Whether visitors to Ljubljana find themselves sat at a riverside café in summer, or enveloped in a magical winter mist, the beauty of Slovenia’s capital city is evident in all seasons. Ljubljana is said to take its name from the Slovene word ljubljena, meaning ‘beloved’, and it is indeed easy to fall for the city’s civilised ambience. It is the intriguing creative spirit at Ljubljana’s core, however, which may make a longer-lasting impression.

Does the city’s energy comes from its young population (one in five residents are students) or its diverse blend of influences? Who can tell… The winding Ljubljanica, the river that runs through the capital, was once suggested as the boundary between central Europe and the Balkans – and there’s no denying that the city lies at a crossroads of cultures, where the Slavic, Mediterranean and Germanic worlds meet.

Whether looking west to Venice, north to Vienna, east to Zagreb or south to Belgrade, Ljubljanians can contemplate Europe from its centre. And like the rest of the country, Slovenia’s capital brings together some of the best elements of the Continent. At times, a northern orderliness may prevail, while at others a southern lust for life may be uppermost. But in such a compact city, you’re unlikely to ever be far from another side of its character.

As we enter the peak summer months, however, it’s the indulgent side we see. Walking trails in the Tivoli Park, the aroma of the Botanical Gardens, riverside cafés, balmy club nights at the Metelkova complex – and a stylish design hostel at the close of the day.

Soak up the old town

Stara Ljubljana, or the Old Town, officially falls between the city’s hilltop castle and the arching bend of the slow-flowing Ljubljanica. But locals use the term indiscriminately to refer to the network of narrow, pedestrianised streets that spills onto both sides of the river. Whatever you call it, you’ll find many of the city’s best restaurants, bars and cafés here, as well as striking examples of baroque and art nouveau architecture.

Just north of the river is cobbled Prešernov Trg, or Prešeren Square, a good base from which to start. Behind the statue of Dr France Prešeren, Slovenia’s national poet, is the pink and white Franciscan Church of the Annunciation. And on the other side of the square is the elegant ‘Tromostovje’ triple bridge across the Ljubljanica – one of the most famous creations of Slovene architect Jože Plecnik.

Plecnik also designed the riverside market colonnade just to the east. Every day except Sunday you’ll find stalls here and in the adjacent square selling dried meats, fresh berries, bright flowers and all manner of other enticing produce. In the surrounding streets, there’s an array of small boutiques and independent shops. Browse the antiques at Galerija Fortuna (Gornji Street 1), or buy some traditional lace products from Slovenia’s Idrija region at a dedicated gallery Studio Cipka (Mestni Street 17).

For high quality Slovene folk art and glassware, try Darila Rokus (Gosposvetska Street 1), a little to the north. Dvorni Bar ( Dvorni Street 2) has an extensive wine list and is one of many classy venues serving good drinks and food. But for a cool retro feel, visit the recently reopened Daktari Club (Krekov Street 7), in a former wine cellar which incorporates part of the Old City wall. For traditional Slovene dishes, Na Gradu, the restaurant in the castle itself, is highly regarded. And it would be unthinkable to leave Ljubljana without relaxing beneath the willow branches at one of the city’s riverside cafés. On summer evenings, there are sometimes events on the river incorporating fireworks, dance and other spectacles.

Cultural Life

The colourful graffiti of the lively and laid-back Metelkova Mesto complex (Metelkovamesto.org/) to the north of the Old Town reveals a more anarchic side to Ljubljana. The site was formerly a barracks for the Yugoslav National Army. But following Slovenia’s independence in 1991, it was occupied by a coalition of creative artists, progressive thinkers and campaigners, and their spirit remains evident.

There are a number of clubs, bars and galleries within Metelkova, but the first thing most visitors will see is the stylish Hostel Celica. Eighty artists, including the British Antony Gormley, were involved in creating the 20 uniquely designed rooms of this budget hostel in the old cells of this former military prison. The hostel runs its own cultural programme, and there are many other events at Metelkova’s other venues.

Performers from Slovenia and across Europe regularly playing gigs in just about every genre you can imagine. Head to Gala Hala for hip hop and punk, or Menza Pri Koritu for avant-garde jazz. Wine served in plastic cups sums up the ethos – it’s quality produce in low-fi packaging.

You’ll also find some of Ljubljana’s liveliest nightlife in Metelkova, with regular club nights at Gala Hala and other venues.

Other late-night options in the city are the variety of bars in the Old Town (most of which close at around 1am), or further afield venues like the retro Sputnik bar (Tržaška Street 128).

A Museum of Contemporary Art opened last year within Metelkova Mesto complex, and just down the road is the city’s Ethnographic Museum at Metelkova Street 2. The welcoming café here, Kavarna SEM, is a great place to stop for a coffee and begin exploring the fascinating quirks beneath Ljubljana’s respectable facade.

Green Spaces

Slovenia is a largely rural country, and even the city slickers in its capital have a deeply ingrained love of nature. A short walk north of the Old Town are the wide open spaces and wooded paths of Tivoli Park, where in summer families and students alike relax over picnics. The park’s broad Jakopic Promenade, designed by the ever-industrious Plecnik, leads to the 17th-century Tivoli Mansion, which now houses a graphic arts centre.

