Well how did this daft idea happen and how can you support us? 

When we were in Wasdale last summer we saw two guys swimming Wast Water  and although we are all now blaming each other, someone (Sarah, Jim or I) said “we should do that next year”.  The vague idea has been in the back of our minds and then, before we knew it, it was Easter and a few months to our annual camping trip.

To complicate matters our local swimming pool has been closed for refurbishments. We’ve had to find other pools and I’ve had the most flexibility and have swum most mornings. It has been much harder for Sarah and Jim to find space in their schedules and swimming a distance takes us some time!

We’ve managed some swims in pairs and one swim together in a lake. Ellerton Lake allowed us to try out our wet suits, hats, gloves etc and see how we actually swam in open water. It felt good and built our confidence, although we became Sarah, Zig and Zag and discovered that swimming in a straight line is an advanced technique!

We’ve been offered generous tips and advice from random people we have met and Triangle in Guiseley have just been great at giving us straight advice recommending the kit we’ll need.

In a straight line it is a 3 mile swim, it a very deep lake and is therefore cold, hopefully given the recent great weather it will nudge above the 12 C our research shows! We’ve been swimming in Ilkey Lido and I’ve become addicted to my 7am swim  - it still feels cold but has been a balmy 20 C! A degree warmer than my swims in June in Tooting Bec and Cambridge two wonderful 100-yard-long lidos.

It has been great to have a challenge and a target and has meant I’ve swam much more than I would have done. We hope to make it but if we get too cold – safety first. We’ll have the opposite problem from many homeless people this summer “Homeless in the Heat”. 

There are two ways you could encourage and support us:

Please either make a donation or recommend a song to keep us motivated!