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Best wild swims in France – secret rivers, lakes and waterfalls

By at June 25, 2021 | 7:13 am | 0 Comment

PLAGE DE BAUDUEN IMG_9391

Daniel Start chooses his favourite secret swims, from the new edition of his book, Wild Swimming France (2021 edition). NB French readers can read more about our new book on the new Baignades Sauvages website. Swim beneath the great châteaux of the Loire and plunge into the azure-blue pools of Provence. Relax in the secret hot springs of the Pyrenees and discover

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Best Places

Best secret beaches & coves in Spain for wild swimming

By at February 25, 2021 | 11:07 am | 0 Comment

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Lola Culsán and John Weller spent a year campervanning, walking, swimming and exploring Spain’s secret coast to bring you their new guide book Hidden Beaches Spain. They are very keen wild swimmers, and authors of Wild Swimming Spain, and this is their selection of some favourite locations for coastal wild swimming (this is their selection for coastal walkers). PRAIA

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Best Places , Blogs

Best Wild Swims in Wales

By at July 11, 2018 | 5:41 pm | 0 Comment

Llyn Gwynant by Daniel Start IMG_9388

Daniel Start, author of the new Wild Guide to Wales, shares his all-time favourite wild swims of Wales.. p.s. are you looking for somewhere by the Welsh coast to stay? Wild Swimming now has two beautiful places to rent out on the north Pembrokeshire coast near Newport with views over the Preseli mountains. Perfect for beaches, coves and swimming in the Witches

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Best Places , Blogs , Featured

Best wild swims in Scotland

By at May 15, 2017 | 8:59 am | 0 Comment

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Co-author of the new Wild Guide Scotland, Richard Gaston, shares his top 5 Scottish wild swimming locations: The water quality is often exceptional, but temperatures are very low. That said, after the initial shock of plunging in, wild swimming in Scotland provides an incredibly invigorating and therapeutic experience all set against a backdrop of jaw-dropping scenery;

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Best Places , Featured

Portugal – the best wild swimming – rivers, waterfalls, lakes and hidden coves

By at February 23, 2017 | 8:33 am | 0 Comment

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Edwina Pitcher, author of the new Wild Guide to Portugal, shares some of hr favourite wild swim spots. With mountains that stretch down to the sea, plus sunshine and rain, Portugal is a wild swimmer's paradise. The Portuguese culture of visiting praias fluviais – river beaches – then reaches its zenith, and Sundays are idled away on river banks, cooking lunch on

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Best Places , Featured

Best Wild Swimming Adventures in the Yorkshire Dales

By at May 26, 2016 | 10:34 am | 0 Comment

Yorkshire Dales wild swimming

Daniel Start, author of the new Wild Guide to Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, tells us about his all time favourite swims in this iconic landscape. I have always loved the Lakes and Dales, ever since childhood, and there are endless adventures to be had. I return every year to find even more exciting places to swim and explore. These are some of my

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Best Places

The ten most spectacular swimming hole locations in Sydney, Australia

By at October 1, 2015 | 12:23 pm | 0 Comment

Erskine Creek at Jack Evans 1

This month we're publishing Wild Swimming Sydney Australia. Here the authors, Sally Tertini and Steve Pollard, reveal the most beautiful and stunning outdoor swimming spots in and around Sydney:   Erskine Creek at Jack Evans Track, Great Blue Mountains South (above) This is such an enticing place to escape the city and spend a weekend – a 200m

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Best Places , Blogs , Featured

The Best Bike Rides in Wales and the Borders for Wild Swimming

By at September 16, 2015 | 5:08 pm | 0 Comment

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Jack Thurston, the author of our new book, Lost Lanes Wales: 36 Glorious Bike Rides in Wales and the Borders, shares his favourite Welsh cycle routes for a quick dip while cycling, taken from the book. Wales, with its long coastline, dozens of rivers and countless mountain streams, has more than its fair share of wild swimming spots. Make sure you’re not

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Best Places , Blogs

Wild Swimming Near Waterfalls – The Best Locations

By at August 25, 2015 | 1:02 pm | 0 Comment

Watkins Path Steven House

Have you completed your #wildsummer challenges yet? Here, Daniel Start reveals the best wild swimming with waterfalls:   St Nectan's Kieve, Tintagel At the head of a wild glen a tall, slender waterfall falls into a high basin, flows through a circular hole and drops into a plunge pool (the kieve). This is a holy place with prayer flags, a shrine room above and

