Swimming with Mermaids
We’ve been doing swim adventures for over 10 years, but every now and then there’s a trip that changes how we look at what we do. Our trip to Scilly to visit the Wild and Scilly Mermaids was one of those trips.
Oh, the places you’ll go.
They say it’s not where you go, it’s the company you keep. Well, the Scilly Islands are simply beautiful – you can’t really go wrong. The water is clear, the beaches like the Caribbean and the whole landscape is made for adventures over land and water.
So, what about the company? Sometimes in life you just get a good feeling about people, the Wild and Scilly Mermaids had always looked like a fun bunch on Instagram and when they christened the Yellow RuckRaft the ‘Rubber DuckRaft’ we knew they had a sense of humour.
So we headed to the Scilly Isles to swim with the Mermaids. It was a long trip to meet a group of strangers so we were slightly nervous, but the Mermaids are marvellous – friendly, fun, independently minded, interesting, committed and full of a love for life and where they live. Our kind of people.
There’s Anna who is one of the Scilly Islands paramedics and Ruth (AKA Roth due to a fun typo) who is the chef at the island hospital on St Mary’s. They embody everything we’ve ever tried to do well at Above Below – safe swim adventures and cake. And they do it better than us (much as we may not like to admit it).
On our lifeguard course we learnt that if there is a problem, call in 999. With the Mermaids, 999 is actually with you guiding the swim. Then there’s sandwiches wrapped in wax paper and string; Seabrook crisps (the crisp of the aficionado) and the cake… oh my, the cake. Lemon drizzle, chocolate flapjack – delicious!
decisions, decisions
The Mermaids have so many options for incredible swims on Scilly. Some easy, some an interesting challenge. The islands offer up so much potential. We did two routes you can find on our routes page and we loved them both.
It’s a joy to see the RuckRaft in such a stunning place, being used to help swim guide and carry the kit needed for a great cook up at the end. And all with great big smiles.
For Above Below to grow we will and must try to help direct as many swimmers as possible to guides like the Mermaids. Guides who have that crucial local knowledge and enthusiasm for adventure swims. And if we can give them the kit and tools to grow swim hiking (what we call cross country swimming), we’ll have done a good thing.
RuckRafts in great places with experienced local guides. That’s what you find on our routes page and it’s clear to us after Scilly and meeting Kathryn in Snowdon on our adventure with Sean Conway that we need to do a lot more of this.
How, when and where on Scilly.
Depending on where you’re travelling from, getting there can be a bit of an effort but it’s 100% worth it and the journey was a bit of an adventure in itself. From London Paddington we got the sleeper train to Penzance, then it’s a 10 minute walk to Scillonian ferry. Finding accommodation can be tough in the summer but if you go in September and October (our favourite swimming months) then it’s all a bit easier.