Good morning
Morning!
and welcome to Loch Brora in Sutherland in Highland Scotland.
There are loads of brilliant reasons to live in the Highlands,
beautiful lochs like this and hills and mountains,
and Highland Coos.
[Shaun] Highland Coos!
[Laughs]
[Colin] They are just the best,
They weren't always that colour you know, they used to be black, back in the olden days.
They've been around for thousands of years.
There's it's still the odd black one.
But it was the Victorians that decided they wanted them the kind of ginger orangey brownie colour.
How do you breed a ginger?
[Laughing]
You know what I mean, the colour, how do you. . . [Laughing]
How do you get a Highland Cow to be ginger when it's black?
I don't know, right in people, you'll know won't you.
Hair dye.
Today
we're going to do, well we?
I am going to do a spot of wild swimming in the loch.
The weather's perfect for it.
[Shaun] Not a chance for me.
[Colin] It's nice and mild, I say mild,
12ºc which is mild for where we are,
it's only spitting of rain
and it's not too windy so it's ideal conditions.
12ºc? it's nearly July.
So we're going down to the other side of the loch and I'm going to do a spot of wild swimming.
Now i can hear you from here,
the majority of you are like, what? idiot!
Jumping in cold water why would you want to do that?
I said that this morning.
[Laughs]
We nearly got Shaun to do it you know.
No we did not!
I ordered one of those 1920's bathing suits
[Shaun] Ohhhhh my Lordy! [Colin] You know, the stripy ones with the hats
and the white trousers.
I want one of those 1920's diving suits with a big head.
[Laughs]
Completely protected.
Gingers and big heads, where is this going this morning?
Oh my Lordy.
Even though we're at the side of the loch,
this is not where I'm going to go swimming,
it's just a little short drive ahead.
shall we take a coo with us?
[Music playing]
JEEEEEEEP! [Music playing]
[Music playing]
Back in 1872,
Queen Victoria came here, she was actually staying at Dunrobin Castle,
which is near Golspie, about five or six miles away from here
and she came up to Loch Brora because she enjoyed painting
and she did a couple of watercolours,
one of Carol Rock which is just on our left hand side ahead of us
and she also did a painting of fishermen pulling nets out of the loch.
Now
on the hills at either side,
there's like herds of deer just roaming freely, red deer
and then up in the sky, you've got eagles and ospreys
and in the water you've got salmon further down
where the loch turns back into the River Brora
and you see lots of fishermen standing in the river
trying to catch salmon.
That's not what we're doing today though.
Here we are at Loch Brora
On the beach
and the sun's come out,
which means it might feel a little bit less Baltic when i get in there.
[Laughing] Noooo.
No it won't will it.
[Laughs]
There's a lot of evidence though that suggests that cold water swimming
is good for people that suffer from anxiety and depression,
Ahh.
because you know when you're get in cold water, you get that instant kind of. . .
Yeah and it's like a fight or flight response of stress
[Laughs]
but the evidence suggests that gradually building up your tolerance to that level of stress,
can lower your overall levels of stress if you do it regularly and build up
Yeah, because you're not thinking about all the stress, then you're just thinking about the cold.
Yeah, about the cold and getting a warm bath.
[Laughs]
And you all know that I suffer from quite a lot of stress,
I don't deal with it very well.
So I do enjoy wild swimming because
it kind of, it is building up that tolerance to stress,
but we'll have to see longer term if it actually has a benefit.
Now the key to this is the cold water,
because it has to be cold.
But I don't know how cold that water is, because
there's a river that kind of comes into it and goes out of it,
so the water's always changing and the water comes from the hills which is pretty cold.
So I've brought my friend along
and he's going to tell me exactly how cold it is.
It's a temperature duck.
[Music playing]
It's going down. [Music playing]
[Music playing]
8º celsius
[Laughs]
Oh my god that is Baltic.
[Music playing]
First thing I've got to do
is get into costume
and I picked up a little inspiration
from a superhero I really like.
Are you ready?
[Music playing]
It's weird and you might be asking why
I'm wearing a wetsuit when I'm supposed to be
acclimatising myself to the cold water.
Well
I am and I'm only just starting wild swimming so
I'm still acclimatising to it, now the best way I do this,
[Laughs] this might make you laugh,
is that,
I do come skinny dipping here and a couple of other places
and
I kind of come in get acclimatise to the cold, swim for a few minutes
and then get out maybe come back in
and do that two or three times.
Now obviously YouTube doesn't like footage of me skinny dipping,
neither do most of you probably.
Which is why I've got the wetsuit on, also because
we're filming, I'm spending quite a lot of time in the water,
so the wetsuit just makes a little bit more sense.
