and the rocks have quite a lot in common.

One of the best things about this beach is the secret garden approach. A long, narrow path hugs an almost-vertical cliff, with steps carved into the earth, reinforced against gravity with planks of wood. It's a hot, sunny, summer's day as we begin the sharp descent past blackberries, daisies, purple gorse, clover, sloes, honeysuckle and foxgloves. Dandelions nestle against rocks, and there are roped sections to help walkers cling on to the path. A recent storm has brought in piles of marine junk, which is surging back and forth in the waves, so I do a sea clearance before we swim, picking green netting, green-blue-white sacking and orange ropes from the water, and plastic cartons from the shoreline.

Once the water looks appealing again, we get in and head to the handsome grey rock: a great jumping-and-diving spot on a calm day, but undoubtedly ‘dashing' - bruising, skin-removing, dangerous
- on a stormy day like today. Godrevy Point is nearby, a popular hauling-out place for Atlantic grey seals, which bask on the rocks. Wearing masks, we keep an eye out for them but don't spot any, so, after a long while, we go back in to shore. Then there it is: the head of a seal that has followed us. It looks at us with its wet, furry, grey face and sparkling black eyes, and we look back at it. I guess we're probably the
only ones gazing kindly, but it feels like mutual curiosity at the time.

Fishing Cove is half a mile from Gwithian, east along the coast from Navax Point on the B3301, about halfway between Portreath and Hayle (nearest station: Hayle).

 

Covehithe Beach, Suffolk

Swim rating: Easy to moderate

A great place for swimming lengths along the shore.

On the approach to Covehithe, there are bare-bottomed pigs looking purplish with cold, and a field of turnips that haven't been pulled, their leaves turning black as they surface. The sea itself is brown, the colour of water that has been used to wash many colours off your paintbrush.

The land here is slipping into the sea. The farmer will have less land to farm next year and the road itself simply stops. The sandy beach is littered with the stumps of fallen trees, their roots and trunks washed smooth by the sea and bleached of colour.

In a strange light, a bright grey, we walk along the beach, under cliffs the colour of a wet Crunchie bar. There's a post-apocalyptic beauty here - a stunning, natural dereliction. We decide to swim near a tree that is standing incongruously upright in the middle of sand. We shelter in a curve in the cliff, strip off and run in. The water is lovely - not rough but hilly, which underlines the flatness of the landscape. We get out and walk back along the cliff, the clover, buttercups and poppies mixing up the seasons and providing brief glimpses of colour.

 
Covehithe is two miles east of Wrentham (just off the A12) and four miles north of Southwold (nearest station: Oulton Broad South). There are also good walks in the area.

 

Berneray Beach, Berneray, North Uist

Swim rating: Easy to moderate

An acquatic Casanova of a beach, with the added possibility of a seal swim.

When I first started researching wild swims, one person revealed that his criterion for a good swim was whether the water was ‘appealing' or not. What's appealing, I wondered? A raging torrent or a gentle stream? It turned out it was whether he felt ‘attracted' enough to it to want to get in. I now realise the vital part of any swim trip is the ogle - eyeing up bodies of water and deciding if I fancy them.

This beach gets ten out of ten for attractiveness: it's a watery Lothario. Clothes off, I streak down the beach. The water is icy and gorgeous and I dive under to feel it against my eyelids. It's the whole sea and me. I swim parallel to the shore, with the white sand beneath me along the surfless beach. Then I see the grey head of a seal! I look at it and it looks at me. There's a splash and a spreading circle of flat water shows it has submerged right next to me. I've been longing to swim with seals all summer. Now the moment's here and I've got no goggles on.

Later, we walk over the headland to Traigh Iar and earmark the rocks for a future seal swim - there's a colony of 40,000 four miles offshore that visits.

Berneray Beach is marked on OS maps. For Traigh Iar beach, go to Grenitote, turn down the road with a phone box on the corner, follow it to the car park and walk from there.


Blue Lagoon, Aberfeiddy, Pembrokeshire

Swim rating: Easy

A popular coastal spot for jumping.

It's the jumping that most people come to the Blue Lagoon for, the chance to hurtle off the walls of an old quarry into deep, blue water. We are the first people to arrive after a morning storm. The sea is still full of white caps, but the lagoon, protected by steep cliffs, is calm.

A South-African kayaker teaches me how to do it. ‘Cross your arms over your chest and keep your feet together. Don't hold your nose - you might break it as the water holds your arm and it moves upward. Don't jump with your arms out - you could dislocate your shoulders when you hit the water.'

Duly instructed, I plunge off the baby wall, which feels high to me, and float around, looking at the kids in their shortie wetsuits. The South African hurtles off the very top in a running leap, clearing six feet of wall before leg-peddling out into the water. 

 
Abereiddy can be reached by following the road signs from Croesgoch on the A487 (St David's to Fishguard road). Fishguard Harbour station is 11 miles away.

 

Safety tips for sea swimmers

Know your limits and swim within them. If in doubt, stay out. Here are some guidelines:

Always swim with other people or have friends on the beach nearby.

Stay within a hundred metres of the bank or shore.

Keep an eye out for boats - they will not be expecting you.

For more on wild swimming, visit www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com.

 

Wild Swim by Kate Rew and Dominick Tyler is published by Guardian Books at £16.99. To buy it at the special price of £12, visit www.guardianbooks.co.uk or call 0845 606 4232 and use the code COAST08. Offer open until 31 August 2008.

 

Subscribe - SAVE over 50%