The Hurly Burly - Outdoor Swimming Society's autumn adventure

Set in North Wales on the edge of Snowdonia, the Outdoor Swimming Society's Hurly Burly is a challenging 10km swim up the Mawddach estuary. Heading off on a fast incoming spring tide, swimmers travel through stunning scenery and changing water conditions, before ending up at the hamlet of Penmaenpool. This year's event takes place on 29 September, but my experience at the inaugural Hurly Burly can be read in Outdoor Swimmer magazine. 

Outdoor Swimmer, November 2017.

Tarnbagging in the Lake District

In the 1950s, Colin Dodgson and Timothy Tyson swam in every tarn (463 according to them) in the Lake District. I tell their story in the April edition of Outdoor Swimmer. Apart from a couple of news reports in 1959, little has been written about these two outdoor swimming pioneers so it was good to bring their amazing feat to a wider audience.

However, 'collecting the tarns' came after many years of bagging mountains. By 1951 they had climbed all the Munros (Scottish mountains over 3,000 feat), plus most of the English, Welsh and Irish peaks. Real outdoor heroes.

Outdoor Swimmer, April 2018.

Read more in Outdoor Swimmer, Issue 13, April 2018.