We have just swum across this most magical lake

On our arrival in Slovenia who should be there to pick us up at the airport? None other than marathon swimmer extraordinaire and Big River Man, Martin Strel. What a thrill! Here is a pic of us with Martin as we arrived at Lake Bohinj.

This week will be full of great swimming opportunities in Lake Bohinj, Lake Bled and nearby lakes and rivers,

The first part of this trip was fantastic - warm weather, great cycling and swimming and lots of interesting things to see. The second part was also interesting but the weather turned bad - cold and wet. But we stuck with it and experienced a whole new type of adventure touring.

​The first photo is on the Austrian/Swiss border and the second on arrival in Arbon, Switzerland.

That says 'we are on our way cycling around Lake Constance' - more or less. If you would like to join us here next year, let me know soon-ish.

Over the past couple of days I have visited - and swum in - two quite different watery places here. The first is Strandbad Horn, in a suburb of Konstanz, and right on the lake. The day I visited was very hot and there were thousands of people there, but it was still good.

The second was in a small town about 30 minutes by train from Konstanz called Singen. Singen is a pretty average smallish town except for the pool which is quite seriously the best swimming pool I have ever swum in. 50m, 6 lanes, 1.3m to 1.8m deep - nothing extraordinary there - but it was made entirely of stainless steel. I have never seen anything like it. Easy to keep clean, low maintenance and with a mirror effect on the bottom to make self stroke correction easy. Why can't we build such pools in Australia?

All participants for this year's Lake Constance cycling and swimming tour have gathered in the medieval German city of Konstanz. For the next two days we will be exploring this amazing city, visiting nearby regions and, every day, swimming in Lake Constance. Check out our program here.

Had a good training swim in Lake Zurich today. Great weather, beautifully clear water, a possible site for a future swimming tour?

The original idea of  coming to Hong Kong on my way to Europe was to check the place out for a possible future swimming tour. Then I went cold on the idea. Now, after taking a good look at the place, I am keen to at least do some further research on the idea's feasibility. I would really like to come back here - it is crowded, noisy, hot but so exciting and interesting.