Taking advantage of some nice weather this morning (some light cloud and a bit of blue sky and sun), I zipped over to Nantwich to swim in the outdoor brine swimming pool there. I gather that it's the only inland brine (i.e. salt water) pool left in Britain now, and having swam there last September I thought it was worth a return visit.
My swim was good, and although the pool isn't quite as nice as the one in Hathersage (to be honest, it's hard to compete with the hills of the Peak District visible all around) it's always nice to be able to see sunshine reflected on the bottom of the pool, and clouds and sky when you float on your back. There seemed to be a lot of people swimming very seriously, which I think is a bit of a shame when you could be enjoying just being in the water on a warm sunny day. At least the dolphin shaped litter bins on the poolside looked like they were having fun (unfortunately photography isn't permitted but you can see someone else's picture of similar bins on Flickr - pretty neat).
Nantwich itself seems like a nice place (and has a sports shop selling swimming stuff) but after my swim I felt I just wanted to get home, so I caught the bus back to Crewe via the village of Willaston where I saw some signs advertising the "worm charming" championships being held next weekend. I'd never heard of this before but apparently it's a tradition going back to 1980 (if you're intrigued then read more about it at www.wormcharming.com). Funny sometimes what goes on in your own backyard.
Now I'm back home and I think I can still taste some salt on my lips (although it's probably just my imagination). I'm also getting a bit of a taste for this outdoor swimming, and so I might go back to Nantwich sometime in the summer to swim again (and maybe next time also look around the town afterwards). In the meantime Chesire East Council's Nantwich Outdoor Swimming Pool webpage has more information about the pool.
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