Vancouver

Well lucky me on a little work jaunt to Vancouver - a city I soon discover is a veritable paradise for outdoor swimming opportunities.

For one thing there's a selection of lovely sandy beaches, and a Pacific swim seemed like a good place to start. I opted for Second Beach, checking first with the lifeguard that it wasn't compulsory to swim between the two lines of red buoys. She seemed rather pleased to have a swimmer under her watch and said she would come and rescue me if she saw me drowning outside of the buoy area, which I thought was dashed decent of her. There were plenty of people enjoying the sunshine but oddly no-one swimming - quite baffling considering the water was at least 18 degrees I'd say, but there you go.

First swim, Second Beach

Quick change under towel, Icicle hat on and in I wade. I love that first bit of getting into new water, finding out how it feels and having that little secret sense of achievement. But I'm a crap sea swimmer really when I'm on my own, easily spooked by a bit of unseen weed tickling my leg, and catching sight of some huge container ships further out in the bay made me feel very small... But the water felt fizzy and refreshing after my long flight and I managed to stave off panic for a few respectable laps up and down the beach.

Then still in full swimming regalia I made the short hop to my next swimming spot a mere 20m away... Viz Second Beach Pool:

My eyes gleamed and my tail went up 2 togs on the bushiness scale. 50 m of swimming heaven right by the sea but without the hassle of sea monsters. Yes please!

Next day, I made my way to the fun and friendly Kits Beach, where Vancouver families were out in force enjoying picnics, volley ball and other wholesome Sunday activities:

I headed straight to Kits Beach Pool, about which I had heard great things. And lordy I was not disappointed:

A 137m salt-water lido on the beach! My eyes popped out of my head and my tail fell off.

The further section was cordoned off for lane swimming, but rather than being divided into lanes there were simply two black lines painted on the bottom, with the area between them designated for overtaking, and everyone swimming together anticlockwise on the outside of the lines. A new system on me but worked beautifully and felt much more friendly and sociable to all swim together like shoals of fish. With so much space and general goodwill flowing about I soon settled into a lovely front crawl rhythm, steadily notching up 20 lengths (2.7km) with hardly an effort. Hooray!

I enthused to the lady next to me in the changing room and, swapping swim stories, discovered that she used to swim for Canada - how good is that?!

One evening I couldn't help but pay a visit to my hotel's own pool, on a roof terrace on the 6th floor... Inevitably, I couldn't bring myself to swim in it:

I think not

...so plonked my keister in the hot tub instead, which was rather enjoyable in the rain.

And finally, a trip to the aquatic centre, built when they hosted the winter olympics in 2010:

From the outside it slightly put me in mind of a care home for the elderly, and indeed when I arrived at 6.30am there was a little gaggle of grey-haired Japanese ladies waiting to be let in. But inside all was high ceilings and exciting echoes...

A juicy 2k swim for me, for most of the time just one other person in my lane, and even a bonus glimpse of the very impressive synchronised swimming team practising in the little pool on the far side.

Thank you Vancouver for some of the best swims outside of Brockwell I've ever had.

In case you happen to be going there, here's my Blue Peter-style attempt to provide an annotated map: