Emma Karslake – Swimming adventure along the Normandy coast

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Introducing Emma

Today, I welcome Emma Karslake, an adventurer with a passion for bikepacking. More recently, she embarked on a totally different adventure: swimming from Mont-Saint-Michel to Granville in Normandy. For five days, she swam the coasts of the English Channel. I was intrigued by the idea, so I asked her to share her experience with us. Could you please introduce yourself?

I grew up in France, but have travelled a lot since then. Today, I live in England, although I’ve been semi-nomadic for some years. My adventure journey began with a six-month cycling trip in South America.

It was my very first bike trip, and I was accompanied by three friends. We were prepared in some ways, but complete novices in others. I remember coming out of the airport in Ushuaïa and mounting my panniers upside down on my bike. As a result, they hit my feet as I pedaled. We had to stop after five kilometers… That moment marked the start of a great adventure, where we carried our whole house: camping gear, water filters, and everything else needed to cross areas where there aren’t even any taps.

I was 22 at the time, and along the way I met a lot of cyclo-voyageurs. They’d say to me, “Ah, you’re 22, you’re doing this? You’ll be doing this for the rest of your life.” I thought they were exaggerating. And yet, seven years later, I’ve never stopped. I’m still bikepacking, with adventures of all sizes, ultra-distance and lighter trips. Since then, my life has revolved mainly around cycling.

The idea of swimming along the Channel coast

So you do a lot of bikepacking. But this time, the adventure is different with swimming. How did you come up with this idea?

It’s an idea that gradually took shape. Two years ago, I asked for a swimming buoy for Christmas. It’s a fluorescent buoy attached to a cord, used for visibility in open water. I discovered this concept at a reservoir in London, where you have to wear them to be seen by boats. Some buoys can also be used to carry belongings: they inflate, and you can put your things in them before dragging them through the water.

I first used this buoy when crossing Lake Como, and then for short trips. For example, I swam 500 meters to get a coffee at a nearby campsite. It was funny to turn up in a swimsuit in the middle of a campsite! But when I saw it, I thought: “I’d have to do something more with it.”

I do a lot of touring, whether on foot or by bike. I said to myself: “I can also swim, so why not try swimming itineraries?” Then I thought about how and where to do it. What was crucial for me was to find something simple, without scaring me, as water remains a very different environment. I wanted it to be an experience, not a challenge. My aim was to have fun and learn how to organize this type of trip, while remaining flexible. It was a “baby trip”, so to speak.

At the same time, I was coming out of a difficult period in ultra-distance cycling. I’d had injuries and psychological difficulties linked to lack of sleep. My whole life revolved around training for an ultra that I had finally decided to abandon the day before the start. I woke up with a lump in my stomach and said to myself: “I can’t start a week-long event in this state. Stop it, be nice to yourself.” It was a difficult but necessary decision. Afterwards, I found myself asking, “What now? I’m in great shape, I love to travel, but I’ve given up everything I’ve been training for.”

That’s when the idea of swimming came to me. I wanted a different kind of adventure, with no pressure. What was reassuring about this project was that I swam along the coast. At any moment, I could stop and come back to land. It was a way of having an “adventure vacation” while being indulgent with myself.

It’s a brave choice to have decided to stop, but you’re certainly right for your physical and mental health. If it was causing you all that stress, it’s a difficult decision, but well done. It’s not an easy decision to make.

A lot of people told me it was courageous, and it really wasn’t a reaction I was expecting. I thought I’d have to explain myself, hear people say “It’s a shame, you were so well trained”. But, in fact, people really understood.

Previous swimming experience

This is what it’s like to put all your energy into a project and, at the last moment, decide to call it a day. In the end, it’s better than going all the way and collapsing, with much longer after-effects. Here, you’ve stopped in time, and you’ll see what you do with it all. As for swimming, I imagine you’ve been swimming for a long time and you’re very comfortable, aren’t you?

In fact, I’ve always loved the water, but I was an average swimmer. I was comfortable with breaststroke, but I learned crawl on my own in 2021. Back then, I couldn’t swim 25 metres without suffocating. I was training for a triathlon, a half-Ironman. It was my first, and I was really aiming for endurance. I told myself that I had six months to learn the crawl and that it couldn’t be that complicated… But it is complicated ! I struggled.

Today, I’m at a level where, although my technique isn’t excellent, I’m very comfortable for long distances. I swim crawl rather than breaststroke, even if it’s not very fast. On the other hand, I’m especially comfortable in open water. I learned in the pool, but very soon I was only swimming outdoors. That changes everything, because a good pool swimmer can easily panic in open water, and that happens a lot.

Preparing for the adventure

Classic! I’m a bad swimmer, but I took up pool swimming before an S triathlon, and it was a total panic. You seem to forget everything you know. It’s just not the same. So that specific open-water training must have played a part for you. How did you prepare for your trip? Obviously, you swam in open water, but did you do anything else, either physically or mentally?

Honestly, training hasn’t been very intensive. Recently, I hadn’t done much swimming, so I did three sessions in the pool two weeks beforehand. Then I did two open-water sessions just before setting off, with my buoy, to test the currents and confirm my plans. Physically, I didn’t do much because I’d chosen short daily distances, between three and four kilometers. It wasn’t a challenge. With the whole day ahead of me, it was manageable, even with the constraints of the tides. And if I wanted to, I could always get out of the water and walk.

In terms of preparation, the hardest part was planning. In France, there are some rather complex laws, such as the ban on swimming up or down a river. I didn’t want to risk a complicated week because of that. So I opted for the sea. Then I had to find a suitable area: no harbors, Airbnbs nearby, a pretty coastline, and generally calm seas.

I ended up choosing the Mont-Saint-Michel-Granville route. It’s not far from a region I know well. My parents live 20 kilometers north of Granville, and I know the currents.

For the route, I couldn’t use Google Maps or any conventional app, not even marine ones. So I used my Suunto triathlon watch, which allows me to plot free routes. I drew a line in the water and then looked at the daily distances, pinpointing where I could stop in the villages. It was all very approximate, because when I looked at a map, I didn’t know how far from the shore I’d be swimming. It makes a big difference to the total distance whether you swim along the bays or across them.

What’s more, I didn’t know if I’d swim straight, which is difficult for two reasons: firstly, keeping a course while swimming is complicated, and secondly, currents can throw you off course. So it was all approximate, and I told myself: we’ll see.

I also tried to avoid rocks and other obstacles. I tried to find nautical charts, but when you don’t know anything about navigation, it’s very difficult. You need maps that show winds, currents, rocks and mooring areas, and that’s hard to find. In the end, I used a Garmin application with a two-week free trial. It was perfect, as I could find winds, currents and their predictions day by day. It was a great help.

When it came to planning my days, I wanted them to be a moment of pleasure rather than a daily grind. This wasn’t easy, especially in Normandy in September, when the weather is unpredictable. So I had to take several parameters into account, not least the tides. The Bay of Mont-Saint-Michel is renowned for having the highest tides in Europe. The water recedes for miles on end, so I had to really plan my arrival time on the beach to avoid running out of water.

Then there were the currents, in particular the ebb and flood, which accompany the incoming and outgoing tides respectively. I adjusted to these currents so that the water carried me and made swimming easier. I also had to anticipate the wind, which can slightly influence surface currents. In short, there were a lot of parameters to take into account to ensure that everything was aligned and enjoyable.

Equipment

It’s true that there are a lot of parameters to take into account. You don’t always realize how complex the planning is. And as far as equipment is concerned, we can imagine that you had your buoy. But what about the wetsuit? And what did you take with you in your buoy?

In terms of equipment, I had a ten-liter buoy, which couldn’t be completely filled to remain watertight. Inside, I had my phone, a charger, the bare minimum to change clothes, and sometimes a few things entrusted to a friend who was walking along the coastal path while I swam.

For swimming, I wore a neoprene wetsuit, with gloves and socks to counter my poor circulation. No neoprene hat, as the sea temperature was a bearable 18 degrees. And a crucial detail: Vaseline. I used it to protect my fragile skin, because even an hour a day in salt water would remove a layer of skin. It saved the day and made the experience much more comfortable.

So it was a meticulous organization, but it allowed me to enjoy this adventure to the full.

A day-by-day adventure

It’s interesting, it’s true that we don’t necessarily think about this kind of detail. What was your day like? Did you have a sort of routine over the five days, or was every day different? How many hours did you swim each day? When did you eat and how did you organize your meals?