Now you do still feel a little bit of the cold, because
a wetsuit doesn't stop the water coming in.
What happens is the water seeps in through cuffs and through where the boots are
and also through a little bit of the zip at the back.
But it forms this very very thin layer of water
between your wetsuit and your body
which heats up to body temperature,
so you do feel cooler, but it doesn't feel cold by any means
and it actually means you can enjoy the swim.
So if you want to come out here and you don't want to experience the cold
and it is quite cold it's the water,
then you can wear a wetsuit like this
and again just get used to it and enjoy it safely.
[Music playing]
The other thing about a lot of lochs in Scotland is,
you can't actually see very much, if I put the camera over here,
you can kind of see my hand and watch how quick it disappears.
The visibility is probably only about a couple of feet
if that and it's not pollution,
the water is actually really clean.
It's just, it's very tiny particles of peat,
because the Highlands is made up of a lot of peats and that kind of gets into the water.
So even though the water is really clean, the visibility is not always that good.
[Music playing]
Here at Loch Brora like most lochs,
there's kind of a shallow shore
where you can paddle and walk through
and then there's literally a cliff edge
[Laughs] you just walk off.
So be careful if you're not a strong swimmer
that you don't walk out too far.
[Music playing]
When you're getting out, you do have to be careful of the rocks,
because the visibility is quite low,
you kind of tread intentatively, you don't want to find a jagged rock.
Luckily most of them are really smooth kind of large pebbles,
that's not too bad, but still taking it easy.
If you fancy going swimming in a loch or wild swimming,
I'd really recommend researching where you're going to go first
and always take somebody with you like I did with Shaun,
either to swim or just to stand on the shore and watch.
There's loads of books on wild swimming,
I read, The Art Of Wild Swimming Scotland,
which I found really interesting.
There's a chapter in there about Scottish lochs,
which is written by Sarah Wiseman, she's the director of Beyond the Water
and I was lucky enough to grab a quick chat with her beforeI donned my wetsuit this morning
to see what tips she could offer me.
I know there's there is a danger when swimming in cold water,
especially if you're not used to it,
how would you recommend that people acclimatise themselves to cold water swimming?
First few times you go into open water,
you're not going to be in there for more than, you know, two or three minutes
and a lot of people are sort of, well you know, what's the point?
Well the point is, is over time you start to habituate a little bit to it
and become more acclimatised
and your body gets used to what's going on there and you can start to spend a little bit longer in the water
and if folk are using it for things like mental health
and those sorts of benefits,
actually the first two to three minutes is the best part anyway,
that has the most, you know, the more significant impact anyway.
So if that is what you're using it for,
you know, going in for a couple of minutes to begin with, is actually still massively beneficial to you anyway.
Even though I've been down to the beach probably a hundred times while we've lived here,
I've not been in the water, so I'm not that familiar.
Is that illogical, is there any kind of sense to say and it's safer in a lock than in the sea, or. . .
I think i think lochs do come with a lot less, erm, a lot less hazards,
but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're insignificant.
Check out you know, we need to know what the weather's doing if we go to the sea, you know.
You know, onshore wind and on oncoming tides
offshore wind, on coming tide,
out go inside off shore, you know,
all of those different combinations can make the sea state
feel completely and utterly different.
You know wind does make a massive impact on lochs,
the rivers, you know you're talking of Loch Brora
has a river running through it,
that's going to feel and temperature-wise and be completely different to my local loch
that doesn't have a big river running through it.
So yeah, I think it's quite logical to come to that conclusion that you know,
that you would feel safer.
I think a lot of the safety stuff is common sense,
I did quite a bit of research and I think it's,
it's common sense that anybody,
if they're starting a new hobby or any kind of activity like this, does their research first
and although bad things are quite rare,
I think there's a lot you can do to avoid them,
I mean in your experience you've probably seen a lot more of the bad things than I have.
What kind of simple things can we do
just to prepare if there's an emergency, if something goes wrong?
Am I going on my own, am I going with somebody else what's their experience like,
are we both beginners
and then, is there any phone signal that's kind of one of the important things.
If there isn't, have you registered for a 999 text messages
because the text message can usually get through even if you've got no phone signal.
So it's kind of thinking about those sorts of things,
what happens in the worst case scenario? You need some help.
Have you told somebody where you're going.
Well it's been fantastic to talk to you, I'm going to plug the book as well,
because people will want to probably get that if the if they know that we've read it
and got some information from it.
I've just got to make very clear, Sarah didn't write the book, just a chapter in the book.
[Laughs]
But I'll put a link to this in the video description,
I'll also put a link to your website in there as well.
Thank you so much,
I'm sure people have got a load of information from that
and what is it,
I can't remember the line that you sign your emails off, is it safe swimming or something is it?