Wander back down to the Ljubljanica and head south, and you’ll reach Ljubljana University’s Botanical Gardens (Ižanska Street 15), with entry of only €2.50, and many a shady spot in which to contemplate its 4,500 species and sub-species. The gardens are near the spica area on the Ljubljanica, where the banks in summer are lined with floating barge bars.

Further south along the Ljubljanica are the expansive Ljubljana marshes. Covering over 150 sq km, this UNESCO-protected nature reserve is home to birds such as the Eurasian Curlew and the globally endangered Corn Crake. The village of Crna Vas, with a church by Plecnik built in the late 1930s, is a good focus for a visit.

On the other side of the city is the Volcji Potok Arboretum, which includes a collection of animal sculptures by Janez Boljka, open at weekends, and an adjoining 18-hole golf course of par 71.

Jože Plečnik

The spirit of modernist architect Jože Plecnik (1872-1957) runs throughout modern Ljubljana. Plecnik also worked in Vienna and Prague, but much of his finest work is here in his home city. As well as the renowned Tromostovje triple bridge, Plecnik designed a huge number of other important structures including the National and University Library and the Križanke outdoor theatre, on the site of an old monastery.

For active types, some well-managed walking trails can be found on Rožnik Hill, on the northern edge of Tivoli Park, while another popular hiking destination is Šmarna Gora in the north of the city. At 667m, it’s Ljubljana’s highest hill, with excellent views of the surrounding area. There are plenty of other beauty spots nearby. And many of Slovenia’s best known natural attractions – alpine lakes, karst caves and the Adriatic coast – are well within a couple of hours’ drive away.

France Preseren

A statue of Slovenia’s national poet, France Prešeren (1800-1849), is in the central square that bears his name. Prešeren’s work did much to define a distinct Slovene language and culture. The poet now gazes up at a relief of his muse and unrequited love Julija Primic, on the building opposite.

Dr Jože Bavcon, director, Botanical Gardens

“The Botanical Gardens are good to visit at any time of year – there are snowdrops

at the end of winter, and then they’re full of colour throughout the summer and autumn. People come here to find out about our thousands of different kinds of plants, or just to relax. You can walk from the city centre to the garden along the river, cycle or take a boat.

“In the past few years there have been a lot of new green spaces created in Ljubljana. There are a lot of different habitats around the city, which means we have a very varied range of plants.

Matija Bulatovic – Owner, Daktari Club

“Daktari Club was closed for six years but we reopened it in March this year. There’s a cool, fresh feel inside and people like to come here and not be bothered by the television or football. We have a gig every couple of weeks. I’ve lived in Ljubljana all my life – the people are nice here. I like the city because you are always running into old friends. I also enjoy the green spaces and the river.”

Janko Rožic, head architect, Hostel Celica

“When we created Celica we wanted to transform a space of repression into a place of expression. We brought together skills in architecture, painting, sculpture, philosophy and poetry. The counterpoint between the ‘closed’ architectural structure of the prison and the openness of its new use was important to us.

“I enjoy the ‘ethno jam’ music sessions at Celica. Outside the hostel, I look at the exhibitions in the Alcatraz Gallery. I think every town needs an experimental space like Metelkova. We can overcome the current crisis with more, not less, culture.”

Photo by Toni Corretge

Locals have been swimming at Lighthouse Beach, a small pebble cove at Kingswear village on the river Dart, for at least 140 years.

‘Most of the sides of the river Dart are muddy – this is about the only clean area, and it’s on the sunny side of the river,’ says Michael Stevens, who has lived in Kingswear for over twenty years. ‘It’s a good place to take children to paddle – it’s safe and very pleasant.   The local school used to have swimming lessons there,’ he says.

A public right of way to Lighthouse Beach has been officially recognised to since the nineteenth century, and all landowners have acknowledged it – until now.  Since 1999, access to the beach by land has been closed off – and for five years, a further sign has also banned access by boat.

But this is by no means the first time that a conflict has arisen where swimming has previously been enjoyed with few problems.  At a historic swimming spot in the village of Dinton in Wiltshire, an angling club has put up a steel gate and barbed wire to prevent access to the river Nadder.  And there is a penalty of £1000 for swimming at lakes in the Lee Valley near the town of Ware.

Safety concerns are often cited in such cases – usually meaning the landowners fear legal action in case of accident – and although conflict with other water users (usually anglers).   But swimmers have a key ally in canoeists, who experience many similar issues.

‘The most common objection comes from game fishing clubs,’ says Ashley Charlwood of Canoe Wales, who has researched the finer details of access issues over the course of several recurring disputes.  ‘It’s linked to money – game fishing is an expensive pastime and a good revenue builder.’

The Welsh government wanted to allow swimming as part of a project developing water-related recreation at Coed y Brenin estate in Wales in 2007, says Charlwood.  The land is owned by the Forestry Commission Wales, and includes five rivers with ideal swimming spots – but the objections of two fishing clubs ran the project aground.

