Our Scotland: Gemma Armit says Hiya Scotland
We tour Scotland with travel blogger Gemma Armit
Gemma Armit is an award-winning travel blogger from Everything Edinburgh, Two Scots Abroad and Hiya Scotland.
Everything Edinburgh, is a digital resource for locals and visitors and is hyper-focused on areas, things to do, accommodation, food, and activities by season.
Hiya Scotland is a Scotland wide travel planning blog where you can get personal recommendations and join Gemma’s community to plan your trips.
We're going to start in Fife, the Kingdom of Fife, to give it its full title. And I thought we'd maybe start by the water, since we've got so many lovely little villages and towns with beach and sea.
We're going to go to Aberdour, to Silversands, and we are going to do a little dip.
I thought we'd get in the water to begin with and just sort of relax and take in the area, there'll probably be some other people around us because it is a popular wild swimming spot.
And then once we've done that, we'll just have some tea and a flask and just sort of chill out for a second because day is going to be an absolute whirlwind.
I cannot say that I'm fully committed to wild swimming, but I do like to do it every now and again.
I have a couple of friends that will join me in lochs and seas as well. It definitely exploded during the pandemic with people maybe not allowed to leave a five mile radius and things like that so people explores their own backyards.
I think that increased the number of people getting into the water. That's definitely when I started thinking about it and Silversands was the first wild swim that I took as part of a group. There was like a yoga session and then we got in the water.
My issue with summer is the jellyfish, which I am pretty scared of, so maybe we'll go for a spring dip. Then we're not having to deal with any rashes before we even set off on this tour of Scotland.
Alison: That would be a terrible start, wouldn't it? But since it's a perfect day, well the water's going to be warm, there's no jellyfish.
Gemma: The water's gonna be warm as if the water's ever warm! I like your optimism
It's euphoric usually, I don't like to use that word lightly either, but it really is just like you get this amazing tingly feeling, and I try not to put my hands in. I do that sort of like hands on head motion, and I tend to wear a hat as well.
I don't know, it's just like, if no one's ever done it before and they're thinking about it join a local group. You can find information on Facebook about that. But I do encourage people to get in the water if they can. I've done a couple of those sauna wild swims that are popping up all over the coast now, and they're amazing.
I met Kathi from Watch Me See, who you've had on one of the earlier shows. She was in Fife and We did the Kings Barn sauna, and then you just run down the hill into the sea, and then you do it as many times as you can fit in during your session.
And it was so good that we did it again in Stonehaven with my other friends, it's addicting.
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Links:
Hiya Scotland - Stress-free Scotland planning
Gemma took us to the following:
Staic Pollaidh (Stack Polly)
Ski-ing in the Cairngorms
Where would you spend your perfect Scottish day? I’d love to hear.
Thank you for featuring me. It was a fun chat!