Coniston Water offers plenty of opportunities for wild swimming, especially if you start early, avoiding the boats. But I'm increasingly drawn to the Lakeland tarns, high up in the fells. Sometimes the tarns are in full view and sometimes hidden, making it quite an adventure to find a suitable wild swim spot. Goat's Water is an obvious walking excursion from Coniston, with easy access up the well-trodden Walna Scar Road. From leaving the car-park, you find yourself quite quickly surrounded by mountains with the imposing Dow Crag slowly coming into view, perched as it is behind the Old Man of Coniston. Taking the path from Walna Scar Road up through The Cove, the majesty of Dow Crag with its rock-climbing history is amplified by the sheet of dark water underscoring it. This is Goat's Water and from it you can hear the shouts of the climbers as they inform their partners of their progress up the crag. It's quite nice just to sit and watch them. As the hail set in on this day, I could still make out the climbers battling slowly up the rock-face. We decided to retreat and as the midday hail settled into a calmer afternoon, we found a sublime place to swim. The steady trail of walkers, who had been doing a circuit of the Old Man and Goat’s Water, as well as the ridge of Dow Crag, Buck Pike and Brown Pike, had mostly gone home. The air and the mood of the mountain seemed to change as early evening set in and the sun came out one last time. Sheltered by a steep crag, the little tarn was clear with the rocks visible under the light blue, rippled surface. The only movement was me moving through it. We thought how nice it would have been to have wild camped high up on the fells for the evening,  just to have enjoyed the silence.