{"id":843,"date":"2016-08-23T22:02:52","date_gmt":"2016-08-23T22:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/?p=843"},"modified":"2022-01-17T14:42:51","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T14:42:51","slug":"bank-failure-my-involuntary-cam-dip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/?p=843","title":{"rendered":"Bank failure: my involuntary Cam dip"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reaching the riverbank in Grantchester, my instinct was to first test the water\u2019s temperature. The grassy bank is nearly two feet above the lapping surface so I inched forward from a sitting position before fully committing.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t to be. As my toes touched the stream, I slid involuntarily over the rounded bank and into watery embrace.<\/p>\n

My inadvertent splash was a fine introduction to the swirl of the Cam as it turned out.\u00a0 Its meandering flow cuts surprisingly deep through fields and meadows where picnickers and punters escape the city, and a herd of chocolate bullocks enjoy their short lives.\u00a0 The waters where Rupert Brooke and Lord Bryron once swam drew me gently through an idyl little changed from their time \u2013 at least when viewed form the river\u2019s surface.\u00a0 Fine gault clay squelched beneath my feet, and a chirruping call announced the flash of a chaffinch\u2019s wing.<\/p>\n

On a warm August Sunday, my son and I saw no other swimmers, although a steady parade of punting boaters wobbled their way upstream.\u00a0 Most happily conversed with those of us who had chosen immersion over floatation.<\/p>\n

Brooke mythologised the tableau in a homesick verse<\/a> of 1912 penned while, in Berlin, recuperated from nervous collapse.\u00a0 It evokes swimming scenes featuring the poets mentioned above, as well as Chaucer and Tennyson, although fancy may well have trumped fact in his litany.\u00a0 Nevertheless, it is as delicious a river swim as it is possible to imagine: a deep, gentle flow through a verdant shire of pretty villages and unspoilt pastoral land.\u00a0 Picturing Brooke and Virginia Woolf skinny dipping by moonlight from the same spot (Woolf boasted to Vita Sackvile-West that they had) provided a further a tantalising vision.<\/p>\n

It is easily accessed.\u00a0 Though entirely rural, the village is just three miles from the centre of Cambridge.\u00a0 There are several points from which the Meadows are accessible \u2013 one, for example, is beside of the Red Lion public house.\u00a0 The sunken river is not visible from the fields or the road, but following the trampled grass downwards delivers you to its banks.\u00a0 I found no areas specifically set up for swimming, although there is a long stretch \u2013 well over a mile, I would guess \u2013 along which the water can be accessed. Getting in is all too easy, as I found.\u00a0 It is worth thinking through how you will get out beforehand, however.\u00a0 I managed to pull\u00a0myself up the bank close by where I went in.\u00a0 A friend willing to help with a pull would have been easier.<\/p>\n

\"JamesCamAug16\"<\/p>\n

The river\u2019s name is an easy source of confusion<\/a>, incidentally. First known as the Granta, the river was later rechristened the Cam \u2013 although the original name is still in common use. Perhaps multiply-named rivers are a requirement of ancient university settings?<\/p>\n

A swish gastro-pub in the village now trades as the Rupert Brooke<\/a>.\u00a0 Joining the poet for a dip seemed a better remembrance than a \u00a320 roast lunch, however.<\/p>\n

I had promised my son a swimming safari, so we continued on to Jesus Green Lido<\/a> in the city centre.\u00a0 This 1923-built open-air pool is unusual for being 100 yards long and just 15 yards wide (91m x 14m), apparently designed to evoke the experience of swimming in the river, that runs beside.\u00a0 It is a beautiful little facility; twinkling reflected sunlight and beaming with outdoorsy goodness, despite being hardly a stone\u2019s throw from the urban centre.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

By the time we reached Jesus Green, the cloud cover was gone and powerful August sun toasted the handful of mature sunbathers deported around the pool.\u00a0 Pairs of well-spoken aqua joggers conversed on subjects I couldn\u2019t follow, and we basked in the warmth.\u00a0 Perhaps we had happened upon the set of a quadrangle-drama to be filmed in a 1930s neverland of outdoor pursuits and sunlit healthfulness?<\/p>\n

\"JesusGreen1\"<\/p>\n

The water may have been a touch cooler than its natural rival, but it was no less pleasurable.\u00a0 Such a long pool is cruel host to those unused to repeated lengths, but the two laps that I managed were enough to transport me to a fantasy of living close by and performing my daily virtues in its shimmering expanse.<\/p>\n

Only as we left did I notice that we should have paid \u00a34.75 each to bathe,\u00a0although our evasion was was unintended. The lido, which has open-air changing rooms, showers and lockers, also boasts a sauna, housed in a pine tube.\u00a0 Alas, I noticed it too late.<\/p>\n

\"JesusGreen2\"<\/p>\n

The sun dipping, we bade Cambridge farewell, satisfied that outdoor ablution is so readily and pleasurably available in a city whose history has been so shaped by water.\u00a0 My purified glow lasted all evening.<\/p>\n

Top picture \u2013 me in the Cam\u00a0\u00a9 James Adams
\nsecond and all subsequent pictures\u00a0\u00a9 Tim Dawson \u2013 Jesus Green Lido, Grantchester and Jesus Green.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reaching the riverbank in Grantchester, my instinct was to first test the water\u2019s temperature. The grassy bank is nearly two feet above the lapping surface so I inched forward from a sitting position before fully committing.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t to be. …<\/p>\n

Bank failure: my involuntary Cam dip<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-swimming"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=843"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1382,"href":"https:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/843\/revisions\/1382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tim-dawson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}