The council decided to open up a new area to open water swimmers, fab....at last they seemed to be interested in helping up swim as opposed to it on the grounds of 'elf and safety'. And so much publicity surrounded the opening up of Talk tarn to......us swimmers!
But wait...were they really wanting us there, the times that we were permitted entry to the lake were not what we were used to, they were stating 4pm ish or there abouts til 10pm! A fellow open water swimmer Julie McKenzie was dying to show off her local area so it was a must to try to get to swim there. What more hurdles...we must by a yellow hat, and register annually at a fee of £8. Not a problem if you live local but what provision for those that have to travel any type of distance...so on the phone i get...and soon engaged in conversation with Fiona, lovely lady who accepted the queries i had and was open to letting me use the lake 'at others times', dates were discussed and eventually one date was settled on. Great now i could advertise for a social swim!
Soon the numbers were mounting up, great, now all we needed was a sunny day! Then a surprise, i was asked to give and interview for the radio to promote the swim, fantastic and what a lovely thing to happen, secretly i was chuffed to bits, it turned out that one of the swimmers organised it for me!
Standing by Windermere lake with swans and ducks obliging us with their early morning chorus was great, a few minutes later and it was back to normal life, it worked though people who had heard the swim advertised had come to join us!!!
As is my norm, i turn up early to an event i have organised, what is not my norm though is not to visit the venue prior to swimming in it. Now having had a lot of contact with the local council, i was led to believe that all was well at the tarn. Unfortunately i was to find out differently.
Parking up and positively bouncing with excitement at swimming in a new location, i left the calls of my partner, (how he as the patience is beyond me!) to head to the water, to find it strangely glowing a funny colour!!! A green sheen hovered over the waters surface...is this what i thought it was!!!! AND WHY AFTER NUMEROUS CONVERSATIONS WAS I NOT INFORMED by the council! There had been rumours floating (note the pun!!!!) around on facebook but as it had not come from the council i assumed they could not be right...could they....the pictures dont do justice to the extent of the 'green glow' emitting from the lake. Thankfully the flare of my temper also could not be captured, i had people travelling for this swim, i had the BBC on route to help publise the venue for other swimmers to find out about! A quick call to them stopped their arrival, thankfully, but the swimmers were arriving....rushing in to find anyone official to speak to (the council member who i had spoken to not more than 15 mins before hand were not not answering!!!! Finding a staff member i in no uncertain terms made my feelings known and asked what the hell was going on!!!
Apparently there is a 'traffic light' system in place....??? The highlighted colour denotes to the swimmer if they should enter the water nor not!!!, Green being a get in and swim to your hearts content, amber ....make a choice and take your own risk and red....dont even dip a toe!
The lights were on amber...can this really be a reliable method of prevention of illness to swimmers and dog owners. Sorry i feel its a poor attempt to avoid litigation! After all quality testing is only good for the day of the test due to a whole host of factors that can affect the ecology of the water, (heavy prolonged and intense rain, temperature etc). What i was looking at did not look like it should have been a amber light!
My partner had found a 'less green' place for us to get in at were the water looked 'normal' so potentially a swim could take place. But the briefing was one that i was not looking forward to!
Swimmers were stood, warming themselves in the sun, we were ready to rock and roll but i really did not want to do this announcement! Bugger, time to man up and do it, gathering everyone round, and in my normal style i told them the truth and held my breath half expecting a mass exodis as neoprene clad people ran to their cars and exited as fast as they could...but wait they didn't they started to head towards the water!! We were going to swim, the talk along the short walk was mixed with the urge to swim and also why wasn't anything being done to clean the water in such a wonderful location.
The water did not look good but it was a nice temperature for a swim, today unfortunately was not a day for hanging around or even going laps of the tarn. I noticed not many putting their heads down, gosh this was so upsetting, meeting up with each of the collective groups i was pleasently surprised that they were enjoying themselves, the water had not put them off at all.
Needless to say it was some what of a relief when people started heading back to the land again, never have i been embarressed or more worried, and all because i was ill informed by the powers that be...a lesson learned beleive me.!!! I hold with some pride the fact that the swims i organise are safe and also good fun for those that take part!
Everyone out and following instructions to shower thoroughly and to ensure their swim kit is completely clean from tarn water, in the warmth of the sun cakes and coffee were shared. Connections are made, friendships formed, so the main aim of the swim has happened relief!!!
Lets hope that the council manage to sort the water out, its a beautiful spot, peaceful and could attract a vast number of swimmers and other water users...but not as it is.
Is this an issue just for the tarn no its not, as many of you know the Great Swim organisers were hit a few years ago by blue green algae forcing them to cancel one of their events. This year they were hit again at Strathclyde Loch, not by algae but by a virus in the water, it had previously made other swimmers ill after an event held by the Western District Open water swimming Championships, the loch as you can imagine was immediately closed to all water activities and whilst the hope was to open it again in time for the Great Scottish swim, alas it was not to be heavy rain had some how altered the makeup of the water!
Its not exclusive to large events either local clubs are being hit too.
So what risk to us swimmers take....for myself i would say about the same as anyone in life that either plays sport or crossed the road!, Swimmers know that we swim at our own risk, its common knowledge for all of us. The chances of us becoming ill are slim and its unfortunate that a mass participation event had to be cancelled, however, on the bright side its good that there is someone testing the water for us, previous testing did not involve testing for viruses, lets hope that this now becomes common practice. Have these incidents put us off......as if, we are swimmers, theres plenty of water out there!!! Its nice to know that someone looks after us for mass participation events but why dont we get ill when we just swim in our own small groups!! Do our waterways need cleaning up...yes!!! Will we keep swimming...as long as there is water to swim in YES
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