What a day

This time last year a new sport was born and today was its anniversary: The Lido Crawl!

A bunch of hardened cold water swimmers and members of the Tooting Bec Lido decided to swim in as many as four open air water holes/pools in London in one morning.

Starting at the Tooting Bec Lido at 7.30 am, and finishing around lunch time in Hampstead.

Some were cycling between swims while others drove in convoy.

I was amongst the cycling party... and party it was! After our 2 length of the Tooting Bec Lido (100 yards long) we cycled to the Serpentine Swimming Club to swim there. Next destination, still on our bikes, Parliament Hill Lido in Camden and finally on to the Pond on Hampstead Heath. Not any old pond I have you know: no the one and only Mens Pond - no women allowed .. well with the exception of us Tooting Bec Belles! And that only once a year when about 20 screeching women (and as many men) who can hardly contain their joy, jump off the diving board into deliciously refreshing water.

Once the crawl was accomplished, we all gathered for lunch at Kenwood House only to cycle (non stop this time) all the way back to Tooting.

Wow, what a exhilarating day!

Serpentine in Hyde Park

Cycling along Regents Canal on the way to Parliament Hill Lido

Parliament Hill Lido

Fantastic Water of the Parliament Hill Lido

Men's Pond

Being sensible

Today, I just had to make getting underwater shots at The Tooting Bec Lido my blog assignment!

You know by now how passionate I am about my daily splishs :) Early in October when the SLSC (South London Swimming Club) members were allowed to take pictures again, I was straight in there with my new toy - A mask with incorporated camera - I got so carried away that I stayed in the pool without really swimming for far too long. This resulted in a spell of bronchitis - not too pleasant but to be fair with the help of acupuncture and inhalation and (sadly) abstinence (from swimming!) I shook it off pretty quickly.

Now that my fitness level and endurance for swimming in cold water is back up, I have been itching to take a camera back in the water.

The leaves from the trees that surround the Lido are falling. To every member's delight most of them land in the 100yards long water hole!

The lifeguards look at that in a different way ...

I always want to see more and more leaves in the pool - it is so amazing swimming and seeing them suspended on the water surface ...

"You lot are far too romantic. The leaves are bad for the pool! We have to clear them constantly. If we were to leave them the water quality would deteriorate rapidly!"

OK, fair point ... I guess :)

Pushing off the edge of the pool was magic though - That was yesterday ... when I noticed that the camera battery was flashing red ... ! I had to content myself with simply experiencing the feeling of loads of dead leaves brushing against my tingling body. Sometimes my fingers would hit a leaf and bring it down to the bottom of the pool where the leaf would join many more...

I saw pictures all along ... sadly, no camera to assist me in my description...

Toady, was going be different! I set off armed with my fully charged Canon IXUS 70 camera and wetsuit in my bag. I wasn't going to miss out and by being more sensible I wasn't get cold while taking shots!

Shock horror, the first thing I noticed when getting to the pool is that there were hardly any leaves today ... these lifeguards meant business yesterday ... they got rid of what, at first sight, seemed all the leaves ...

Quite disappointed I walked down the side of the pool towards my cubical counting leaves :)

Before deciding whether I should put my wetsuit on (I don't really like swimming in it) I sent my scout Sue ahead to report back on the leaf count!

"Yes, plenty of leaves."

I breathed a sigh of relief! On with the wetsuit! Quite a few people swimming - I was in for a photographic treat!

I swam along side them, behind them, even underneath them to get some shots.

I was struggling to keep up with them. Holding my breath for long enough was quite tricky too. Specially as the wetsuit being quite buoyant kept pushing me back up. Nevertheless, I got some interesting shots! Apparently my underwater struggle looked ballet like :) I can't quite see how but, hey, I'm glad it kept the swimmers amused and motivated enough to get to their goal of swimming a mile! That's 18 lengths of the pool in 11 degree Celsius! Mind you they looked a bit weary by the end of it when we caught up in the sauna...

Another London

Take the tube from London SW17 to London NW3 , i.e Hampstead and you are sure to be transported into another world altogether!

You immediately get the feeling that North London ticks differently; the vibes seems unfamiliar too... and you begin to question whether you are actually still in London :)

Funny that because I'm sure that North Londoners would experience the same unfamiliarity when venturing south of the river!

The reason for travelling north on this wonderfully sunny and relatively mild autumn Sunday was to explore Hampstead Heath. I've been there before. Last November when a group of South London Swimming Club members organised a "Lido Crawl". We started at home at our Tooting Bec Lido, then we swam at The Serpentine, then at The Parliament Hill Lido and finally at (get this!) the Men's Pond on Hampstead Heath! Yes, we had special permission and by the way, the women amongst us didn't get to see anything we hadn't seen before anyway :)!

Today however, I wanted to swim in the Women's Pond .. and I did!

Hampstead Heath is huge. It took stopping a few people to ask them for directions before actually getting close to the pond.

The walk was fabulous. Endlessly long avenues led through the forest. Beautiful old Oak trees showed off their colourful plumage - Some had shed quite a few leaves already. It was like walking on a soft carpet. And with the sun catching the leaves that hadn't fallen yet I definitely had to pinch myself to remember that I was actually in London!

The swim in 10 degrees Celsius was fab too.

A short walk to Kenwood House, which has been bequeathed to the nation by the late brewing magnate Edward Cecil Guinness in 1927. Now part of English Heritage it's well worth a visit.. even if it's only to take advantage of the wonderful food they serve! By now I was starving... A lamb shank hit the spot and sorted that quickly!

The walk back was just as spectacular.

Which is more than I can say for the tube ride back to Tooting. Signaling failure meant that our train was stuck in a tunnel for what seemed like ages... however we did resurface in the right place and as nice the pond experience was, I do look forward to my daily splish at the Tooting Lido!