29th November 2025. Sparth resevoir

Away for the weekend at a beautiful cottage in Marsden and we are staying right by Sparth resevoir. As I couldn't go to my usual swim spot, I decided to go 'wild' swimming which essentially means swimming in an open body of water at my own risk as there are no safety marshals and often no-one else swimming at the same time.

I had a steep walk down to the water which was slippy and muddy, then had to find my way into the water treading carefully as I was unsure at which point it would become too deep so stand up in.

The water was 6.5 degrees!

and I'm off!

The rain came down hard, so after a few meters I decided to embrace it and do a bit of backstroke whilst the rain came down on me! And I floated a bit to enjoy it even more!

I had a few dog walkers stop and watch me, they were probably thinking I was a bit 🤪 but who cares!

After around 20 minutes I headed back to the shore as I still had to do my second polar bear dip of the month. I exited the water in a better place and not as much mulch to wade through.

I then stripped off my wetsuit, gloves, socks, and hat before getting back in, in just my skins.

I hit my penguin gold target of 1000m for November and an extra 2000m in total which means I will be upgraded to penguin Antarctic!

I have also hit my polar bear classic target of 2 dips a month 💪

Now to keep it up until march 31st and raise the £1k for Visit from the Stork.

https://www.justgiving.com/page/claire-carey-3?utm_medium=FA&utm_source=CL