Wild swimming with a backpack? Welcome to cross country swimming | United

The public footpath lay barely 20 metres from where I stood, promising a stroll along the river, passing fields and through woodland, well away from any road. Yet there was something in my way blocking access to it. The very river it meanders alongside – the Thames – flowed between me and this legally designated right of way.

I checked my Ordnance Survey map of this part of Berkshire to see how to reach the path, but there was no other footpath that would legally lead me to the island on which it sat (a bridge I spotted was not a right of way, with a closed gate). This was a permitted pathway that no one could actually access, unless they had a boat.

It was this path that came to mind when, a few weeks later, I heard about a new activity growing in popularity across Britain, one that combines water and walking: cross-country swimming. This is when hikers and walkers carry a specially designed, large but lightweight waterproof tow-float and a dry bag. So when you reach a watery obstacle you can simply take out your cossie (or more likely wetsuit) and swim it.

This activity was born out of lockdown, when pools were closed and people’s movements were limited. It is the brainchild of two brothers, Will and Tom Watt, the latter of whom I met at Grantchester Meadows in Cambridge to be shown the strokes, along with a small group of other curious water lovers.

“We spent a lot of time in the Lakes growing up,” Tom said as we ambled along surrounded by the buzz of grasshoppers, the flutter of butterflies and the chirp of birdsong, while the River Cam babbled happily by. “There you’d come off a hill and want to climb one on the other side of the valley but a body of water was in the way. It would be an eight-mile walk to get around it or,” he said with a smile, “a mile-long swim. It was then we came up with the idea.”

The Watts spent some time trialling a variety of kit to find out what could make this activity possible, including existing flotation aids and dry bags, but found nothing that could adequately incorporate everything needed. For a while they focused instead on events: they created the Swimmer, a central London half marathon that takes in the city’s ponds, pools and parks. But 2020 gave them the opportunity to work on the perfect cross-country swimming pack and launch it with a retreat in Devon, which they promoted as “epic adventures over land and water”. It all sounded fun in a Type 2 way (miserable while it’s happening but pleasurable in retrospect), but what about those who are after less endurance and more enjoyment?

That’s where this route comes in. It’s a relatively easy half-day trip that Tom’s company, Above Below, runs throughout the summer to satisfy the demand from less hardcore swimmers. Beginning at Cambridge railway station, it meanders along the Cam for 5km to the Orchard tea room, where the likes of Virginia Woolf and Rupert Brooke wrote – and took dips. We would be doing the same (minus the writing for most, although not for me), completing a wonderful wet and dry circuit by swimming back with the current in the Cam.

As wild swimming becomes more popular (it predictably experienced a boom when restrictions were applied to gyms and pools), it began to run up against obstacles, and this stretch of the Cam is a case in point. Earlier in the summer King’s College, which owns the land, tried to ban the activity here – even though it has been enjoyed at Grantchester Meadows for at least five centuries – citing unruly behaviour and littering. Protesters have fought the ruling and, for now, the practice is still being enjoyed while discussions take place between swimmers, council and college.

The scent of freshly baked scones and brewing tea mixed with the notes of elderflower and freshly cut grass as we reached the cafe. After chatting about some of Tom’s watery adventures (including a crossing of the Lakes, the Broads and the islands of Scotland) we walked to the edge of the river and changed into our wetsuits. It was then that Tom revealed his crucial invention – the RuckRaft.

This is a device a bit like a large inflatable horseshoe, with the raft made from a toughened material that means even when holding towels, drinking water, dry clothes and snacks (anything up to 15kg) in the attached dry bag, it still glides on the surface of the water effortlessly.

As I plunged into the river, its coolness welcome in the humidity of an August day, the weight of my supplies dissipated. My back was free, and I simply pulled everything I needed behind me, feeling almost weightless.

I relaxed into the water, my hair flowing around my face as I slowly floated alongside dragonflies, a moorhen and her chicks, and a curious grey heron – none of which seemed to even acknowledge my presence.

The whole experience drifted…