Yesterday the heat finally broke me and sent me on an exploratory mission to the Hampstead Heath ponds.
Man, let me tell you, if there's anything nicer than Hampstead Heath in the summer, I mean, it's got a special charm all of its own. Absolutely fucking great. As it turns out, what looked to be a day-long legendary journey actually turned out to be a pleasant twenty-minute walk from my house.
The first pond we hit was the mixed pond, which was pretty crowded. They inexplicably funnell you into a tiny area just outside the pond, which didn't really have a lot of room for sitting it was so packed. However there weren't that many people in the water, which was deep, and dark, and cool, and great. Quite a large area to swim in, but the lack of anything to stand on meant that you couldn't really relax. I'll take something floaty next time. The water was quite brown, but certainly superior in quality to that of the Serpentine (which I went swimming in last weekend).
After a bit of swimming there, we went and checked out the 'men-only' pond, which was actually a lot better (it's heaps bigger and has a cool diving board), however the nude sunbathing area was just as disturbing as you'd imagine, ifnotmoreso. Plus, y'know, no hot chicks.
This is a 
hamstead heath ponds are fantastic, and yes you do need something to cling onto or it's all a bit frantic to stay afloat.
and i like it when you get out you end up covered in bits of greenery!
which is why i want one of these:
http://www.gartenart.co.uk/
Hmmm, I more a swim in clean polls kind of guys. I don't like things in the water that can attack you, and anything green and clingy is defiantly out to get you.
I'm getting the shivers just thinking about it.
Chlorine = gross. Give me eau naturale any day of the week.
The swan I tried to cling on to did not appreciate it.
Chlorine, less gross than swan shit.
Swan shit, more natural and probably less bad for you than chlorine.
And apparently it turns your hair green. Chlorine I mean, not swan shit.
don't battle against nature man... it's there to love and protect you!
I'm quite happy with chlorine. It might be bad for you, but at least it's clean.
I'm not the biggest fan of nature. I'm a city boy. Nature has spiders.
As a country boy, I'm quite fond of spiders. They kill flies, which are dirty, disgusting little fuckers (bzzz...bzzz...bzzz...BZZZ! AAAAARGH! Smack!). But then again, I'm from Ireland, where there are no spiders that can hurt you in any way whatsoever. Only nice, friendly fly-killers.
Being too clean is also bad for you. Chlorine has it's place though.
Chlorine makes my eyes sting. Besides, what exactly are you worried about in the pond? Some kind of indeterminate killer that fails to affect the hundreds of people who swim there every week?
I don't like things touching me while I'm swimming. Espeically green things. I freak out. You don't really want to see me put my foot down on some seaweed. It's unpleaseant. I'm a city kid.
Uhm, yeah no it was extremely deep, no hope of touching anything, green or otherways.
I used to live in Swiss Cottage.
Quite often I walked from there to Hampstead Heath.
One day I saw the pond where people were swimmming naked. I was 24 years old immigrant. I met Susan (45) there. And we have a sex in pond, it was a great sex I ever had. I love u hampstead heath.
Now I am in USA but still remember those days.
I dated multiple english women in the hampstead heath forest.