Latest / VOOM Performance Podcast / You’ll Never Know If You Don’t Give It a Go: Lindsey Cole on a Life of Adventure

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You’ll Never Know If You Don’t Give It a Go: Lindsey Cole on a Life of Adventure · VOOM Performance Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: And then a journalist came over and asked what we'd found in the river, and I said, Well, dog toys, plastic bags, hair mattresses, dingies, flip-flops.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_03: And the drowning cow.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_03: And just shortly before then, we were while I was swimming.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_03: And because we were doing a litter pick as well, the cow was white.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_03: She was all white and she was so deep into the river bank to her neck water.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_03: So she was rest resting her chin on a branch.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_03: So she looked like a plastic bag to us, so that's why we um went over.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_03: And then we called the RSBCA and fire took six firemen to pull her out of the river.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_03: And they had to make her swim to the other side because she was from Gloucestershire and she was on the Oxford side of the river.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I turned a journalist this, and then the next day, the headline on page three of the sun was um Mermaid Saves Drowning Cow.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I think it was on page three because David Walliams' girlfriend at the time was on page three.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_03: So she was all like my head with a beanie and a mermaid tail with this cow it was funny.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Voom Performance Podcast, where we explore the people, stories, and ideas shaping endurance sport and outdoor adventures.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Mel Berry and this is series two where we're talking about everyone's adventures.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: What happens when you stop asking where I should live and start asking who wants to go for a swim?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: My guest today has cycled the length of Africa, walked a thousand miles along Australia's rabbit-proof fence, and swam the entire River Thames in a mermaid tale, rescuing a drowning cow along the way.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: That cow went viral from strangers across Britain and Ireland started inviting her to swim.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Six months later, from Shetland to Scilly, it's now her new book, Swimming with Strangers, and we'll talk a lot about that in this podcast.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: From roller skating to Paris, to cycling the length of Africa, to swimming the Thames as a Mermaid and wild water swimming in Shetland and to Scilly, today's episode is all about exploring.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Lindsay Cole, welcome to today's podcast.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, Mal.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you very much for having me.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Before we get into the book and all the adventures that you've been on, let's take that step back.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: So before you became an adventurer, you worked in TV.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: So how did you go from TV to adventuring?
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I actually did many jobs, and then I was really into storytelling, so I did lots of traveling when I was after I finished uni, I just wanted to get away, get out of England, and I took job from job that enabled me to travel.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_03: And then I went to Australia and wanted to circumnavigate Australia in my van.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_03: That was called Larry.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_03: And then my dad died whilst I was there.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_03: So I came back home immediately.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_03: And then I just I think I was a PA for a year.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_03: My mum was walking a dog and in tears when uh on the day I was coming home, and then a neighbour saw her and she said, you know what happened, and he his PA went on the tennis team.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_03: And that but because of all my travel, I was really into storytelling, so I did a um masters in journalism, and then I got jobs in TV sports broadcasting.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_03: And and then I think I often was do we'd sometimes cover people doing stuff and I was often jealous of what they were doing.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_03: I was doing because of um the grief of losing my dad, I actually started self-harming because I couldn't articulate the grief and I really struggled.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_03: So I signed up to do a triathlon.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um, I had an accident, so I went to hospital and had to have stitches, and I was really mortified and embarrassed.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I vowed never to do it again and signed up to do a triathlon.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I hadn't ridden a bicycle since I was 12 to like see mates down the road.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_03: The 40 kilometres was actually huge, and I was really worried that I wouldn't be able to make it.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_03: So when I crossed the finish line at the London try, I um was in a state of euphoria, so I wanted to continue, utilise the training.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_03: So I cycled to Paris to raise money for the British Heart Foundation.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_03: My dad and died of a heart attack.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_03: And then I just got then adventure got bigger and bigger and bigger.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_03: So I still worked in TV, but then on the side I was doing these adventures.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_03: And then then my then when work dried up, I'd be like, oh, I've got three months, I'll go and do this.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_03: And then and then they just got bigger and bigger.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's that small seed, isn't it?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Once you start planting something and thinking, well, they're having a lot more fun than I am.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be able to do something.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I love one of the stories that I'm sure you were still working, and when you're in Hamburg and someone said, Do you want to lift?
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you went, No, I'm gonna roller skates back because I want to understand about hamburgers.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me more about that one, that's brilliant.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_03: Well, yeah, that's a good point you bring up because I was working at Sky Sports, and we um one of the most expensive things with adventures or travel is the flight.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_03: And we were going to Hamburg to cover the world champs of darts, and I was so excited because I was like, wow, I've got a free flight home.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_03: And um I I wanted to roll a skate the length of Britain um Lands Anti-Jona Groot, but um I thought it would take too long, so I never like entertained it.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_03: So then I thought Hamburg to London, um, but I don't really like doing things just for the sake of it.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_03: I'd like to have a purpose to it.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_03: And then I learned that hamburgers originate from Hamburg, and the immigrants, the German immigrants that went to New York, took their recipe with them.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_03: And so I thought, well, maybe I'll roller skate from Hamburg back home and I'll investigate the best hamburgers on the way like restaurants and I'll do a review.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_03: I even thought maybe if it becomes really popular, I can open my own restaurant and all the waitresses can roller skate to deliver the hamburgers.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_03: But uh the the problem was I couldn't skate.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: But before I realized I couldn't skate, I wrote to a skate brand and got sponsored.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: Brilliant.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: And how did you find that sponsor?
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know, I just asked them and they were like, sure, or told them what I was doing.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not sure if I told them I couldn't skate, but I got all the gear, the helmet, the armor, and the skates.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_03: And then one one day, it was New Year's Day, I took them down to my local car park, the co-op car park, to practice between the recycling bins, which is the worst day of the year to practice between recycling bins, because everyone was delivering their recycling.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_03: It was hard.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_03: So even when you're on wheels, even where you see a little puddle, you you wouldn't consider that a hill.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_03: But when you're new to it, it it was a slope and I was really struggling.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_03: And actually, a guy who dropped off his party recycling said, Oh, we'll be sponsored one day.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_03: I laughed and I said, I am already.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: And then I went to my local roller disco to practice.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_03: Um, where I was surrounded by 12-year-olds is where I went when I was 12, and actually bumped into the dad, an old friend of mine who's now a dad.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_03: He was like, What are you doing?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Well, what are you doing?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, I'm taking my kids, what are you doing?