There wasn ‘t really any question of refuelling, or specific times to eat, as I did the whole course in one go. I always had a little snack in my bag, just in case, so I could stop and eat or drink, but I didn’t use it. In fact, at the most, I swam 1h45 a day, and I wasn’t going very fast, so I didn’t need to take a real break to eat. As for my typical day, it was both regular and staggered, as the timetable changed every day due to the tide, which shifts by around 45 minutes every day. In addition, I had train constraints on the first and last day, as I was with a friend who had to arrive and leave at specific times.

On the first day, I got my forecast completely wrong. I knew there was a good chance there wouldn’t be any water when I got there, so I changed on the coastal path before arriving on the beach at Mont-Saint-Michel. The tide coefficient was low, so it wasn’t supposed to recede too much, but as it’s an area of high tides, it was still a gamble.

When I arrived, I saw school groups walking along the coast in sneakers, and I wondered if I was really going to be able to swim. I said to myself “I don’t know if I’m going to be able to swim, but I’m in a wetsuit and it takes 15 minutes to put it on, so go and see if you can find some water”.

I walked in a kind of mud, a very slippery clay typical of the English Channel, which made me sink up to my knees. It was embarrassing, but my wetsuit protected me. I found a small stream that was vaguely going in the right direction, with a bit of current. I was half-covered in silt and hot in my wetsuit in the sun. I crawled through the water for a few hundred meters. It was really more progression than swimming, but at least I could say I’d entered the water and used my arms.

On the second day, conditions were perfect. The sun was out and all I had to do was get out of the cabin we’d rented and walk along the beach before reaching a small cliff. It was a short course that allowed me to start my swim before reaching a jetty, which allowed me to get out again without difficulty. My friend took the coastal path and I ended up reaching it at the same time as her, because the current pushed me along very quickly. I covered 4 km in an hour, which is not my usual swimming speed.

That’s when I realized that there’s a real difference between the reference points you have on foot or on a bike and those you have in the water. It’s very difficult to judge distances in the water, especially when you’re submerged, and it’s even worse when you’re in waves. Even with a watch, it’s not precise. On the first day, that’s when I realized how difficult it was to sail along the coast while avoiding the rocks.

The third day was a special one, as I had to swim 4 km continuously along the cliffs, which are steep and very rocky, with no beaches to take a break. Conditions had to be good, otherwise it was going to be complicated. I’d spotted a small river about 2.5 km out, which flowed into the sea and formed a small beach, giving me a landmark from which to stop.

I thought the tide would be low enough for me to stop at the bottom of the cliffs, where there’s sand. But when I got to the jetty, I realized that the water was too high, so I couldn’t stop. I figured the current would probably be the same as the day before, so I took to the water. It was truly a day of adventure. I swam a good distance away from the shore to avoid the rocks. The scenery was superb, and the sea a little rough, but I loved the day. That day, I discovered the beauty of swimming in somewhat extreme conditions, and I really enjoyed myself.

On the third and fourth days, the story was quite similar. It was windy, almost like a storm. The current helped, but it took me a long time to get through a barrier of waves. By the time I got through them, I was well out of breath, which wasn’t ideal before I started swimming. Being dragged back each time by the waves exhausted me. But I kept going, alternating between swimming and longe-côte, which gave me a chance to rest a bit.

The last stretch of my trip was marked by a heavy thunderstorm with hail. At first, I wanted to stay in the water, as the hail was less painful, but once it stopped, I got out and walked on the beach. It was totally deserted, just me, which was quite magical despite the storm. It was a rather strange but pleasant moment, when I felt really in tune with the adventure.

From the outside, it must have been funny to see you walking around!

That’s it. And so we came to the last day. That day, we had an early afternoon train to catch, which meant I had to leave, with the tide coming in and the current against me. And it was still a bit stormy. So that was a mess. I woke up and said to myself, ” What the hell am I doing? Well, I’m off. It was a rising tide.

I was able to cheat a little at first. I had roughly two bays to skirt, but instead of skirting the first bay, I aimed straight for Granville, where you can see buildings in the distance. Then there’s the fact that I’m short-sighted and don’t have any correction when I swim. So it was already a bit difficult to get my bearings, but it’s even more complicated to put on glasses. I’m not very short-sighted, but it does make a difference. So I cheated a bit for the first bay.

Then I did a bit of the same thing: half longe-côte, half swimming. I ended up swimming, again, in almost no water, because that’s where the waves were most manageable, between me and my buoy. And that was it.

