Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wild Swimming, 4 Aug 2008
There are very many things that I love about this book. So far I've had it a very short time and have already had an incredibly therapeutic swim, about 10 miles from where I have lived for over 20 years, which I had no idea was there. It was the most beautiful spot and the pub recommended in the book was such a find, being friendly, serving good beer and food, having a gorgeous wildflower garden and being over a thousand years old.
Having this book means I am much more likely to get out and swim in beautiful places, and not just paddle, worried about currents, debris and pond weed. So all those good intentions are finally coming good and I can entice friends along too. It's definitely going to be the basis of many UK holidays to come.
I'm also impressed that the directions are so concise yet so clear and straightforward to follow - rare for a guide book.
I can't recommend this book enough.
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66 of 75 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A hell of a big splash, 6 Jun 2008
This is the book to make poltroons like me brace up and take the plunge. On so many occasions, hot and sweaty on a walk, I have come to a pool, a river or a waterfall and thought, 'Oh, I'd love to fall in there - but I can't.' And why can't I? Because it's too cold, because I don't dare, because I might not be allowed, because I haven't got a towel, because, because ...
Pathetic, man! Here is the wonderful antidote to all that cowardice. 150 brilliant places where it's not only OK to swim or plunge or flop out on your back - it's the nicest, most natural thing on earth, if you judge by the ecstatic expressions on the (mostly young, mostly shapely) people who cavort in or stand invitingly on the brink of the cool pools in Daniel Start's quite irresistibly seductive photos. Why aren't there any snaps of saggy greybeards like me? Because, let's face it, we don't scrub up so well. But Daniel's message is that there's room and tolerance for all of us in the clear trout-filled River Nadder at Teffont Evias in Wiltshire, under the mountain oaks of the Wolf's Leap in deepest Wales, or among the Faerie Pools in the dramatic shadow of the Cuillins on the Isle of Skye.
Great Scott! I can hardly wait. This is a wonderful, youthful, inspiring book. I've let my Health Club subscription lapse because I couldn't take the urine and chlorine and locker-room macho any more. But now I shall be a swimmer into cleanness leaping. Here I gooooooooooooo ... !
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20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
New ways to explore Britain by foot or cycle, 10 Jul 2008
This book has been reviewed on several outdoor forums and magazines and works well as a nice blend of clear reliable guidebook plus photo travelogue. It's aimed as much at the walker or family looking for an unusual summer outing and picnic, as it is for the 'swimmer'. For me it was a perfect timing as last year I decided to be free from all flying as the biggest and easiest way to reduce my carbon emissions.
The swim boxes are particularly useful as they contain 8 point grid references (good for walkers), postcodes (good for drivers) and very detailed walk-in directions in case you don't have a map (with timings and path difficulties). There's also water quality and whether the swim is a paddle, swim, dunk, dive and so forth, and what else to do if it's too cold, including nearest pubs and campsites.
About 250 places are grid referenced in all (150 with full box panels). There's coverage of interesting places like ancient baptism pools, river tubing canyons, clear chalk streams, places to find otters, catch crayfish, slide down rock pools or find famous locations like the Swallow and Amazons islands.
There's a enough in the adventure of finding and reading about each place to mean it doesn't matter if you don't swim.
All in all it seems very well put together.
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by Kate Rew
by Jonathan Knight