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Oh, I'm just skating.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_03: And then I went to High Park strollers, and we were gonna do a loop of the park and then leave the park.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_03: And as we were about to leave the park, someone tapped me on the shoulder to say I had to retire because I was too slow.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_03: And then I realized I couldn't um I couldn't roller skate back from Germany to England.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: That was a bit ambitious, so I I uh I left it for a while.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_03: But then a couple of years later, I roller skated to a Paris because I got a job, I had a low-end job working at the tennis Roland Garros, and I cycled there every year because they wouldn't pay for my transport or accommodation.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_03: But I had a friend there, so I thought cycle there's cheaper.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_03: And then one year I discovered the Avenue de Vere, which connected Paris to London for the Olympics, and it's completely flat and follows the canal paths, and there's no cars.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_03: That was my one.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_03: Once I'm going, once I go straight, I'm good.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_03: Not great, but I'm alright.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_03: It's the stopping that I wasn't very good at.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, that's a key part of it.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I also found out and read that you skated from Bristol to Bude in a nude suit because it rhymed.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Did he have elbow pads on as well, or were you completely nude?
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_03: No, no, no.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_03: I wore a nude suit.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_03: So I just got back from Paris.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, and then I spoke to a friend and she's from Bude, and I was like, Oh, we need to catch up.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_03: And she goes, Yeah, come down and see me whenever.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, I roller roller skate to see you.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_03: And then I went to a festival and a friend came out of his tent in this nude suit.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Where did we get that?
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_03: And he's an actor, and he said, We use them for acting.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Could I borrow it?
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_03: Because my brain, things clicked into place.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: He said, sure.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Tabud in a nude, it it um made complete sense to me.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_03: So yeah, when I rubber skated to beud in a nude, I wore um this nude suit.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_03: But both with Paris and to Bud, I had to have a friend cycle with me because I couldn't stop.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_03: So when we went downhill, I could hang on to the back of their bike, so they would break and I'd I'd get the um I'd utilise the brakes.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: I could stop, but it would take me maybe 20 meters to I couldn't do an emergency stop.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds as if that's where your curious mind, and we've talked to a lot of guests that very have a curious mind that want to understand what they can do, where they can do, how they can do it, and that opens Pandora's box, doesn't it, to be able to take on many adventures.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the adventures that I've thoroughly enjoyed understanding better, and it's the rabbit-proof fence.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Just tell us a little bit more about the rabbit-proof fence and the backstory of what inspired you to want to do that as an adventure.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I I I'll just grab it now, actually.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: So when I was circumnavigating Australia in my van, um and then um I broke my ankle.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_03: I so I went to a festival.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_03: I was picking fruit as I was going round because I really wanted to live in Australia.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_03: And if you pick fruit for three months, you can get your second year visa.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_03: So I was in Byron Bay picking blueberries, and I um there was a festival and it was Easter, and I bumped into a friend, and I told her that I'd snuck into this festival, and she said, Well, why don't we do it again?
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Well, I've got to go to the airport because um um Brisbane because my parents flew out to see me and they were gonna treat me to a nice place in North Queensland because I was living in a van.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_03: And my mum specifically said, Lindsay, don't forget to get the plane before she left Heathra.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, Why would I forget to get the plane?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_03: Anyway, my friend encouraged me to um jump the fence to the festival with her and said she would drop me off at the airport the next day.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, I cannot miss the plane, and she said, You won't.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_03: So we went to the festival.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_03: I lost her, it starts raining, I made new friends, and then all everyone ran under for cover from the rain.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, no, at Glastonbury, we embrace the rain.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_03: And so I took a run up to the slide, and um, it was dry, so my tummy scratched.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_03: And then I but I'd made them all pour their pints on the ground, so it made it wetter.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_03: So I thought, God, I've got to go again because they think I'm mental, like wasting their pints.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_03: So this time I took a bigger runner, ran faster and went feet first in my foot caught, and then I snapped my ankle and it was a really bad break.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_03: So bad that they couldn't operate on it for a week.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_03: So my parents, who'd never been to Australia before, spent half of their two-week holiday in the concrete jungle, yeah, at my bedside in tweed heads.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_03: And then then they enjoyed a week, fortunately.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_03: But I couldn't, um, I wasn't allowed to fly home with them, and I wasn't allowed to live in my band.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_03: So these these um girls I made friends with kindly converted their garage into a bedroom for me.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_03: I stayed in Byron for three months.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_03: I was stuck there, but it's worse places to be stuck, and it's all I could do was watch films and books, and this is one of them, the rabbit-proof fence.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_03: And it was just a story at the time.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_03: I was very moved by it.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_03: But then three months later, I got back on my way, and I was picking bananas and in Queensland, and then the banana bus to take us to work came a little late.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: It was a bit late, so I called home and I got my dad, and mum wasn't in, so I said, Oh, because it was um this is 2007, it was mobile phones weren't that great, and um it was all about phone credits, and I didn't have many credits, so I wanted to speak to both of them.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I said I'd call when I got back from work from Banana Farm.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_03: And when I got back from Banana Farm, um I had a missed call, so I called home, and then my brother answered he went to get mum, and then mum said, Oh, did Nick tell you?
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Tell me what?