The growing popularity of outdoor swimming and other watersports is hardly likely to make such conflicts disappear.  But attempting to answer the questions they raise – at least in England and Wales – reveals a horrible legal confusion.   The fears expressed by landowners about legal responsibility (like at Dinton), for example, are usually misplaced – since anyone using the water is generally doing so at their own risk.   But then again, such concerns could in some cases be legitimate, says Charlwood.

‘If somebody knew canoeing or swimming took place on a private river, felled a tree and then someone got trapped on it and died, they would be in quite a weak position,’ he says.

And even when landowners want to allow swimming – as at Coed y Brenin – they can’t always set the rules.

‘In practice, any private right holder can argue that they have to give consent before anything takes place,’ says Charlwood.  ‘That could be fishing rights, mineral rights, sporting rights or something else.’

But on the other hand, anything not explicitly excluded by law – which includes swimming – is also presumed to be allowed.  Confused?  We can’t turn to case law for guidance, since hardly any exists: everything comes down to the interpretation of principles.  Some have even argued that a right to access rivers stretches back to the Magna Carta.

‘The law is so old and unchallenged that nobody really knows what’s going on,’ says Charlwood.  Suffice it to say that ‘No Swimming’ signs often presume a greater confidence than they are entitled to.  ‘Those are not really founded on any fact – it becomes an opinion-based intimidation,’ he says.

The issue is muddied further because inland water bodies are owned by so many different types of entity – some are on private land, others are owned by public bodies like the Environment Agency or British Waterways – while reservoirs are usually under the control of water companies.  On certain rivers, like the Thames or the lower Wye, there are historic ‘navigation rights’ (but do these apply to swimmers?), while estuaries fall under the scope of port authorities and their by-laws.   Last year, the government announced a ‘New Era for the Waterways’, as it sought to bring public waterways under control of a single organisation.  It might have been a chance for a fresh start – but there was no attempt to consult swimmers.

Recently, however, there have been encouraging signs of landowners moving away from the position of a knee-jerk ban.  In response to issues raised by boaters and rowers, the Environment Agency has drawn up guidelines for swimmers on the non-tidal Thames, rather than attempting to discourage the activity.   ‘We want swimmers to enjoy themselves and to be safe,’ says Russell Robson of the Thames Environment agency.

Disputes on Welsh rivers have led the government to trial ‘voluntary agreements’, where the different stakeholders agree terms of shared usage for each disputed stretch on an ad-hoc basis.   But while this approach might make sense for organised groups who regularly swim at the same place, Charlwood does not believe it is adequate to deal with all situations.   On the Wye, for example, stipulations that limit recreational activities to water above a minimum level enable white water kayaking – but they also prevent more gentle canoeing, and swimming, when the river is not in flood.

‘The voluntary agreements are good at meeting the needs of small user groups, but they are really bad at meeting the needs of the public’, says Charlwood.

European swimmers tend to be bemused by such a fraught situation.  ‘Here in Holland we have no restrictions like in the UK,’ says Niek Kloots, a Dutch swimmer who runs the European OpenWater Swimming website.  Swimming, sailing and fishing are all permitted in the country’s only reservoir, IJsselmeer, says Kloots.  Swimming is only banned in a few busy shipping lanes, and there are also rules not to go near sluices and bridges.

‘The issue sounds weird to me,’ says Aida Molina of the Culture Sport holiday company in Spain.  ‘Anglers have nothing against swimmers here.  If anything, it’s the opposite.’

Rob Fryer, Chairman of the River and Lake Swimming Association (RALSA – which has been campaigning on water access since 2003) even tells a story about a fisherman who came out of a pub in Ireland to recommend a good swimming spot to him.  ‘Even if I had been dropped in with a blindfold, I would have known it could not have been England,’ he says.

But it’s not even in all of the UK that access wrangles occur.  In Scotland, the law since 2003 has given swimmers the right to access natural water bodies at their own risk, provided that certain guidelines are followed.   And at just £1 million, the Scottish Land Reform Act cost a fraction of the £69 million that the 2000 CROW act to implement (which only addresses parts of the English and Welsh countryside).

While not approaching such amounts, campaigners for Lighthouse Beach have already had to spend thousands on legal costs, and need to find thousands more for a public inquiry due this year.  A clearer pre-existing legal situation regarding water usage would surely make this, and many other conflicts, easier to resolve.   But Ashley Charlwood says that many swimmers or kayakers need to be more vocal in order to give access issues more prominence.  ‘People need to start voicing the importance of the water space to them,’ he stresses.  ‘They should think about asking their MPs where they stand.’

Rob Fryer says that keeping up pressure on local authorities is crucial:  ‘If you get a lot of people in the water, or hundreds of signatures, it’s hard to ignore,’ he argues.  He believes that a campaign centring on families is most effective in conveying the right message.  ‘It’s not super-swimmers.  It’s just ordinary people who want to enjoy the countryside.’

The status abroad

Swimmers sum up the situation in other countries:

France – Daniel Start, author of Wild Swimming France http://www.wildswimming.co.uk/france.html

“In France, like the UK, there is still a strong culture of private property and riparian ownership, but this tends not to be too strictly enforced and, unless there are ‘no entry / private property’ signs, its generally assumed you can take a dip. As in the UK most local authorities have taken fright at the threat of litigation and have posted ‘baignade interdite’ in the most popular traditional swimming places, but this serves as quite a useful guide to where you will find excellent swimming spots.  However, there are over 3000 official river and lake beach areas, where the beach is either ‘surveille or non-surveilee’.  There are also very large areas of woodland track and wild land, which make finding a beautiful remote place to swim much easier.”

