Having not been anywhere for a few weeks, my driver and his girlfriend decided to treat themselves to a day
trip to the beach. Shortly before setting off, they decided the 2 hour drive was too much and having both been
interested in Wild Swimming had a quick look on the Internet to see if there was somewhere local. They have
researched this on the net before, but haven't come across the website wildswim.com which you would
think they may have done given the obvious name? It is possibly a new website which has only been around
for a few months hence the reason why they've missed it in the past.
The website itself is very easy to use, it is a similar Google Maps based site which allows you to zoom in
on a specific area and highlight the type of wild swimming you are interested in; sea, lakes, rivers and
estuaries, but also lists public lidos should the thought of natural running water not be to your liking. My
driver quickly identified Gullet Quarry as being not too far away, and this was only a short distance away
especially with the weather being at its warmest for two years. In fact on the BBC website Paul Hudson who
is a weather presenter for BBC Look North in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire has stated, "It’s the first
prolonged warm spell of summer weather since July 2006."
They left me in a car park a short distance from the quarry and walked up the path to Ruffz cafe, which
itself is a bizarre little place! Service is via a small three sided shed, where you can order hot and cold
drinks along with the odd pastry or cake. The lady who owns it - Toni, is very pleasant and gave my driver
directions to the Eco-Toilet...
This was a glorified hole in the ground which you shovelled a form of cat litter into once you had
This was a glorified hole in the ground which you shovelled a form of cat litter into once you had
finished. There was no electricity or running water, so no facility to wash your hands, just some paper
towels and a bottle of anti-bacterial handwash. My driver elected to forget the toilet and instead have a
leak behind a bush and use some hand wipes.
Next to the three sided shed was a small metal barn, which had a rustic wooden structure built against it.
This wooden structure had two sides with an open frontage. Inside was a few wooden dining tables, and some
strange pictures with no obvious reason to them. The curtains on the window posed a conundrum? Why have curtains on a building which is exposed to the elements, and has full visibility inside due to the lack of wall on one
side? My driver's girlfiend did ponder the question about what was inside the metal barn, but was not
impressed with my driver's reply of "from the horror film style setting, I'll suggest it is probably disembodied heads!"
It may seem as though this blog is being negative about the little cafe, but in all honesty it is quite a lovely little place, but as the name would suggest a little "rough around the edges". After finishing their tea served from a rather nice pot into un-matching cups, they set off for the very short walk to the quarry. On approach they could see a small amount of cards and flowers against a boundary wall. Clearly there had been some recent tragedy, one of the cards had a child's writing on it for "Uncle Russ". A young male in his late teens to early twenties was crouched next to the wall and visibly upset, not wishing to crowd him they left the male to grieve in peace.
The quarry could be seen from the boundary wall, and it was unexpectedly busy. To the right was an amount
of overgrowth with a path that lead down to a sloped area which was a gradual decline into the water. This
was very popular and most of the available space upon the slope had already been taken. To the left was a
bridle way from which was a very steep slope down to the water. My two found a isolated spot and clambered
down the slope to the edge of the water. It was quite uneven under foot, but this didn't deter others,
within minutes more people had arrived and having seen my two in this spot decided they would come down too.
First there was a young mother with her two children, both of primary school age, then a couple in their
forties the male of which decided that he would spend some time tidying the rocks?
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| The view from the first side of the lake |
Deciding their little piece of paradise was becoming a little over crowded they formulated a plan. My driver is not a confident swimmer so walked back to me and got his large yellow dry bag out of the back, this was going to keep their personal items dry AND be his flotation aid. He strolled back up the path and back down the slope to his girlfriend, put the items inside the dry bag, sealed it and tested it on the water. It worked a treat!
His girlfriend set off across the lake, and my driver followed her, slowly making his way towards the middle. Upon approaching the middle, it was clear that he was no longer making much progress? Putting the flotation aid under his arms and resting his chest on it meant he was too high on the water to get any purchase to help him push forward. Putting the loop of the dry bag over one arm meant that it was holding that side of this body back when doing either the breaststroke or front crawl. Tying the dry bag to his shorts and doing the backstroke meant it was in the way of his legs and prevented him from kicking his feet, and putting the bag in front of him and just kicking his feet made him look retarded and didn't have much affect anyway! The problem was exacerbated by wearing trainers, there was no option to put these in the dry back as they were already wet and there was no more room for them.
After 15 minutes of not making much progress, his girlfriend came back out to help him. He decided that swimming with the dry bag was a bad idea and that he should push it in front of him then swim to it and repeat until the other side was reached. This eventually worked and a few minutes later he was on the other side and although it was a busy place, their little spot was quite secluded.
The water was surprisingly warm considering we've only had three days of sunshine up to this point! Being in and out of the water has resulted in a minimal amount of photos taken, this was mainly as a result of wet hands and enjoying themselves very much. A picture of my driver's girlfriend swimming in the quarry is below, and this is probably one of the few that is suitable for this blog, but more pics are available on the link at the bottom of this page.
After they had their fill of sunbathing and wild swimming, they both headed back to me and we took a short trip to nearby Ledbury where they bought some picnic and BBQ food before venturing off in search of a spot to sit and eat. After about 45 minutes they came across a small picnic area on top of a hill near Bromyard, where they sat and sipped pineapple juice whilst waiting for the chicken to cook on the BBQ.
When they'd had their fill we set off again with the weather now cooling, my driver's girlfriend was keen on getting her fix of geocaching. Heading for the Malvern Hills themselves, they stopped at a clock tower to fill up their bottles with some natural spring water, only to find a notice warning them that it had failed recent bacterial tests! So onward they went, and it wasn't long before they found another natural spring with a queue of people waiting to fill large 10L containers. Since my two only wanted to fill two half litre bottles, they were allowed to jump the queue and fill them quickly before going on their way, and hunting geocaches on Malvern Common. You can read about that on the Geocaching link above.
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| My driver's girlfriend swimming. The little tranquil spot just visible on the other side. |
After they had their fill of sunbathing and wild swimming, they both headed back to me and we took a short trip to nearby Ledbury where they bought some picnic and BBQ food before venturing off in search of a spot to sit and eat. After about 45 minutes they came across a small picnic area on top of a hill near Bromyard, where they sat and sipped pineapple juice whilst waiting for the chicken to cook on the BBQ.
When they'd had their fill we set off again with the weather now cooling, my driver's girlfriend was keen on getting her fix of geocaching. Heading for the Malvern Hills themselves, they stopped at a clock tower to fill up their bottles with some natural spring water, only to find a notice warning them that it had failed recent bacterial tests! So onward they went, and it wasn't long before they found another natural spring with a queue of people waiting to fill large 10L containers. Since my two only wanted to fill two half litre bottles, they were allowed to jump the queue and fill them quickly before going on their way, and hunting geocaches on Malvern Common. You can read about that on the Geocaching link above.
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