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: And she said, Dad died last night.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_03: So I was just beside myself because the last time I spoke to him, and I never called home and I never spoke to him, so it was kind of almost serendipitous, it felt that I did.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_03: But the fact that I lost I didn't want to speak, I couldn't speak for long because mum wasn't in.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_03: So I couldn't articulate, I felt all this feeling, but I didn't know how to deal with it.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_03: And then I just took to South Hami, and it was an incredible release.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_03: But I really thought I had it under control, and then I had an accident and um yeah, it needs to be stitched up.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_03: And then because I vowed never to do it again and signed up to do the triathlon and got on my bike, cycling is hard when you've never done it.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I was going up this mediocre hill in the Chiltern Hills, and I'd throw my bike on the side and have a tantrum because I was really struggling.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_03: And then I was like, Linz, you're voluntarily doing this.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_03: And then I thought about the girls in the book, and they in 1931, they were forcibly taken from their homes in um their Aboriginal community called Jigelong because of because they were mixed race and they were taken to um a settlement where they would be assimilated into white society, and they weren't allowed to speak their language, they weren't allowed to have they didn't have bed sheets and they weren't allowed to see um they were told their family didn't want them as well.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_03: So Molly, the eldest, who was only 12, engineered an escape and they walked all the way home a thousand miles following the rabbit proof fence.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_03: So I just became obsessed with them because uh their resilience, strength, and determination is what I needed, but I didn't know how to to get.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_03: And then and then for eight years, I just anytime I went to a party and someone had a map and a wall, I was always looking for where Jigelong would be.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: Or I even went to King's University to speak to the Australian History Department to ask them about the fence and they didn't know.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_03: So I knew nothing about the fence.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't know if it was still erected, if it was still used, if the land would be feasible for me to.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_03: So I just got a one-way ticket to find out and went from there.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's a brilliant story, and those three girls, their three sisters, as you said, their three Aboriginal girls, the youngest being eight, and they wanted to go to a better place, or they wanted to be able to return to something that they felt was more their aspiration of life.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so for context, it's a thousand miles.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: It was built from 1901 to 1907.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: And for you, 2016 is when you went uh to do it, wasn't it?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: So you said it's percolated a long time.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: When you get there, what does that mean to you that you've finally got to a place that you've been thinking about for many years?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, I I had a friend in Perth and I stayed with her for a month so I could sort myself out.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_03: And I I it it's really funny because I I say I'm not very organized and or I say I'm disorganized and incredibly messy.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_03: But when day-to-day life I I really struggle and I I can get quite upset about it, but I am actually pretty shit hot at doing stuff when I really want to.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_03: So my mum didn't want me to uh do this at all um because she thought it was quite dangerous.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_03: And I did say to her, I said, look, I've got to give it a go because if I don't, then I'll always wonder.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: And it was it would just be like a little mosquito annoying me if I didn't give it a go.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: But I told her if it gets too difficult, I'll just pull out and it might that it might not even be possible for me to start, and then I'll just see it as an expensive holiday to you know to Perth.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um so I did a um Outback Survival course, and then I got these maps which I got in um in in Australia, and they were like porn to me.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_03: I spread the map out and I was pouring over them like they were like, you know, I imagine how a man would look at women's boobs.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, oh the fence, and I followed it with my finger and I just imagined where the girls were, and then I contacted so the fence was erected to keep pastoral rabbits out of pastoral land because when the Brits moved over to Australia, a guy called Thomas Austin, um took with him I think maybe 12 rabbits for shooting parties, and then the rabbits multiplied and multiplied and went from one side of Australia to the other, so they because the land was prolific for them.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_03: Um so they erected a fence to keep the rabbits out of farmland.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_03: But I mean the rabbits went under and the rabbits went round because it took them so long to build a fence.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_03: But um, so there was homesteads along the way.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_03: There were seven in the thousand miles I walked, there were seven farms or homesteads.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_03: So I called them to ask them for permission, and um they thought I'd weird.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_03: And then um I managed to get to the star of Moor River, and that for me was moving because it was eerie, it was this church that was trying to assimilate these Aboriginal kids, but being really brutal to them, and the kids didn't want to be there, and it didn't have a nice, nice connotations about it, and it had smashed windows, but the the church is still perfectly erect, but there's no there was no one there.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_03: Everything it looked like there'd been an apocalypse or something, tools were just dropped, and there were just two kangaroos and me.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_03: And then it took me two weeks to actually walk to the fence.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_03: More of it was slightly, it's not on the fence.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_03: But when I made the fence, oh my gosh, it I I was I was so high.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_03: I felt really connected to Molly.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_03: It was it understandably, our stories were very different.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_03: She was taken from her home and she was walking to to go back home.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas I was very much rechasing retracing her journey because I was in awe of her and she'd she'd been a beacon of inspiration, of courage to me for so long without me even realizing.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_03: But I I wrote a I started writing a book about it, but I didn't feel comfortable because they're Aboriginal and I'm white, and I didn't want to be seen as this white, numpty girl, you know, jollying around um her story.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_03: But now I see it very much as I was in I was in awe of her.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_03: So it was and and I I carried you see how dog-eared it is, carried this along the fence, and um it was like my bar Bible.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_03: And actually, then farmers would leave water out for me and and um sometimes bags of like gifts, like f food.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: But then I just seen this, this is um one guy on the last I met him in a pub early on on the fence, and then I told him what he was doing, and he didn't believe me.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_03: And then towards where I finished, he left he left this letter.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_03: And it's it was it was just so so beautiful.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_03: And and then I met Molly had died a few years before I did the journey, but Daisy was still alive, and she was 96 when I met her, and she died following.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_03: It was all it was all aligned and it was it was incredible, it was beautiful.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: And you walked part with their family as well, is that right?
