Escape the stress of the city with a weekend of wild swimming adventures. By Becky Horsburgh

By Becky Horsburgh

WILD SWIMMING

If you asked anyone how to define “wild swimming” I can imagine you would get as many different answers as places you can do it. For me swimming is just, well, swimming wherever I do it and whatever I wear. However, if I was to picture the wild side of my passion I guess it would have to be swimming in the sea. I live in London and as much as I love swimming outdoors, most of the time I am confined to lidos or the handful of open water venues around the capital. I rarely have time to make it to the coast. I had been tempted all summer by a number of swim events taking place in the sea but never got around to entering any, and so many also sell out so quickly.

But I was intrigued when I read on Twitter one day about a weekend called Destination Wild Swim. First of all, it was being held at Durdle Door and Lulworth Cove in Dorset, an area I know so well from childhood camping holidays and geography field trips. Secondly, the Wild Swimming Brothers were taking part; I’d followed the activities of these intrepid siblings for a while on social media. Thirdly, and probably most important, it wasn’t a race. It was a weekend enjoying the sea and everything that it throws at you. No timing chips, no boisterous sea swimmers, no distances and no timings and hopefully no egos. Just glorious surroundings.