USA – Bruckner Chase, Ocean campaigner and endurance swimmer http://brucknerchase.com/

“Access can be anything from easy to having you detained as a terrorist.   Private, city, county, state, national park, or federal waters – take your pick and access runs the gamut.  When varying interests intersect there can be clashes – but there can also be a shared commitment to protecting the environment and wildlife.”

Canada – Rob Kent, Lake Ontario Swim Team http://lostswimming.com/

“The short answer here is that it’s not a problem at all.  The group I started in Lake Ontario (Lake Ontario Swim Team or LOST) has never had an issue. Lake Ontario is the 11th largest lake in the world, but oddly isn’t that populated with boats, anglers, or swimmers for that matter – and there is a lot of space.   On other lakes, there generally isn’t a problem either.  The truth is that OWS isn’t all that popular in Canada and we have a lot of lakes and rivers that aren’t all that populated. – so it really isn’t an issue at all.”

S Africa – Ram Barkai, Founder, International Ice Swimming Association http://www.internationaliceswimming.com/

“Generally, access is not a big problem for us because we tend to swim in the sea.  If conditions are good we can access anywhere by boat.”

At London 2012 the 10km marathon swim will come into the Olympic spotlight once again. The growth of interest in open water swimming since the 2008 Beijing Olympics means the global attention the event receives second time around will be unprecedented.

The FINA World Championships in Shanghai in July – where the 10km races also served as Olympic qualifiers – intensified speculation about possible medallists in London, not least in the UK, whose Keri-Anne Payne finished first in the women’s race.  But the increased profile of the sport is also having an effect at grassroots level, where it’s being taken up by growing numbers of young swimmers.

The question is, then, who will be the contenders in Rio 2016, and will the next generation of top-level open water swimmers break through even before then?

There have already been some clear pointers to what the future holds. Last summer London hosted an invitational swim, to test the Olympic course on the Serpentine. The field included Greece’s Spyros Giannotis and Germany’s Thomas Lurz – who in the men’s 10km race in Shanghai finished first and second respectively. The winner, though (by 26 seconds) was a 21-year old Canadian swimmer, Richard Weinberger.

“I don’t know if those athletes were excited about the race as he was but I know a lot of them don’t like to lose,” says Weinberger’s coach, Ron Jacks, who attributes the result to both Weinberger’s use of a new full-body swimsuit and his affinity for cold water (the water temperature in Shanghai was a sweltering 32 degrees).

Jacks adds that Weinberger’s 17th place in China was deceptively strong, since all the faster finishers were older. “The average age of the top ten was 27 or 28,” he says.

As he gains experience, Weinberger’s performances will surely improve, and the same can also be said for 21-year old Irish swimmer Chris Bryan, who fi nished 33rd in China and 9th in the Serpentine race.

“I’m expecting to come on loads this year,” says Bryan, who trains at Ireland’s high-performance swimming centre in Limerick. He is studying sport science at college but says swimming takes up the vast majority of his time, joking that the commitment is like “a full time job with constant overtime and terrible pay”.

His schedule incorporates up to 11 sessions a week, with long distances in the mornings – sometimes during morning sessions Bryan swims 17 or 18km, which can take up to 4.5 hours.

In the evenings comes speed work and gym sessions. Between September and December, meanwhile, he builds strength, covering 60-70km in the pool – where it’s easier to monitor performance – but his weekly distances will increase up to 120km this spring. Many ambitious young open water swimmers follow tough routines.

While the hard yards are important, Bryan believes the right mental conditioning is critical too. “The biggest differences between open water and the pool are mental,” he says, which is why he works regularly with a psychologist. “Swimmers need to maintain focus for long periods under pressure.”

He also recognizes how crucial it is to develop tactical awareness, which can only be learned through racing. “I do so many 10km events, and each is completely different – you need that knowledge,” he says.

For Bryan, the Shanghai race, in which over 60 swimmers competed, was a huge learning experience: “I was unsure how much the heat would take out of me, and so I hung back. By the time the kick came, I was too far behind the leading group to catch up,” he says.

He adapted his approach immediately, pushing ahead from the start in the 5km event, where he fi nished eighth. Like Weinberger, Bryan’s aim is now to qualify for London 2012. He wants to finish in the top three in the next qualification event, which is in Setuba, Portugal, in June.

Bryan first encountered open water swimming through surf lifesaving. He grew up by the sea and was influenced by Ireland’s strong tradition of outdoor swimming.

But the experience of Ashley Twichell, a 22-year old US swimmer,shows that it’s possible for talented swimmers to turn to open water relatively late in life. Twichell has always enjoyed ocean swimming, but didn’t compete in an open water race until 2010, at the US national championships. Her first 10km event was far from successful, because she was unaccustomed to the colder water and didn’t feed at all during the swim.

“I don’t remember the last 2.5km,” she says. “My parents and coaches encouraged me not to do the 5km two days later, but I knew that if I didn’t get right back in and do it then that would be the end of open water forever for me.”