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: So yes, so Molly, she had two children, Doris, who wrote the book, and uh and another girl, not Daisy, but they were taken from her.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_03: So Molly walked in defence twice, and one girl, her baby, um Molly never saw again, but Doris, when she was in her twenties or something, was working as a nurse, and then Western Australia is tiny, it's it's almost like a village, the whole estate.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_03: And someone met her and said, Oh, you're the daughter of Molly.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: And um, Doris grew up thinking her my mother didn't want her or she died.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: And then she then wanted to find out more about Molly, so she went and met her, and that's how she wrote the book.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_03: But then later on, Molly um adopted this young girl called Maria, who who uh was abandoned, and so that's who um met me.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_03: So it was Maria and her family, and they met me just outside, jig along.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I didn't know if they were going to or not because they said I I got in touch with them and which was quite hard.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_03: To track them down, but I managed to track them down and get asked them for their permission to walk her mother's footsteps, but also if they wanted to join me.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_03: And she said, Oh, if we're not at a funeral, then um yeah, we'll come.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_03: So it's funerals are quite common occurrence um in that part of the world.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_03: But they they met me and they took me in for a week, and um then I walk in jogg jig along and then people come up to me and like, ah, you're the girl who watered the fence, and then they'd tell me stories about um Molly and Daisy and uh Yeah, it's a very, very special place.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: My heart goes a bit funny when um when it's mentioned, or if I see see a map with jig along or it's a brilliant story, it's about how you use what was a very impactful moment in terms of your dad dying, generally losing yourself, giving your permission in yourself to start and not knowing whether or not you were gonna succeed.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and I love this line that you've used, you'll never know if you don't give it a go.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think we are so debilitated in life, aren't we?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because you think I can't do that because, or it's not gonna happen because that is a really empowering person in you that did it, but it's also so relatable to others.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just give it a go, see what happens.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I mean, I'm the other way because I have a habit of giving it a go.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_03: I don't have a habit of sticking to the same thing to get good at something.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, I I'm so glad.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe it would have just petered off the curiosity of it, but it just felt I think I'm someone who feels a lot, and with um when I feel like my body almost convulses when I feel something.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_03: So if I meet a mean person, I get quite hurt by it or shaken up.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_03: But if I taste nice food, I'm like, oh, and I want other people to try it.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_03: And um with my connection to the rabbit proof fence, was it was just so strong that I had to go and and and and and then I um it was so beautiful.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: Trump had just become president.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_03: We'd just gone into Brexit and Britain was at war with each other, and I was on this massive high that I didn't want to return home.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_03: So um, and I didn't want to um fly back to Perth when it'd take me three months to walk and it would take 60 minutes to fly.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_03: So I hitched home, and then I got three lifts with um truck drivers, and they completely I'd had two lifts with normal people, guys, who I think they thought it was their fantasy to pick up a chick and have their way with her, and they hinted and I was like, nah, that ain't happening.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_03: So when I had the lift with the truck drivers, I was like, Whoa, these are normal people, and it completely dispelled any misconception I had of them.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: So I circumnavigated Australia with them, and they all still message me and say they think of me, and it's just so so nice.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much in there, and you talk a lot that in your book about humanity, and there is a lot of genuine kindness out there, and we unfortunately live in a world where we amplify the bad and don't amplify the the good through, and your story is a brilliant one in Australia.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: And let's move to mermaiding.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, mermaiding for people that don't understand, just tell me a little bit about the tale, what it's made from, and why mermaiding.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: So I'll start with the why, because that then it all makes sense.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, because I was on this clap high, and because of Trump and Brexit, and I didn't want to I was just delaying inevitable because if I came back home, I'd have to progress and I didn't know where to live, I didn't know what job to do, etc.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_03: etc.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I went to Bali.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_03: I'd rather lived in Bali at the time, and then I learned to free dive.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and on one ascent, I felt stinged to my hand, and I thought it's a jellyfish bobbing away, but it's actually a tiny piece of plastic.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_03: And I was in the Indian Ocean, which you'd imagine would be tranquil turquoise water and white sands, and it I was just surrounded by tiny micro pieces of plastic.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then I was sat on a bean bag one evening, um, scrolling through um Instagram accounts of freedivers, and then I noticed one wore a mermaid tail, and again, like the beautiful in a nude with a nude suit.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, and something excited me with an idea to return home because then I thought, oh, I could return home and swim the length of the River Thames as a mermaid and highlight the plastic pandemic.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_03: So that's how that came about.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_03: But I'd never mermaid before.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_03: I was a I'm a good swimmer, uh, grew up as a competitive swimmer, although I was a not very good computer.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_03: I wasn't very competitive.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_03: So I was living in Spain at the time when I got back because I was refusing to go back to England, and I writing about the rubber prefense, and I got invited to San Francisco to to Uber headquarters to talk about trucks because I said I could never get to the creature about trucks.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_03: And I got a cheap mermaid tail that I found online, but I couldn't use it in swimming pools in Spain, you you're not allowed.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_03: And I did try it in the beach, but I was on my own and I put it on and I had to hop into the water.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_03: So I looked like I felt like a dick and I looked like a dick and I had no one to laugh with.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_03: So I thought, oh well, if they're gonna fly me out and put me up, I can just splash out and do the Alcatraz to uh San Francisco swim solo because it wasn't it wasn't it was a few hundred dollars, I think.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_03: And then so I got my own private canoe and I thought I'd jump off the boat, swim in.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_03: It's only two miles, so it it's pretty easy without the tail.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_03: And if I couldn't swim, then I just throw the tail onto the canoe, and then I'll swim like a normal human into the bay.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_03: But I could swim in the tail, and I didn't have the hat or goggles because I wanted to look more like a mermaid.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: So my hair was often like this, it's not everywhere, but I I made and it was choppy and it was pretty cold, and I made it into the bay, and so I was like, yes, now I'm gonna swim.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_03: I knew that I could swim the length of the Thames.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_03: I knew I'd gotta go.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_00: For you, it's about being purpose-driven.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: You don't do things just to achieve a distance.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: For you, it was about highlighting the water pollution and the issues that exist.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Why was that really important to pick the Thames as a piece of water and do the adventure that you did?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Was the Thames relevant?
