Swimhiking in the Lake District and North East

Swimhiking in the Lake District and North EastPeter Hayes £9.99

If you have ever come down to a lake and thought 'I wish I could swim to the other side', then this book is for you. Peter Hayes explains how with a few simple alterations to your rucksack you can not only swim to the far bank, but also take all your clothes with you and keep them dry for when you get out. Armed with this adapted rucksack, or 'swimsac', he takes the reader on a series of glorious routes across the Lake District, combining mountain summits and lake crossings, zigzagging back and forth over Derwent Water, Coniston Water, Windermere, Crummock Water, Bassenthwaite Lake and a score of tarns. The book concludes with some equally original routes along the coast and rivers of North East England, including Holy Island, Bamburgh and the River Coquet. Alongside the route descriptions there are stories, many of them hilarious. I particularly enjoyed the failed audition to get the swimsac onto the Dragon's Den. But the author also has a serious argument to make about our right to enjoy the water as well as the land. We have, he says, as much right to swim in Thirlmere as to climb Hellvellyn. The book is aptly illustrated with simple but effective black and white maps and darkly humourous pictures. Swimhiking may or may not take off, but this book definitely has the makings of a classic.

Gilbert Knowle Publishers, www.swimsac.co.uk/
ISBN: 978 0 9558815 0 3

Reviewed on 21/07/2008 by Rosie Hayes