The Water and the Wild

Underwater Moomin swimming, the bag purchased from the shop at the Finnish Church in London . The church in Albion Street, Rotherhithe SE16 was originally established for Finnish sailors. If you get down to their annual Christmas fair you might meet a life sized Moomin wandering around. #Oursea - Moomins raising funds for the John Nurminen Foundation to help protect the Baltic Sea  

The Cuckmere River winds it way through East Sussex down to the Channel where it joins the sea by the 'Seven Sisters' white cliffs. In its later stages the river has cut a pattern of Meanders, although the main body of the river now flows through an adjacent straight cut put in the river in the mid-19th century. The Cuckmere Meanders are good for swimming, readily accessible via low banks from the adjoining grassland. We walked along the river for a bit from near to the Cuckmere Valley Canoe Club (right next to one of the car parks for the Seven Sisters Country Park - postcode BN25 4AD), but where we actually entered the water was close to where the South Downs Way footpath passes it - the bend furthest to the right in the picture above.  The entry was shallow, with the river become swimmable nearer the middle.  I think a 5 feet ten adult would be able to touch the (muddy) bottom in many places, but I wouldn't rely on it. In some sections there is a lot of weed action but w

The River Cam just outside Cambridge at Grantchester Meadows is one of the places that has kept us sane through the Covid-19 pandemic. We have swum there in all conditions, from blazing sunshine to hail storms, sometimes with just swans for company, sometimes with the banks crowded with families and groups of young people - though rarely with more than a handful of swimmers and paddleboarders.   Now it seems that the landowners, Kings College, have decided to ban swimmers entering the river from Grantchester Meadows as well as launching boats, kayaks or paddle boards. In a statement they have cited concerns about large gatherings, antisocial behaviour, safety and erosion of riverbanks. No doubt during lockdown with so much closed down places like Grantchester Meadows have been busier than normal, but this probably temporary phenomenon is no reason to deny many people their right to enjoy the river.   To anybody with experience of urban life the alleged antisocial behaviour sounds rath

Mermaid street art in Forest Hill, South East London. A long way from the sea but just down the road from the swimming pool. This was apparently painted by Brazilian street artist Derlon Almeida (the scrawl on her belly obviously a later addition), linked to a Brazilian culture exhibition in 2016 at the nearby Horniman Museum. Derlon's mermaid has appeared elsewhere - this one is from an exhibition at Villa Zapakara in Surinam: Photo from Gypsy Soul Diaries Mural in Recife, Brazil Mural in Newcastle, England

Written by Janet Bassett-Lowke and illustrated by Lunt Roberts, our copy is undated but was seemingly published in 1946 by Puffin, the children’s imprint of Penguin books.  

 'I have seen the sea I have seen the glory I have seen its power the power of its kingdom I have swum its angers I have swum its misery I have swum its velvet flow the corals the cities underneath I have swum under islands I have swum close to shore in shallow waves and seen children playing' (Monique Roffey, The Mermaid of Black Conch)

Some great images in Nancy Farmer's swimming-themed 'Facing the Storm' 2021 calendar ( available here ) Ours came with some fabulous synchronised swimming snowflakes wrapping paper too!  

'That summer I was seventeen and perfectly happy. At that time "everybody else" was my father and his mistress, Elsa... he had rented a large white villa on the Mediterranean, for which we had been longing since the spring. It was remote and beautiful, standing on a headland jutting over the sea, hidden from the road by pine woods. A goat path led down to a small, sunny cove where the sea lapped against rust-colored rocks... From dawn onward I was in the water. It was cool and transparent, and I plunged wildly about in my efforts to wash away the shadows and dust of Paris. I lay stretched out on the sand, took up a handful and let it run through my fingers in soft, yellow streams. I told myself that it ran out like time. It was an idle thought, and it was pleasant to have idle thoughts, for it was summer' (Françoise Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse, 1954). The 1958 film version of Sagan's story includes many seaside scenes filmed on the Côte d'Azur/French Riviera, inc

The poet Sylvia Plath (October 27 1932 – February 11 1963) was a keen swimmer, and her writings make many references to being in the water. For instance a 1947 letter to her mother mentions a long cycle ride to a beach where 'The waters were a light, salty blue and a sandy, smooth bar stretched out into the ocean. The water was free from crabs and seaweed, and I went swimming with Sally… We had loads of fun swimming underwater and sitting on the smooth sandy bottom pretending to comb our hair'.  Plath was staying at the time in a summer sailing camp at Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard. Going to Smith College in Massachusetts gave her plenty of time to spend at the beaches on Cape Cod. A 1951 letter describes a restless night-time swim:  'I looked at the angry grey ocean, darkening in late twilight. So I put on my bathing suit and ran barefoot down to the beach. It is a queer sensation to swim at night, but it was very warm after the rain. So I splashed and kicked and the f

Walpole Bay Tidal Pool encloses four acres worth of the sea between high walls on the Margate sea front at the Cliftonville end. When it opened in 1937 it was the largest pool in the UK, not sure whether it still is but there is plenty of room for swimmers. It tapers from 167 metres wide at the beach end to 91m at the seaward end.   You can walk in from the beach with the pool getting gradually deeper to a depth of around 2m, or if you walk around the walls there are ladders at various points to get in somewhere deeper The 'floor' of the pool is the natural beach, essentially you are just swimming in the sea with a bit of protection from the vicissitudes of tides and waves. The pool was originally built to ensure that people could easily swim/play in the water at low tide when people would otherwise have to walk a long way out to reach the water. But at high tide the walls are submerged and the pool is more or less invisible. On our most recent trip last month we timed our arri