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_03: It was it was bringing me home.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_03: It was an a reason to bring me home, an excuse to because I had to come home at some point.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_03: I could I could potentially probably live anywhere I wanted, but I didn't know where I wanted to live.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_03: And if I had if I picked somewhere abroad, I'd have to work out how to do it legally.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_03: So I thought I need to come to England at some point.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_03: And then the Thames is the most iconic river, really.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: Um yeah, that's why I and I grew up near the Thames, so it was really lovely.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_03: My mum came most days to come well like with a flask of soup or food.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I couldn't eat for two weeks because I was living because I was living in Spain at the time, as I do with things, I my planning.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_03: I think I can always do something, so I'll just by hook or crick I'll do it.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_03: And so I drove back from Spain the day two days before I started the Thames.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_03: So I the day before I started had I jumped in and it it was it was November because it was the only time my friend could accompany me in a support boat, and she made a um sculpture, mermaid sculpture out of plastic bottles.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_03: And I mean six degrees is cold anyway, but I'd been in Spain where it was 17 degrees, so my body just went into shock.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_03: And the night before I started, jeptile vomited in our hotel restaurant, and then I just couldn't keep food down for two weeks, apart from ginger nut biscuits.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_03: So at a time when I should have been piling on the calories, I couldn't, so I lost those away.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_03: I I had to wear two wetsuits, two pairs of gloves and two pairs of boots.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_03: Um so I I was just floating, which makes it even harder because with monofinny, you've got to press your hips um down, but they were like trying to spring up because of the buoyancy.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: You need that hip mobility to get that propulsion, don't you, to then be able to use the monofin, and in simple ways is you were aerial arriving into into the Thames.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: And what was the distance that you swam?
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_03: I think it was 120 miles.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_00: Brilliant.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so it was quite ambitious.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_03: Cause I'm a decent swimmer, I knew I could do 10k a day, like normal, normal.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_03: Yep.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: My poor friend supporting me.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_02: She's like, Are you trying?
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_03: Because it was um it was a kid's tale, effectively.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_03: So I've now got a new monothen, and I look at my old one, I'm like, Whoa, good on you, Lynn's, for doing that, because you're you're almost a paraplegic with your feet bound, and then it was almost carp, flimsy plastic.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, so I was just wriggling and I didn't I had no style.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I even didn't really look like a mermaid, I looked more like a seal because I had a near beam head.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: I have a a friend uh you may know of him, Professor Greg White.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: And when Greg swam the Thames, I think two, three years ago, he again talked about the water quality and and how bad that that that is.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: And and for you, swimming's obviously something you're really, really passionate about, which meant that this book, I'm sure, brings together your journalistic background, your storytelling background, and your your passion for for swimming.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about that book.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: So it's out on the 5th of November, and we'll talk later, and we'll leave in the show notes where people can get it.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: But the essence of the idea came from the cow and the cow and people then contacting you.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Just talk about saving the cow and how that went viral and how that connected you with amazing people that reached out to you.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so on the third day into the journey, maybe third or fourth, I was just outside Oxford, and then I got interviewed by a journalist, and he said, So what are you?
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_03: I pulled myself up onto the pontoon right next to a fisherman.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_03: I I assumed a fisherman saw me.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_03: It was November, so it was winter, so it was dark, it was dusk, and I said, Oh, hello, sorry.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_03: And he didn't he didn't budge.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_03: And he almost he didn't like me, because there's certain fishermen who don't like uh swimmers.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um and he was lying, a swimmer with a mermaid tail.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_03: Anyway, and then a journalist came over and asked what we'd found in the river, and I said, Well, dog toys, plastic bags, air mattresses, dingies, flip-flops, and the drowning cow.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_03: And just shortly before then, we were while I was swimming, and because we were doing a litter pick as well, the cow was white.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_03: She was all white, and she was so deep into the river bank she was right up to her neck water, so she was rest resting her chin on a branch.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_03: So she looked like a plastic bag to us, so that's why we um went over.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_03: And then we called the RSBCA and fire took six firemen to pull her out of the river, and they had to make her swim to the other side because she was from Gloucestershire and she's on the Oxford side of the river.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so I turned a journalist this, and then the next day, the headline on page three of the sun was um Mermaid Saves Drowning Cow.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I think it was on page three because David Walliams' girlfriend of at the time was on page three.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_03: So she was all like then there's my head with a beanie and a mermaid tail with this cow it was funny.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, then messages started coming in of people saying they liked my journey, wherever I'm in, St.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_03: Lytham Anne's, I've always got a place to stay.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I take things very literally, so when people invite me, then I'm like, God, I I need to have a good excuse not to go.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_03: And then once I finished a journey, it took me three weeks.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_03: And then it was December, and because it had taken so long to organise it, and I did it m meticulously because I needed to know my entrance and exit points, and it was very complicated in the Thames in a memory in November.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_03: No supporting.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_03: And so I didn't have any work in December, and I was had this high, and then they came crashing down, and and then I was staying with a friend, crashing at a friend's house, and she's engaged, she was engaged to be married, and she was my last good friend to be single.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, shit, I'm this is where I things are gonna change, and then then a message popping in in January, and I took them up on the offer to join her for a swim.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_03: Then I started wherever I was going, I tap into the outdoor swimming society and say, Oh, I'm here, just no one wanna go for a swim.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_03: And then other people be like, I can't go there, but you're always welcome here.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_03: So then when I went to Tuting Bec Glido uh for the UK Cold Water Swimming Championships, was it it's like a party in my birthday's in January, and I always was sensitive about celebrating because no one ever wants to do anything in January, so I'd be like, Oh, I've got no friends to come and celebrate with me.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, whoa, there's all these people who are in fancy dress parading around this pool in January with blaring music.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_03: So I couldn't wait to go next year, and someone said, It's not on for another two years, but why don't you come to the Scottish Cold Water Champs in March?
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, I will.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_03: And she goes, I can give you a lift if you want.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, I think I might cycle, and then I could stop with all the people who'd invited me to stay with them.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_03: So I did, and then she offered me a lift back down south after I made it to Scotland, and I said, I think I'm gonna carry on.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I did.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: And that was six months, wasn't it?
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: That you uh took that should have been a two, three-week road trip, then six months later you It's meant to be two weeks, and I hadn't told my mum because how did she take that?
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I'd originally told her I was going to Totness to try it out to see if I wanted to settle down there.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_03: So she's very excited.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_03: She was a bit confused why I'd chosen this market town in Devon that I'd never mentioned before, um, and had no connection to.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_03: But I didn't know I was going to definitely cycle because I didn't I had a few gaps in the journey, and um my something in me was like, this is gonna be good.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_03: But then my head was like, ah, Lindsay, you need to settle down.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_03: And I was staying with a friend's dad, and I hadn't told them either when I first stayed with them.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_03: So the day before I left, I told them, Oh, I'm I'm leaving tomorrow, and I'm actually cycling to Scotland, so can I please put my car here?