Love water safely.
Love water safely, that's brilliant.
Thank you so much, Sarah.
[Music playing]
Ow!! [Music playing]
[Music playing]
Ow! Ow! Ow! [Music playing]
[Music playing]
I'm getting cold and I haven't even been in.
I'm lovely and warm.
[Laughs]
I mean it's supposed to be a vlog about cold water, well wild swimming,
but cold water swimming as well
and I'm actually not cold,
but I don't always do it in a full wetsuit like this.
I've done it in a wetsuit for a couple of reasons,
one,
like I said earlier, I've been in there a lot filming,
so you're not supposed to be in there a lot when you're cold and you haven't got any protection.
And two, decency
And decency, YouTube doesn't allow my botty on camera
unless it's got a big black censored bar across the back of it.
It is really good for you, whether it's wild swimming,
open water swimming, or even swimming in a swimming pool.
When you've got things like osteoarthritis, like he has,
in his knees and his fingers and his neck and everywhere, every other joint in his body,
sounds like a maraca band when he gets out of bed on the morning don't you?
I do.
It's really good exercise because it's low impact,
think of like running where you're like, bang bang bang.
Oooh no, that hurts.
But here the only impact is when you bang your knee on a rock on the way out,
which we didn't film,
[Laughs] which you got to be careful of.
But it is really good
and I will be doing it in shorty wetsuits and shorts
and i'll be skinny dipping as well,
but we'll not be filming that bit.
No.
I'll put it on my other channel.
You're wetting me
[Laughs]
The other thing is, when you get out of the water
all the water kind of that's around the layer of the wetsuit
starts to go south and it all collects, so,
In his boots.
I sound like I'm permanently walking in cow parts now.
[Laughing]
So what am I wearing?
Well I'm wearing a four millimetre wetsuit,
I've got some uh little boots that protect your feet from, well,
The rocks.
The little stone and the rocks,
but it also keeps your feet warmer as well.
I have got some gloves, I haven't used them today because
A: It's not that cold to be honest.
I mean in the depths of winter it probably would be, but today
and because I'm filming, I need the dexterity of my fingers, so I haven't been wearing my gloves
and you can also wear a cap, again when it's cold.
But I don't dip my head under the water really,
even though you're supposed to.
Because apparently being splashed on the face is good for that stress response.
What? why do you always. . .
Apparently that increases the stress response, which is good for you.
I don't know what you're laughing at.
I can't take him anywhere can I?
Ohhhhh dear!
Try is, if you're up here, give me a ring and I'll come with you.
What? I will, I'll go with them.
I know you would.
I will.
[Laughs]
If you've enjoyed this vlog and we hope you have
and found it interesting and entertaining.
I've found it cold.
I can't believe it, I'm lovely and warm in this
and if you're not already, please subscribe to our channel,
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JEEEEEEEP!
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All sorts.
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Highland Coos, they're brilliant.
Give the. . . YAYYY!
He's spashing! [Laughs]
So subscribe to the channel, give the video a thumbs up
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[Laughs]
I like that.
[Laughs]
My wrist is going to be as bad as yours,
Youtube will let you know every time we release a new video, which is
usually every Friday
At 8 O'Clock
What???
[Laughing]
Have we changed? [Laughing]
No!
4 O'Clock.
I just thought I'd confuse em.
I've got water coming out everywhere.
It's a bit like you again isn't it?
It is.
If you want to help support the channel, you can do it in two ways,
you can join as a YouTube member,
you can also join on Patreon,
there's a link up above Shaun's head if you want to do that.
You get loads of exclusive footage and outtakes
and behind the scenes stuff, what's going on in real life
Yes.
and a bit of skinny dipping.
And a bit skinny dipping, Yes!
I don't know what we're doing next week,
but whatever it is it's going to be fun.
We'll see you then take care, bye bye.
Ta-ra!
[Music playing]
Tell me when you're ready.
I'm ready.
Three,
two,
one,
Thunderbirds are go!
[Laughing]
See my little ducky, my little rubber ducky.
Do you want to touch my little rubber ducky?
Go on, touch it.
Why?
Touch its bum, it tells you how warm you are.
[Breathes on duck]
[Laughs]
Three little words, that was a Bob Marley song wasn't it?
[Colin] 🎶 Der der, de de der der, der der der 🎶 [Shaun] I've no idea.
No, that's Venger Boys isn't it I'm thinking of?
Karma kicking us in the bum now,
three, two,
You like being kicked in the bum don't you?
Yeah, not with a foot though.
Now there's a lot of evidence that suggests that
cold water
Arrgghh!
See, he's useless today.
[Music playing]