“BUT THE WATER WILL BE COLD,” HE EXCLAIMS, IN VERY GOOD ENGLISH. “I CAN TAKE YOU TO A WARM SWIMMING POOL?”
The time is Monday afternoon. We’ve just landed at Kraków airport, Poland. We have a live hour layover on our journey from Amman (Jordan) to London (England). The sun is shining. What could we possibly do with that time? Read a book? Play cards? Stare at our phones? Return the bored stare of fellow travellers?
This is what we did. A quick internet search for ‘wild swimming Kraków’ brings up a former quarry called Zakrzówek. The quarry is a 20 minute cab ride away. Apparently, ‘his fantastic reservoir was serendipitously created when the limestone quarry operating here accidentally pierced the water table.’ Pope John Paul II worked there during the German occupation of Poland. We withdraw some Polish Zlot from the cash machine and book an Uber. Ordering an Uber in Poland makes us feel a bit nervous but adds to the excitement of wild swimming in a country neither of us has visited before.