Summer has ended and the lifeguards have gone from Sunderland beach. They are always very attentive when I go in for a dip, and I miss my audience.

I am invited on a telly show in the last weekend of September, it is about access to water, but I am also able to show off my swimsac in Windermere. I always like being on TV, it makes me feel important. The next day my brother John and I have a nice swim out to Otterbield Island in Derwentwater. The Lake District waters are cooling down, next time, we will have to don wetsuits.

One advantage of swimming and swimhiking in rivers, lakes and the sea is that you are not tied to swimming pool opening times, indeed you are not tied to swimming pools at all. This is a consolation to me, because the university swimming pool where I once enjoyed a lunch time dip is now a pile of rubble. Still, it was a nasty shock turning up with my trunks neatly wrapped in my towel to meet a giant bulldozer knocking the building down. Apparently everyone knew about it except me as there had been a meeting about it three years ago (one which I obviously failed to attend).

On the first October weekend, my son Nicholas and I arrange to meet a friend of his and his Dad at the new Durham Pool. We arrive and it is shut for some event. So we cycle upstream and swim in the river instead, apart from Nicholas, who decides to stay on the bank. But then he overeaches himself while throwing things at me and falls in too. We find a cafe to warm up.

November

At the end of October there is a patch of mild weather that puts me back in the river, and the sea in early November is still OK for 10 minutes. Meanwhile my sister send me a link to Lewis Pugh who has swam a kilometer at the North Pole to raise awareness of global warming:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lewis_pugh_swims_the_north_pole.html

It is very inspirational, apart from I do not want my fingers to drop off. This, apparently, can be a problem for polar swimmers. I did once swim in the sea above the arctic cricle in Norway, and remember it as jolly cold. Inland, however, the lakes were warm.

December

At last this swimhiking blog has come to an end! And what of my New Year’s Swimhiking Resolutions for last year? How many were fulfilled?

The answer is None. I never did get to SW Scotland--it is just too tempting to drive past the Lake District without stopping. I never saw an otter, and despite at least three people/groups proclaiming their intention to complete the Frog Graham this year, none of them actually did, so that to my knowledge I remain the sole member. Oh Well. I will simply carry my resolutions forward to next year.

‘But what of this blog?’’ you ask anxiously, ‘Will you continue to write it every month for your countless thousands of faithful readers hanging on to every word?’ No I won’t. I have too many other things to do.

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