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_03: And it's only gonna be two weeks.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_03: So I also thought my mum, she doesn't always go on social media and she can often not find her reading glasses.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_03: So I thought by the time she logs in, I'll be finished.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_03: And then I wasn't, and then I kept carrying on.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I didn't speak to her for three months, I think it was, because I was I was just sort of embarrassed I didn't I was procrastinating.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_03: It it was a very addictive journey, but it was also I was also scared of not knowing because all my friends had their lives sorted and I just didn't know where I was meant to be.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_03: So while I just kept riding this high until I w worked it out, but I didn't seem to be working it out because um I kept falling in love with all these people and I yeah, I didn't it kind of it was beautiful, but it also wasn't helping me know where to settle because then I was realizing there was all these incredible communities.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_00: And those communities are at the heart of the the book, and you've got many chapters around the places that you went to, and I love the part one at home and your articulation, a place of origin or a place where a person feels they belong.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: And is that belonging for you the real important I feel that I belong in the water, I feel that I belong, telling Molly's story, is that more the passion rather than I live in a bricks and mortar house?
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a different way of articulating home.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_03: So when I got stuck in Byron Bay, I'd only known those girls who converted their garret into a room for me for maybe four days.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_03: And maybe it was an age thing, but then once I was able to start walking slightly, so I couldn't walk, um, I wasn't stable enough to drive off, but um one of I helped one of them out on the Byron Bay farmers market and I sold apples, and it was just such a great way of life.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_03: I became a f familiar place.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_03: The farmers market was my social life.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't have to think, you know, someone would invite you'd bump into someone in the street and they're like, I'll come around for dinner.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_03: Whereas back home here, everything just seemed to be more organized, and I I can't organise, I can, but it's just not natural.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_03: So it just made me feel more inadequate and like I didn't have these blocks and landmarks that everyone else had, and I didn't know how to get them, and then almost by being stationary, made me panic more because I was like, I need to, I know I need to get them, but I don't know how to get them.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_03: So if I am always moving, life seems it's not sustainable to always be moving, but life to me is so much more beautiful because you're you're looked after or you're seen, you're seen, that's it.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_03: I you always it's like my birthday every day because people wanted to be a part of my journey.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_03: And then like, I mean, people made signs for me when I when I was gonna meet them, they're like, ah, Olympic Carl with a quaily face.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_03: I was like, whoa! Or they wanted to show off their place or their favorite swim spot, and um a lot of them wanted to show off their the local fish and chips, which they said is the best in the country, and I heard it a few times, many times.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_03: And I just wanted that that I could love somewhere so much that I could show it off to someone else, but I didn't know where it was, so I thought if I kept going, I could keep going until I found out where it would be.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: And the distance that you covered, just reminding everybody that's listening, you cycled a vast percentage of the country.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: Can you remember what that kind of distance are we talking thousands of miles as well as all the swims that you did?
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_03: It would be in the thousands.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't care though, because I am all or nothing, and I can get obsessed if I had the data thing.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_03: Um and I didn't I didn't want to know because it wasn't it wasn't about that.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_03: And the the funny thing is, is it's called swimming with strangers and it's it's about swimming.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_03: But the vehicle was a bike, a bicycle, and I don't talk about it a little bit, but it it was insignificant, really.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_03: It was the thing that was getting me from A to B, but I didn't want to get into stuff.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I I really, I really wouldn't know.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, one time I went from Sheffield to Skipton, which was 86 miles, I think.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_03: And then the day before I was going, this guy from just outside Sheffield said, Oh, I see you're you're on this journey and you're cycling past us.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_03: Do you want to join us?
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_03: Please join us for a swim so we can show you where our swim community is.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_03: I couldn't say no.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't of course I could say no, but I obviously didn't.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_03: So I had a swim in the morning, cycled to him, and then swam, and then we did a Cayley afterwards to warm up.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_03: This is February, and then I cycled on through the Brownie brothers country um to Skipton.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_03: So it wasn't just 86, it was 86 Bumpy, and I arrived in Skipton in the dark, and 86 miles, free swims, and we ended up skinny dipping because my swimsuit was in my bag and someone put my bike in their car.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, that was just one day, and there was a few hundred miles a days.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_03: One day was more than 100 miles, so I I but I have no idea how the distance.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: And any favorite places, any places that stay in your memory and your heart?
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: What what were the special ones to you?
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_03: There there were many special ones.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_03: But go so I went to when I said I'd continue and didn't need my left south.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_03: Um I was like, I'm just gonna go.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know where now north or west, but I'm going.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_03: And then um so I was really excited, and then I saw that it was snow.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_03: So in Scotland you can get four seasons in an hour, and it was sunny outside, and then all of a sudden it started snowing.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Oh, look how pretty it is outside.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_03: And then it continued to snow, and then half an hour, everything was covered, and there was a Robin outside on my terrace, and he was drowned up to his knees in snow.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_03: And then I was like, shit, my vehicle is a bicycle, and I don't even know where I'm going.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_03: So I went from high to to like massive crash and uh mental crash, not yep, and um, but then moments later, when I after a while of panicking, then I got a message to say, just seeing you're in Scotland, we're in Malay, always it's cozy, but always room for you.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_03: Come and join us.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_03: And so I went to Malai, which is West, just then took by an Isle of Harris, and then Isle of Harris, I blagged a bottle of um Isle of Harris gin, and they said if you know, share a photo.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_03: So I shared a photo, and then someone in Orkney says, Oh, we've got gin in Orkney too, you know.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_03: So that took me to Orkney and Because I was in Orkney, I had to go to Shetland.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_03: And then because I went to the northmost northern beach in Britain, which in Shetland, and I wasn't ready to finish then, so I was like, wow, I'll finish in silly.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_03: So all these places I went, which I would never ordinarily go to normally, and I just just discovered all these little gems, which and Clevedon was one of them.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_03: I'd never really heard of Clevedon.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_03: It's just outside Bristol, which is where I live now.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_03: And it's like a second home and it it's it's beautiful.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's like a hidden gem.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_03: Not so hidden now, but yeah.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: We'll direct people to to the book.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's a brilliant book.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: I've loved reading it.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: And we've talked a lot about cycling, we've talked a lot about swimming, but I would say not many people know that you've done four ironmans, and I I love the way that you articulate uh the way that you do it.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: Slow is steady, and steady is fast.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: So what were the four iron's that you did?