Twichell now relishes the challenges of open water. “I love how the athletes must be able to face and adapt to any obstacle that comes their way,’ she says. “You may miss a feed, your goggles or cap may

be ripped off, and you may veer off course.” She came third in the women’s 5km in Shanghai last year, and in Portugal this year hopes to take the one available US women’s Olympic 10km place.

Her experience chimes with the views of US open water coach and writer Steven Munatones. “The best pool distance swimmers in the world cannot make the transition to the open water unless they really want to do so themselves,” he says.

Other swimmers Munatones expects to be competing for 10km medals at Rio 2016 are the New Zealanders Cara Baker and Kane Radford, Australian Danielle de Francesco, and Bethany Robertson, an Australian-born swimmer who recently expressed an interest in swimming for Cambodia. He also name-checks France’s Ophelie

Aspord, the Russian Sergey Bolshakov, Yasunari Hirai of Japan, and the US swimmers Sean Ryan and Eva Fabian. Of this group, Robertson is the youngest, at 16.

Munatones also thinks it’s crucial for young swimmers to continue to clock up fast times in the pool, even if their main focus is open water. “They don’t have to focus on the pool but their competitive juices are maintained by competing in the pool,” he says. Australian swimmer George O’Brien, 20, who set a record at the Waikiki Roughwater swim last year, has enjoyed the benefits of this approach; he swims both 1,500m and 10km, and says he finds open water “a refreshing change from the pool”.

“I think the win was mainly due to the speed work I had been doing,” says O’Brien of his Hawaii victory. “In the past I’ve struggled to keep up with a change of pace but focusing on the shorter pool events ensured I had the speed to stay in touch with the leaders.’

However swimmers reach the top, the training required inevitably limits the time they can devote to academic work and socialising.

“There are huge sacrifices,” admits Bryan. “But I’m happy to make them to achieve my goals. I’m well aware of what I’m doing.”

The positive side to this pressure is that it forces swimmers to develop excellent time management skills. Twichell, who studied at Duke University, says that swimming “has allowed me to be more disciplined in my academic life”. Eva Fabian, her 18-year old teammate, even finds time to play the violin, and performed the national anthem at the opening of the Pan-pacific games. “I find it very fun and relaxing,” she says of her music.

One thing young swimmers can be thankful for is the strength of the open water swimming community. Alex Panayides is a UK-based swimmer who won four of the five British Gas Great Swims in the amateur category last year, and has recently started swimming for Cyprus. “It’s much more of a family atmosphere,” says Panayides, when comparing the situation to that of pool swimming. At a recent swim in Cyprus she found Marianna Lymperta (a Greek swimmer who finished third in Shanghai) incredibly supportive. “She was always happy to help me and gave me really amazing tips,” says Panayides.

But Bryan says that the support can sometimes be fairly robust. “I went to one swim near my home for practice when it was freezing cold and there were millions of jellyfish. I’d always had a mental block about the sea, but all the old men there were saying, ‘Oh, look at you, man – the pool swimmer’. There was no way I wasn’t going to get in.” He is now glad to have developed his toughness, which helps him enjoy his “crazy” training routine. “Who wants to be normal?” Bryan says.

Such characters thrive in a sport whose hallmark is unpredictability, and where the best-laid plans can be rendered obsolete by conditions or events. “Afterwards it’s important to figure out what went well and what didn’t go well,” says Bryan, “but during the race it’s more about instinct.”

So what about London 2012? Does Bryan see any young swimmers landing a medal? “In the open water anything can happen,” he says. “That might be a daunting thought for young swimmers, but it’s also one from which they can draw hope.”

Eva Fabian won the 5km at the 2010 FINA World Open

Swim for Tri’s Dan Bullock also coaches youth open water swimmers in London, and says there’s increasing interest among young swimmers for the open water. Here he spells out what it takes to make it to the top.

Start Early

Studies show if you’re not swimming four times a week aged 9-10, then your potential is somewhat limited. You won’t have the best feel for the water and technique. Specific open water skills can wait. You need skills like sighting and swimming close to others, but good swimmers are good swimmers – a lot of open water swimmers come to it quite late.

Learn to Love the Cold

Swimmers need to be happy with cooler temperatures.  Racing in cold water needs some preparation. You can sense someone who doesn’t want to be there.

Eat Normally

Eating sensibly and healthily is important, but young swimmers shouldn’t be obsessing about foods or counting calories.

Master Time Management

It’s rare you find a dedicated swimmer that isn’t doing well in school. Their social lives also tend to can be narrower – often other swimmers are their immediate circle of friends.

Wild swimmer Pete Roberts insists he’d be now be dead had he not begun cold water swimming after suff ering a ‘silent heart attack’ ten years ago.

Roberts, 61, from Runcorn, Cheshire, says the benefi t to his health has been so strong that when he stopped swimming briefly in February, his doctor told him off.

“He said cold water swimming was keeping me going, and that it was working my body as hard as a gym workout,” says Roberts.

He adds that at the time of his heart attack “I didn’t know how long I had” – which is why he opted to keep swimming the year round.

