Day 4: Manorbier to Llanberis via Bala

It's Thursday and another early start for us, this time sadly without the carrot of a plunge in the sea with Peter Kidney. We crawled out of our caravan beds to slight drizzle and packed up the car ready for our journey to Bala and a lunchtime appointment with Dan from Gone Swimming, a company he set up with his partner Gabby offering swimming adventure holidays in North Wales.

It's a long journey, and Clare and I were tired to the point of grunting instead of talking. However, as we travelled the day got gradually brighter, and we were going along a route that I have done many times before, and love. Through winding roads of West Wales where breaks in the hedgerow reveal sparking seas and on towards the long coast road that runs past Aberaeron and Aberystwyth. Last year I walked this coast, albeit in the other direction, and it was around this area that the weather finally began to show signs of improvement, and the landscape became one that I knew and understood. It's a special area, the sky swirls with red kites and it's common to see dolphins skip through the waves. Along this road we travelled, the sky becoming ever bluer and we began feeling optimistic and in holiday mood.

By the time we reached Bala the sun was blazing, reflecting hard into our eyes from the Lake. We hadn't managed to get in touch with Dan and so, having parked on the foreshore, set off armed with our newly acquired 'investigative journalist' skills to ask around the town for outdoor swimmers. One of the first people we asked was Gwenno Pugh, who didn't live in a Dylan Thomas short story, but worked in a local cafe and told us her headmaster, Mr Roberts, was an outdoor swimmer. As chance would have it, today was GCSE results day and one of the few days in August when the school would be open, and so off we set to accost Mr Roberts and try to persuade him to chat to us.

As it happens Andrew Roberts was remarkably amenable to our request of an interview, and invited us into his Headmaster's office. Andrew explained that he hadn't long been an outdoor swimmer and had approached it initially as one of the disciplines of triathlon. However, he soon discovered it's unique pleasures and spoke with some passion about ploughing up and down the Lake, his arms disappearing into the silty shimmer.

Andrew mentioned several times swimming with his friend Dai, who he suggested we meet. We had, in fact, already heard about Dai - Dr David Lazarus to give him his excellent full name- from locals, and Andrew very kindly set up an interview for us. He called the local surgery and arranged an appointment in Welsh for us. An date with a headmaster and a doctor in one day. No wonder I was biting my nails.

In the meantime Gabby from Gone Swimming had been in touch and so we walked down towards the foreshore of Lake Bala to meet her, stopping along the way in an antique shop with a good line in spaniel shaped chocolates. We met her when she bounded out of a car with her Mum and puppy following in her wake, clutching a handful of Gone Swimming paraphernalia and still warm Welsh cakes.

We retired to the shoreline and Gabby regaled us with stories of adventure and excitement in water. Soon we were joined by Dan, her boyfriend and partner in Gone Swimming. Dan had had a long day tutoring someone in sea swimming and he was tired and sticky from the salt. He was keen to have a dip in the Lake, but took time to tell us about some special swims he'd done - he made us both madly jealous with a story of a swim of the Menai Strait, from Menai Bridge over to Caernarvon, where the phosphorescence in the water was the most intense he'd ever seen. It sounded wonderful.

From the Lake we made our way for our evening appointment with Dr Lazarus, who we'd been led to believe was something of an eccentric... We sat, straight backed in the waiting room, trying to look healthy until he called us through. It would be fair to say that Dr Lazarus isn't your average doctor. For a start, his consultation room is bedecked with toy gorillas and he has a proper twinkle in his eye, also he's fun and apart from a moment of disquiet when I told him I swim in the Taff, he didn't diagnose me with anything terrible. We sat across the desk from him and he began telling us about the swims he enjoys. Once again, it was triathlon that had first attracted him to outdoor swimming, but it was wonderful to hear how being at eye level with the Lake made him feel. He spoke about the looking at the sky from the perspective of the water, and how it was available to him to swim whenever he wanted. It made me rue the absence of a four mile lake on my doorstep terribly.

Immediately on leaving the Doctors' Surgery, we were back in the car and on our way to Llanberis, where we had arranged to meet Vivienne Rickman-Poole, an artist and swimmer for a dip in Llyn Padarn on the last day of our trip. We were also staying in a Youth Hostel, which is one of my favourite things to do, the more austere the better!

The drive from Bala to Llanberis was spectacular, the sky a deep wash of pink blue, speared by mountain crags that simply don't exist in the Wales I know. The road clung to the sides of peaks and fell to wind down boulder strewn canyons, while sheep daintily picked their way along precarious outcrops I wouldn't dare. Often below us, the huge sky was mirrored in seemingly fathomless lakes - the Llyns of Snowdonia. Tomorrow, Vivienne would tell us about her mission to swim each of these. We looked forward to it.

Becca