Gurnal Dubs 16.04.10
This is the last tarn in the circle before we revisit the centre, Blea Tarn, and finish the project. We have swum here before so that the novelty of an unvisited tarn was replaced by a heap of past associations and the sense of closure of the circle.
The water was a fresh 11.5 degrees – a quick dip as the sun beamed, followed by post siting and tree planting.
Talk was of the exhibition and of the mixed emotions ending a project. In completing the circle, I wondered what was achieved. It felt like closing the net on a set of experiences, caught and forever held in time and place, in that circular domain which became a place of heightened sensibility – Swim Circle. From now we would forever locate ourselves in relationship to this aesthetic watery domain when in its vicinity.
We watched as a fish jumped to catch a fly and was in turn soon caught by a lone fly fisher who suddenly appeared – are we all in the same game?
Richard
Blea Water 13th April 2010
The high level of Blea Water exposes the surface to strong SW winds that drive the water into a see-saw motion. Downward draughts from High Street accentuate this rhythm and create the pulsing overflow of water at the sill that sits on top of the moraine holding back the mass of water that plunges to 60 metres, the deepest cirque tarn in the Lake District.
As we reached the level of the water, the mist clung to the high ridges, gradually peeling back to reveal snow deep in high crevices.
The sound of the pulsing tarn became the recording taken by Richard for a film about water surface for the project’s exhibition.
As we descended to Haweswater, the sense of the glacier that scoured the valleys and created the landscape was strong. The boulders that lay scattered on the ground, abandoned by the ice sheet thousands of years ago, were existing on a much slower timescale. We were as May Flies.
Paul
Blea Water Tarn 13.4.10
Long drive round Shap and through to the head of Hawes Water, thoughts of the watery lost village of Mardale beneath its surface.
Set off into an increasingly wild setting as we ascended to the tarn, flanked by towering cliffs, hidden in cloud.
A cold 5 degree dip in this most perfect of cirques – the last to lose its glacial ice in the district, connected to the Loch Lommond glacier system apparently, and with an ice action that was exceptionally vigorous – how else to explain it’s extraordinary depth of 60m.
While Paul sited a post I planted a tiny tree. Then we went to the outlet of the tarn to record the sound of a periodic outflow which could form the audio for Paul’s movies of lake surfaces. This was a bit of slap stick as the ‘sound engineer’ fumbled the takes and a sheep insisted on a voice-over!
Off to the Hawes Water hotel and a pint, but alas no pickled eggs.
Richard
Ullswater, 8th April
A short walk in on a busy Easter week day full of trippers and walking groups.
We find a relatively quiet spot on the shore, previously visited. The busy activity of boats on the water and walkers on the shore emphasises the isolation of the high tarn swims.
Up high brings greater clarity of light, air, water and thought.
From the high top, wider perspectives can be taken.
At the side of busy Ullswater, we muddle through.
Paul
Ullswater 8.4.10
We walk along the edge of Ullswater until we are opposite the small island we have swum to before. It is dull and overcast – strangely tranquil – and already a sense of closure is present as we only have two more swims to do after this. The depth of associations increases with each swim as we turn the circle, cycling through memories of earlier expeditions.
Richard