“I couldn’t make it all the way through the fi rst winter but the second winter I could,” he says. Now he usually stays in for “10-15 minutes, and can tolerate any temperature down to zero degrees”.

Roberts’s record time spent in six-degree water is 40 minutes.  Roberts says the cold water leaves his arthritic knees “pain free for anything up to 24 hours after a swim”, adding that “various aches and twinges in other parts of my body seem to disappear as well”.

Roberts and his doctor are not alone in believing in the health advantages of cold water swimming; the body’s apparent ability to acclimatise to very cold temperatures not only allows swimmers to enjoy the open water all year round, but it’s also claimed to confer health benefi ts, including fewer colds, better circulation, healthier skin – and even an improved sex life.

And if swimming in cold water really does help to combat major killers like heart disease and cancer, then it’s surely time for all of us to sit up and pay attention.

But what is the truth, exactly? Does the human body really undergo physical changes that help it endure cold-water swimming? If so, does this process have knock-on benefits for our general health?

As anyone who has entered a festive dip will know, the body’s usual reaction to cold-water immersion consists of gasping and a rapid heart rate. It’s the cause of about 60 per cent of immersion deaths each year. Following the shock, you begin shivering, which creates warmth, yet this is an ineffi cient use of energy, and can’t be sustained for long.

Roberts believes his body has been conditioned to avoid these normal responses, a claim backed by Michael Tipton, professor of human and applied physiology at the University of Portsmouth.  Professor Tipton has been researching this area for almost20 years, and says there is strong evidence for cold-water acclimatisation.

His experiments demonstrate that five daily 2-3 minute immersions can eliminate the cold shock response, and that even after 14 months without immersion, this brief acclimatisation still works at around 50 per cent. After ten exposures of 45 minutes,the professor has found that people stop shivering, too.

“Classically, people who are cold-acclimatised don’t have a big response when they go into the water; they don’t shiver a lot and they feel very comfortable,” says Tipton.

During experiments involving cold baths in the 1970s, channel swimmers sat in the frigid water, happily reading and chatting while control subjects next to them could barely speak for shivering.

Ironically, the conditioned swimmers were actually getting colder than their non-acclimatised counterparts – the difference being that their bodies had learned to function normally at lower temperatures.

However, the comfort lasts only within the times and temperatures that people are acclimatised to, after which the normal cold response kicks in.

Tipton says the perfect cold water swimmer would also combine a large body mass (which cools more slowly), plenty of subcutaneous fat (the layer just beneath the skin) and a high level of fitness. This is because the body can produce its own heat by burning energy, and is insulated by fat.

“If you then knock out the cold-shock response, then the person I have just described is someone like David Walliams or Lewis Gordon Pugh,” Tipton says.

One of endurance swimmer Pugh’s preparation team is Professor Timothy Noakes, Discovery Health professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town. He believes the key to cold acclimatisation is the reduction of blood flow to inactive parts of the body.

“We found that Lewis allowed his legs to become incredibly cold in the swims,” says professor Noakes. “His muscle temperature in his legs went down to 31 degrees centigrade, while he protected his core body temperature at about 36 degrees, and was therefore able to maintain consciousness.”

There is a widely held perception that cold-water swimmers develop more subcutaneous fat, but this is largely unfounded.  However, recent research highlights the part ‘brown fat’ might play in cold adaptation. Unlike the ‘white fat’ with which we are more familiar, brown fat is a substance that burns energy rapidly, and therefore creates a lot of heat. For some time, it’s been known that brown fat exists in newborn babies and hibernating animals, and experiments show that when mice are repeatedly exposed to the cold, some of their white fat becomes brown.

It has also recently been shown that brown fat exists in adult humans, too – and that it shows more activity when we are exposed to the cold. But can cold-water swimming actually allow humans, like mice, to convert white into brown fat to help them stay warm?

“This is essentially speculation,” says Dr Alexander Bartelt, who has led several studies on brown fat at Hamburg-Eppendorf University, “but we are trying to establish an MRI-based method to detect this conversion in humans.”

Brown fat has generated much interest because of its energy-torching potential to help combat obesity. But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen an apparently exciting result regarding the health benefits of cold adaptation.

A Czech study in 1996, for example, found that winter swimmers had more white blood cells (key to the immune system), while a 1999 study involving Berlin winter swimmers found they had more antioxidants (these help fight cancer) than non-swimmers.

But Tipton urges caution about such studies: “For every study that shows something, there is one or two that show nothing.” He also says that there can be methodological problems: “They tend to make the comparison with people who do nothing. But you really need a matching group of warm-water swimmers.”

Cold-water adaptation follows the same principle as any other kind of habituation, which is that a repeated mild stress to our bodies produces physiological changes. With physical exercise, these include a host of benefi ts, such as better cardiovascular health and stimulating the endocrine (glandular) system, which together can significantly extend our active lives. But Tipton says there’s no evidence cold-water swimming creates benefits that go beyond these.

“There’s obviously a benefit to swimming,” he says. “But is there a bigger benefit to swimming in cold water than there is swimming in warm water? There’s no evidence for it.”

Professor Tilman Grune, one of the authors of the Berlin winter swimmers study, admits that his evidence is inconclusive: “You have to take into account that a lot of these people have a fairly healthy lifestyle anyway – many of them do some running before entering the cold water. So it is sometimes difficult to discriminate between the effects of their ice water swimming and their other activities.”