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_03: It was it was two full, two half.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_03: And niece.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_03: And actually, Regensburg happened because when I was on crutches in Byron Bay, I had a crutch in a pool every day, this beautiful 50-meter pool overlooking the the uh uh Pacific.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_03: And I met there was an old man there in his 70s, and he was there every time I saw him, and he would cycle there, and I said, Oh, if you run, you you could do a uh a marathon and trifling.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_03: And he said, Oh, I do, I do Iron Man.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Whoa, okay.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_03: So as I was 24 at the time, I was like, I'm gonna do an IMAB from 30.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_03: I actually did it much sooner than 30.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um, yeah, I did and I did rings but just to take it off, and then um I did knees to better it because I really enjoyed it.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_03: I I barely swam because I'm an all right swimmer, so I knew I'd be alright.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_03: But I was panicked about the cycle, so I spent most of my time doing the cycle.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_03: And then so I wanted to better it, and when I did Nice, I didn't go to any Hindus, I didn't drink um for a while, and then it just didn't go well, and it was it was nasty, and I wouldn't ever encourage anyone to do an Iron Man after Nice.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_03: But I did two halves as well.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_03: I think one was in Europe and one was in Hennley, I think.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_00: I guess for you it was about a challenge, it was exploring, it was about uncovering that quizzical um part, but you also coach, and I'm sure, like I see many triathletes that really struggle with the water.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: If you put yourself under that coaching uh hat, what and how do you get people to feel comfortable in the water?
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: What are some of the things that you talk and skills that you give them to to love the water like you and I do?
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, actually, I take them back to basics.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm I'm an average athlete, but I could keep going.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_03: But I would always come up quite high in their triathlon from the swim, and then I'd hear a swarm of bees coming, and it's the bankers in their um cone helmets, so with all the money.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_03: And yeah, and and with the swim, when I was a competitive swimmer, I wasn't fast, but it it was more that I was a competent swimmer, so I'm relaxed, whereas a lot of people get stressed and worked up, and um and they often try and go, well, they're like kicking like mad and off often like swimming their arms.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_03: So I take them back to basics and I and often the guys are like, oh no, I I don't need to do this.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_03: And I literally get them to push off a wall like a rocket and do that for about 10 minutes so that they can feel the sensation of being streamlined.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_03: And I almost get them to be addicted to it so that you always must start your swim session doing this, so then your body just falls into alignment, and then then we start from then we had the uh kicks and then the arms.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_03: But I love coaching, I wish I could do wish it wasn't as cold because I I love I love seeing people um progress.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like you, I love coaching.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_00: I love to be able to empower people to take a nugget of information and help them change their trajectory or their experience of it.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_00: And and through these podcasts, we talk a lot about nutrition.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if you were to reflect back on all the things that you've done, whether or not it's the Iron Man's or the you know, those long walks and cycles, what's the best piece of nutrition advice that you've been given?
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: And what's the worst piece of nutrition advice that you've been given?
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_03: I'm the worst person to ask for nutrition advice because I forget to eat.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_03: So the niece Iron Man, that's why it was so bad.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_03: Was I had a crash coming out of the cycle the swim because someone on their bike in transition shouted, excuse me.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_03: Nice is a particularly nasty course.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_03: So few women do it, and the men who do do it are me.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_03: Since someone asked me to move, so I turned to look and then I hit a curb and I flipped, and then I lost all my nutrition, and then I barely ate because they'd hand you out stuff, but I didn't really like it, so I didn't eat and then come 50 miles in.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_03: I wanted to quit, but I was 50 miles away from Nice, so I just had to continue.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but I think the best advice, which I don't take myself, is to try and consume some something.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_03: And I actually with swimming, it's really difficult as well because you you feel like you don't want to eat, but it's almost better to to nibble.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_03: I quite like sweets, I'm good with sweets, sweets is my thing, and ginger nut biscuits is good for long, like day after day, multi-day swim adventures.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_03: Um, when you because if you feel nauseous, ginger is is good.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_03: But um when I did I did the Bristol Channel, and the thing is with mermaid and monothening, it's so intense on your stomach because it's poly pollen it each time, so it's hard to eat.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_03: But a friend joined me, Lorena Lauren's, then she said she ate boiled eggs on her swim.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, oh whereas I had um passion fruit cheesecake, and we we were train I was training and she joined me in we in the Bristol Avon and we saw some canoeists, and I said, Oi, what would you rather boil egg or passion fruit cheesecake?
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_03: Everyone said the passion fruit cheesecake.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_03: Because if you burp cheesecake, it tastes at least it tastes nice.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_03: Burping egg.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_03: That would that would make me sick.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_00: So this summer you went to the World Cup, and I based on understanding you much better an hour in, is you're quite impulsive.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_00: So you were thinking, oh, I need a new challenge, I need an adventure.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_00: Who's gonna come on a venture with me?
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: Can't find one.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me more about your World Cup adventure and how long it took you to go from idea to here.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_03: So I I like football, I like the World Cup, I love the World Cup, and I I've been to a few.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_03: I I cycled to South Africa to the World Cup, and then um I'm currently doing IVF on my own.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_03: That's why I actually um attempted to get this world record last year for the long distance swim in a mermaid tail, which I didn't make because I thought if I got a world record, people with money would like could hire me to do a talk.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_03: And that's nice if you've got a baby on your own.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_03: But I didn't I didn't do it.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_03: So then I did I actually delayed the IVF because of this bloody world record that I didn't do.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_03: So I started process in May, and then they found a cyst on my ovary, so I had to delay it by a month.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_03: And it because of my age, I'm 43, they were like, You gotta go, go, go, you gotta go, go, go, because your age.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was like, Well, what am I meant to do for a month?
