You can get in by the footbridge at St Helen’s picnic site in Santon Downham – an area that can get quite busy on hot days and school holidays. The Little Ouse offers wild swimming surrounded by a beautiful forest: a much more intimate experience than swimming through open land. To the north of it runs the Little Ouse, a pretty river whose course marks the boundary between Suffolk and Norfolk. Santon Downham is a tiny village in the middle of Thetford Forest, near Brandon. Perched on the riverside is Outney Common Caravan Park, where you could stay and go for a wild swim every morning, or there are plenty of places to stay in quirky Bungay. You don’t have to limit your wild swimming to just an afternoon, either. During the summer months you might find Suffolk families here, or groups of friends enjoying a cool dip and feeling free. There are many beautiful spots to choose from, and the water is of good quality. Wild swimming in Suffolk is at its most idyllic at this two-mile loop of the River Waveney around Outney Common, on the northern tip of Bungay. Writer and environmentalist Roger Deakin was a pioneer of British wild swimming in 1996 he travelled across the country swimming in different lakes, rivers and ponds, and recorded his adventure in the famous book, ‘Waterlog: A Swimmer’s Journey Through Britain.” And can you guess what his favourite river was? That’s right, the Waveney. To explain just how lovely wild swimming in the Waveney is, we must explain a little about the recent history of wild swimming. If that sounds like heaven to you, make sure you plunge into one of these magical wild swimming spots this summer. It’s a feeling like no other: jumping into a cool river on a baking hot day, your clothes strewn on the grassy bank where later you’ll stretch yourself out to dry in the sun.
Wild swimming in Suffolk is one of the summer’s greatest pleasures. WILD SWIMMING IN SUFFOLK: 4 MAGICAL SPOTS TO TAKE A DIP