But one area where winter swimming definitely does differ from other exercise is in the intensity of the feel-good buzz it creates. Cold-water immersion causes large amounts of ‘stress hormones’ such as adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol – as well as endorphins (natural opioid painkillers) – to flood the brain.

Combined with the sensation of blood rushing back to the surface of the skin upon exiting this creates the euphoria reported by many winter swimmers. This natural high decreases with habituation, so an experienced winter swimmer like Roberts, for example, no longer experiences it. (“I feel refreshed, but that’s it,” he says.) But in any case, the most important long-term benefits of cold-water swimming are arguably psychological.

Jack Bright is a winter swimmer based in the Czech Republic, where the activity is an organised sport. Under the official regulations he can wear a swim cap, but boots and gloves are disallowed. He has previously swum for 20 minutes in 1-degree water, and says winter swimming is “good for the head”.

During his process of acclimatisation, Bright needed to swim 250 metres across a partially frozen lake of 1.5 degrees. “After 70 metres I had a very strange experience,” he says. “I hesitated a bit in the water, and thought ‘what’s happening to me?’ I saw the safety boat, and thought ‘I might have to quit, I’m not a winter swimmer,

I’m going to die, or something’. That happened in a split second, and then I went through it and finished the swim.”

The big challenge of very cold water is that it stimulates the body’s pain receptors, which can take longer to habituate than those that react to cold. Bright says anything under four degrees is “something different”. Tipton’s experiments were carried out with 10-15 degree water, and the fact that li_ le research has been done on very cold temperatures will surely encourage some cold water swimmers to continue to believe that their activity has special benefits –backed up by the sight of sprightly 80 and 90 year-old winter swimmers across the country.

But whatever the case, Tipton agrees the boost that comes from crossing a mental barrier is a real benefit from cold water swimming.

He says: “Cold water immersion is a fairly significant stress, and for a lot of people it’s the most obnoxious thing they will experience in their lives. Conquering that gives them confidence and a positive feeling about themselves.”

Tips from Cold Water Swimmers:

PETE ROBERTS

Runcorn-based wild swimmer

The golden rule is don’t overdo it – there’s always tomorrow. You’ll fi nd your tolerance, for both time and temperature, will steadily improve. The rule of thumb is when you feel warm and start enjoying yourself, it’s time to get out!

SIMON MURIE

Solo English Channel swimmer

If you jump straight in, your body experiences a shock because of the temperature difference. Splash water over yourself, to adjust slowly.

JACK BRIGHT

Czech Republic-based ice swimmer

Your heart works very hard in cold water.  Winter swimmers should get it tested to make sure it can withstand the pressure.

SAKURA HINGLEY

MA in cold acclimatisation

Acclimatisation is defi nitely not all psychological or all physiological – it’s a mixture of the two!

It isn’t hard to imagine such glamour in this former wine cellar: it is cosy and wood-panelled, a candlelit space that hosts live performances from experimental theatre to classic blues (the joke with the name KGB is that the initials stand for “culture and music den” in Slovene).

Full article on the Guardian website

“Alen Salihovic, 1984, son. Hasan Salihovic, 1952, husband. Osman Kustura, 1939, father. Zaim Maslo, 1947, brother-in-law. Edin Maslo, 1978, Samir Maslo, 1980, nephews.”

It’s a brutal illustration of the continuing devastation that was wrought on 11 July 1995, when Bosnian Serb forces overran the UN “safe area” in the town of Srebrenica near the Serbian border and killed 8,000 Bosniac (Bosnian Muslim) men and boys.

Full article on PORT magazine website

Kidd sprays nutrient solution over some lettuce seedlings in rock wool. “They get so much air that you get explosive root growth,” he says. “In the next couple of days, these should really start taking off.”

Full article on the Guardian website

I swim back to shore as briskly as I can manage, emerging quickly to find that my hands are almost entirely numb. Fumbling and shivering, my only concern is to dry myself and get dressed as quickly as possible: fleece, hat, gloves and coat. They won’t be coming off again any time soon.

Full article on EasyJet Traveller website

The tiny brewery (londonfieldsbrewery.co.uk), based in a Hackney warehouse, is just around the corner from where recent looting took place. But the team, who barricaded themselves in and continued brewing through the unrest, have now named a drink – “Love, not war” – in memory of the experience.

Using powerfully flavoured hops such as the Galaxy variety from Tasmania, London’s newest brewery follows a rapidly developing trend, as drinkers weary of bland, mass-market beers increasingly turn to small, artisan brewers with greater individuality. IPAs, stouts, and continental-style lagers are among the beers now attracting a younger, cooler and more gender-balanced crowd.

Full article on the Guardian website

“You are going to meet Martin Strel?” a woman says to me in Ljubljana.

“You know who he is?” I ask.

“Yes, of course. He is famous in Slovenia … But a lot of people here think he is a bit weird.”

That doesn’t surprise me. I know about Martin’s epic river swims, which have included passing dead bodies in the Yangtze, and I’ve seen the film Big River Man, which charts the bouts of drinking and madness that punctuated his 66-day progress along the Amazon in 2007.

“But weird in a funny way, right?”

“No,” she says. “Just weird. We are not sure why anyone would want to swim in all those dirty rivers. We think he does it just to be famous.”

I will soon have the chance to judge for myself. Martin’s son, Borut, who masterminded the Amazon swim, runs a new company organising swimming expeditions, and I’m joining a trip in the Strels’ native Slovenia. Six of us arrive one evening at Hotel Jezero, on the peaceful shore of Lake Bohinj in the Julian Alps: Tom from London; Giovanna and Kelly from Kent; Isabel from Wiltshire, who has just done her A-levels; and her mum, Emma. We’re all confident swimmers, but as people discuss their experiences of 10k events and triathlons, I realise the scale of the challenge. My longest continuous swim so far is one mile, considerably less than the distance we will be covering each day.

Martin arrives after dinner. Stubbled and attired in shorts and T-shirt, he emits an aura of ease, at odds with his legendary toughness. He greets us warmly, apologises for his lateness – he’s been having a catch-up chat with the Slovenian president – and gives a presentation about his past swims in heavily accented, scatter-gun English.

But it’s not until next morning, as Martin gives me and Kelly a lift to our first swim at Lake Bled, that we get a real glimpse into his character. He attaches an innocuous-looking plastic clip to the steering wheel of his car. “If you use this, you save a lot of gas,” he says. Intrigued, Kelly asks him how it works. “Energy,” replies Martin.

As we digest this, we pass the former residence of President Tito, and then the lake itself comes into view: wide, clean and still. On an island at its centre sits a chocolate-box church, which will be our first destination.

Handing out neon-coloured swimming caps, Borut explains that he and three other guides will accompany us in kayaks, while Martin will be in the water. With his huge build, bushy eyebrows, and a large piranha bite scar on his back (apparently, it feels “like fire” when they attack), Martin should be an intimidating presence, but I feel reassured. The water feels cold, though, and I find it difficult to establish a rhythm.

“A lot of people are anxious on the first swim,” says Borut when I eventually clamber ashore. “But as soon as they finish it, they relax.”

We refuel with dried fruit, nuts, wafer biscuits and hot chocolate. Then, as a party of bemused Australian wedding guests arrive in gondolas, we leave. We swim around the island, back to where we started, and then, after lunch, tackle the full 2km length of the lake. As we reach the far shore, we realise that we’ve attracted a small crowd of spectators.

“Are you guys in some kind of competition?” asks a man.

“No. We’re on holiday,” we reply.

He seems confused. “You guys live around Lake Bled?”

“No, we’re from England.”

We swim on: a short burst to Lake Bled’s lido, with sunbeds and showers. Here, we can rest, as the sun begins to set over the green hills.

The next morning, we drive up into the mountains, where we will cross the Italian border to swim in Lake Predil.

On the way we pass Mount Triglav (2,864m). “There is a saying that you are not Slovenian until you have climbed it,” says Sasha, one of our guides, who first scaled the country’s highest peak when he was five.

Martin expands upon his quasi-mystical worldview: my blue T-shirt has good energy, my black jumper not so much. Lake Bled’s energy is strong, though Bohinj’s is more powerful still, and our current location is exceptional. “This is a very special place,” he says “People here live for 90, 100 years.”

After Lake Predil, we return for a short dip at Kozjak waterfall. The icy water and tumbling stream encourage an atmosphere of elemental fun. Mido, the photographer accompanying us, says he overheard an Italian family discussing us, but the only words he could make out were “primitive tribe”.

Back in the van, as we descend the Soca valley, I bask in the clear-headed exhaustion that follows cold water immersion. Limestone in the river turns it a cloudy, luminous cyan. Its rapids make it popular for watersports, but at a peaceful stretch we swim for 2km through the Caribbean blue.

This swim seems unexpectedly easy. Either the current’s helping me, I think, or I’m getting better. But the next morning sees our final and hardest challenge: 4km across Lake Bohinj. We take a cable car up a mountain and look down on the glassy, dark blue expanse. If the boats seem small, we think, how much punier still would a fluorescent-capped swimmer look, inching across the vast lake?

My shoulders ache, and I’m tempted simply to lie down on the shore in the morning sun – but it’s too late to pull out. I start, and soon find myself seemingly alone in the middle of the lake. I begin watching my own thoughts, remembering how Martin said he could hypnotise himself in the water. The guides tell me to move over and I laboriously correct myself, reaching the warmer water on the lake’s edge to join the others.

And, suddenly, that’s it. We say hasty goodbyes and, in a Mazda emblazoned with a picture of himself, Martin drives me back to Ljubljana, where he insists that I meet his nutritionist. Like Martin, he carries a small pendulum which can apparently assess energy levels, and, based on its information, he concocts a tiredness remedy for me.

Like much about Martin, I find the mixture a little hard to swallow. But Martin’s faith in the power of nature is well-founded. Over three days in Slovenia, I swam further than I had ever done before, repeated that distance several times, and then doubled it. Had I been in a chlorine-ridden indoor pool, I’m not sure I would have found the energy.

Strel Swimming adventures website:

http://www.strel-swimming.com/