Saturday 3pm - Hampstead Heath Mixed Bathing Pond

The Ponds on Hampstead Heath are the closest most Londoners are able to get to wild swimming – albeit watched by a friendly lifeguard.

Surrounded by trees and set back from the heath the Mixed Pond is a stark contrast to the chlorinated indoor pools that many of us usually swim in. After braving so many unheated pools we were finally getting better at getting over the cold shock but the shade of the trees meant that the mixed pond was particularly cold and despite his wet suit John found he just couldn’t get in.

The rest of us found the swim even more beautiful than the serpentine although we found that the sun on the surface of parts of the pond led to warm patches which were lovely to swim through but made the cold patches even harder to brave. The sun shone on our swim making the whole pond even more beautiful. Noone felt like taking a cold shower after the cold of the pond and since the next stop was just across the Heath most of us decided to do a bathing suited dash. As we left pond the rain started to fall and the black sky made the trip across the Heath to the single sex ponds look less inviting than the summer stroll we had imagined when we were planning the challenge.

Thanks to The Mixed Bathing Pond we were able to add £16 to the LEPRA fund and between us we swam 3105m.