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Best Places , Blogs , Featured

Wild Swimming Under Sea Arches and into Sea Caves: The Best Places to Complete Our #WildSummer Challenges

By at August 18, 2015 | 12:33 pm | 0 Comment

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Have you completed our #wildsummer challenges yet? Here, Daniel Start reveals the best places to wild swim into sea caves and under sea arches:     Baggy Point Caves, North Devon A long tunnel, empty at low tide or you can swim through at high tide. Take care if there is swell. Park in the NT car park (EX33 1PA) at the end of Moor Lane, signed Baggy Point

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Best Places , Blogs , Featured

Wild Swimming Walks – South East

By at April 16, 2015 | 12:12 pm | 0 Comment

Wild Swimming Walks

28 Lake, River and Seaside Days Out by Train from London Wild Swimming Walks leads you on 28 adventures into the beautiful countryside of southern England. Discover swimming meadows along the Thames, secret coves of the Sussex seashore and hidden islands of the Essex coast. All the walking routes are accessible by train and each comes with ideas for places to visit and

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Best Places , Our Books

Wild Swimming Micro Adventures – the best wild swims in Britain

By at March 23, 2015 | 8:17 pm | 0 Comment

wild swimming microadventures

Wild Swimming is a fantastic way to have a micro-adventure close to home - low on hassle and high in adrenaline and fun. Daniel, author of the Wild Swimming  and Wild Guides was speaking at the fundraiser Night of Adventure organised by Alastair Humphreys and the brilliant charity Hope and Homes. He tells us about his own journey into wild swimming, and his favourite

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Best Places , Featured , Magazine

Author of Wild Swimming Italy tells us about his passion

By at May 2, 2014 | 12:02 pm | 0 Comment

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We interviewed Michele Tameni to ask him about his passion for swimming and how he came to write the new Wild Swimming Italy guidebook about Italy's secret rivers and lakes. How did you get into wild swimming? I grew up in a valley between the mountains of the Alps and every spring to late autumn my favorite pastime was wandering along the paths in the woods, and

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Best Places , Blogs

Andalucia Spain – 5 spots for a splash!

By at April 14, 2014 | 10:07 am | 0 Comment

Cueva del Gato

With a total of 24 nature reserves the beauty and diversity of the landscapes around Andalucia create the perfect backdrop to some of the best wild swimming on the Iberian peninsula. Despite the long hot summers Andalucia has countless natural water sources, and is dotted with lakes, rivers, waterfalls and reservoirs. In general the water quality is superb and the

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Best Places

20 Best Hidden Beaches from Britain’s Hidden Coast

By at April 12, 2014 | 11:26 am | 1 Comments

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Daniel Start shares his 20 best hidden beaches taken from the new and updated Hidden Beaches book. www.wildthingspublishing.com/product/hidden-beaches/ SOUTH WEST   Broad Sands, Combe Martin, North Devon Cave, coves and an island look out A double fronted cove, turquoise waters and sea caves you can swim to. Scramble to the top of the island look-out

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Best Places , Magazine

Camping and campsites

By at July 20, 2012 | 8:46 am | 4 Comments

river

Nothing quite beats camping by the water, taking a swim in the evening light and enjoying a glass of wine as the otter cub gamble under the willows… Then in the morning you can leap out of your tent and leap into the pool, wash away the sleepy dust and feel revitalised for the day. Here are a few of our favourite river and lake side camping spots. We’d love to hear

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Best Places

Mexican cenotes – paradise on earth

By at July 19, 2012 | 2:13 pm | 1 Comments

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Ik Kil is a well known cenote outside Pisté in the Municipality of Tinúm, Yucatán, Mexico, It is located in the northern center of the Yucatán Peninsula and is part of the Ik Kil Archeological Park near Chichen Itza. It is open to the public for swimming and is often included in bus tours. The cenote is open to the sky with the water level about 26 metres (85 ft)

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Best Places , Magazine

How to find a great wild swimming place or spot

By at June 26, 2012 | 10:07 am | 1 Comments

waterfall

Britain is bubbling with glorious little river and lake swmiming holes, all of your own. They are there for the finding, but how to go about it? 1) Hotspots: Focus on the wild swimming hot spots: areas likely to be rich in natural pools and clean unpolluted waters. Nature Reserves or National Parks are a good place to start and an internet search or basic guidebook

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Best Places , Getting Started