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_03: And they're like, Oh, just relax.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_03: So everyone talks about how stressful or challenging it is.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't the jabbing of the needles, that's easy, it's like p putting earrings in now, but it's more the emotions behind it because it's the uncertainty and gives you the wait time, gives you time to think, or maybe I shouldn't do this, or the self-doubt to creep in.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_03: So I needed to get away, and then no one was able to come away.
• 52:20
  SPEAKER_03: People need more planning.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, well, I know somewhere where I can go where uh I can just catapult myself in and have fun, and it was in Miami, so I went to Miami on my own to the I was gonna only I was only gonna watch the game in um a bar um to just pay for my flight there and stay in the hostel.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_03: And then I caught up with a friend and his friends, and they were all going to the game, and then I met him in South Africa at the last World Cup, and then their taxi came to pick them up, and they're like, if you come with us, you've got to get a ticket.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_03: And I got my flight on Klana, which I'd never used before.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_03: So my flight was a grand, but I'm paying it off each month.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_03: And I saw that you could get a stadium ticket because there were a lot.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_03: I saw that you could get them on Klaner, so I piled into the taxi with him.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_03: I thought, I'll I'll get a stadium ticket.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_03: But I had to be American to get that to use Klaner out there, and I was like, ah shit.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_03: So my ticket were and then an hour in we arrived at the stadium.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_03: I still didn't have my ticket, so I had to just get the the next one, which was 2,000 US dollars.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_03: Wow of a lot of money for a football game, and I just shifted money around, and I've got two virtual bank accounts with with overdrafts, and I yeah, I used a few overdrafts and I I I did it, like got a ticket.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_03: And and people say, was it worth it?
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, you know what?
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_03: If it was to see Man United for an ordinary game, it wouldn't be worth it, but it was because of the reason.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_03: I only went for four days, and then when I came back, it brought my period on early for some reason.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_03: And then when I came back, I had to start I had a a scan the day after I got back.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_03: And then like, oh, the sister's gone, and you can start injections tonight.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_03: So I was like, well, Miami was the remedy.
• 54:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was 100% uh worth it, and I I loved that impulsiveness to you that you didn't well go, no one's no one's coming with me, so I can't go.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: You knew that that would be your happy place and that could be your home for those those four days.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it's been brilliant talking to you.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: And and just to close this podcast, we've got a I've got a couple of quick fire questions for you.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the first one is what's the first adventure you remember wanting to go on?
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_03: Oh, I don't know.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_03: It was it was probably the rabbit-proof fence without realizing it.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_03: So I did it was always in my head.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_03: So I wasn't I hated going on walks when I was younger.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_03: Like I found it boring.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_03: I need I need like a purpose to get somewhere.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_03: So that was probably or even maybe cycling to see him to a mate's house, which was 400 metres down the road when I was a kid.
• 54:56
  SPEAKER_03: That was fun.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_03: But the big uh like a proper adventure was the rabbit proof fence.
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_00: And if you had to choose between swimming, cycling and running or walking, what would you choose?
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_00: Swimming.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 55:08
  SPEAKER_00: Good correct answer.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_03: Not in a not in a mermaid tale.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you can't say cheesecake, best post-swim snack, what would it be?
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_03: A bottle of original red leucosade and s sort of vinegar macoys.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, good.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_03: So what I'm I'm not an advocate for.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and if you had to pick one piece of kit that you couldn't do without, what would it be?
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_00: Your monotail, surely, right?
• 55:40
  SPEAKER_03: Well, this is why swimming's great, because you just need a swimsuit.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um I mean you can skinny dip, but it is easier.
• 55:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, w it but if I was monofining, then I have to have um neoprene socks that I couldn't live without then.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_03: A swimsuit.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_00: And you've you've read a lot, you've read about adventurers.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_00: If there was one adventurer that could join us for the next five minutes, whether or not they're alive or not, who would they be?
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_00: Would it be a daisy of this world?
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_00: Who would you want to join us on this podcast, adventurer?
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_03: Maybe Robin Davison, I think.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_03: She walked across Australia of camels, so she was similar.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_03: I I think we would be similar-minded, sort of.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_03: I call myself a loner, but I don't mean it quite like that, like, but able to be out in a desert on your own and uh and it's so magical out there that you you always make almost make love to it when you're on your own because you notice it more and to meet people who've who've experienced it too, it's few and far between, so it yeah, it would be she would be great.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_00: We'll put notes in the show notes how people can learn a little bit more about her.
• 56:48
  SPEAKER_00: But Linda Cole, thank you so much.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_00: Swimming with Strangers is out on the 5th of November, that's correct.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if I wanted to get a copy, where's the best place for you to for people to be able to get a copy?
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_03: Well, actually, um if you pop into your local bookshop, that's great because it makes all the book systems twitch.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_03: Um because I am doing IVF on my own, I'm trying.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_03: This is another ambitious task I've given myself, but I'm trying really hard to make the Sunday Times bestsellers list.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_03: Because I noticed that some on the lower end sell around 1300.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I thought, actually, that is possible.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_03: I could possibly do that if I manage to get everyone who's likely to ever get it, to all get it before it comes out all that first week.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_03: But it's on Amazon or it's on uh bookshop.org.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_03: And also just one more point.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_03: Um, not only did I go to Miami for the quarterfinal World Cup, England won.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_03: So it was a good one to go to because the next game they didn't win.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate your time, your energy.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_00: And as somebody who loves adventurers, you've definitely got my thoughts flowing.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_00: But thank you.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's a privilege to speak to you.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to our first swim together.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_00: We need to make that happen.
• 57:59
  SPEAKER_00: Lindsay, thank you very much for your time.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_00: Really appreciate it.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much, Matt.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_01: And thank you for all your thorough research.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_00: Pleasure.
• 58:06
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you, everybody, for listening.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is Boom Performance Podcast.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_00: Please follow the show and subscribe to the channel.
• 58:13
  SPEAKER_00: And this is series two.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks everybody for listening.