So I was maybe two kilometers away. I got to the village before Granville. It was just about time. I could have finished, I think, the way I was going. It was just right and I was tired. What’s more, at that stage, I had quite a few aches and pains in my arms and shoulders. I was feeling tired.

And then, as I’m used to going beyond my limits with ultra and travel, when you’re tired, which happens a lot, I caught myself having the thoughts I have when I have to push myself and I don’t feel like it anymore. So I said to myself: ” There are different things to do. You see, turn off your sensations, it’s not up to you, go ahead, stop looking at the dot in the distance, take three breaths, and on the third, look at the pebble. And then, the next stone. “It’s like when you ride a bike, you have these mechanisms to help you keep going.

I told myself that this wasn’t what I was there for at all. I got out of the water and decided it was over. My girlfriend was waiting for me on the beach. We’d bought a brioche and some chocolate milk. We ate our brioche and chocolate milk after my swim.

The best way to finish!

That’s exactly what we did when we were 8 and taking swimming lessons where we learned nothing. Hence the fact that I didn’t know the crawl until 2021. And actually, I thought, that’s exactly why I came here: to have snacks on the beach with my girlfriend after my session. I didn’t come here to stress myself out because I didn’t make it. It’s a nice way to end, especially when you’re talking about currents.

The greatest challenges

When you mention currents and weather conditions, that seems to me to be one of the biggest challenges in organizing such an adventure. Is it really the most difficult, or was there another aspect that represented the main difficulty for you?

In fact, the tides, especially at Mont-Saint-Michel, play a crucial role. There’s a two-hour window in the day when you can swim without having to walk for too long. And even if you did have to walk a long way to get to the water, the slope of the beach is such that once you’re in the water, you have to walk another 200 metres to get knee-deep, then another 200 metres to get waist-deep. It’s not practical at all.

You could choose the calm periods in relation to the wind, but for the tide, it’s either now or never, and you don’t really have any control over the other conditions. I think that, more than the currents, what was really complicated for me were the tides. But at the same time, it was a good place to be because I knew the coast a bit. I think the best thing is to choose a place you already know, even if you’ve never swum there, you know the water.

Risk management

Yes, it’s obvious. It’s better not to jump in blindly. It’s a complex business. And what about your girlfriend who was following you on the coastal path, did she go for a walk without worrying too much about you, or was she always looking out to sea to make sure everything was okay? How did you manage it?

The first day, I wasn’t really swimming, so she didn’t see me swim. But on the second day, I think she was a bit stressed, more than I was. It was nice to have someone 200 meters offshore, but she wasn’t a lifeguard. If she’d ever seen me in distress, she’d have called a lifeguard.

But on the third day, the day of the cliffs, which I was particularly afraid of, she told meshe hadn’t seen me for a single second of the session, even though she was trying to spot me. And for the next two days, it was much the same. She saw me struggling in the waves, coming back out of breath, and told herself to keep an eye on me.

Afterwards, I told her that I’d stay on the shore if I felt that swimming put me in a dangerous situation, and advised her to go back, get warm, and not walk two kilometers in the rain for nothing. So it was a mixture of moments when we both said to each other that it was a bit risky, and others when she continued on her way while I was careful not to put myself in danger.

You managed the risks by being really careful, minute by minute, saying to yourself, for example, “This is too risky, I’m going to go into longline mode” or “I’m going to get out of the water altogether”. It was your way of managing the risks inherent in the sport, remaining cautious and making decisions as you went along. His presence was reassuring, but in the end, it was up to you to manage the situation.

I knew what could happen. It wasn’t a hurricane either. The currents in the area were more from south to north, but here on this coast, if you surf, you end up on the beach, whether the tide’s out or in. And I knew that. Then I had my buoy. It’s not a lifebuoy, but if I had a cramp, I could hang on to it and wait 10 minutes for it to pass.

The only real danger I’d considered was that I wouldn’t be able to swim again, for example if I got a cramp and the current pulled me back towards the cliffs. That’s why I always swam well away from the cliffs. After that, I’ve never had a cramp in my life, so there wasn’t really any risk. I think risks can be scary, especially if something goes wrong, but actually, the chances of it happening are minimal if you’re careful.

Yes, and you’d also planned stages that weren’t too long to give yourself a margin of safety, because you know you can manage those distances. That’s an important point.

Incidentally, one thing I didn’t mention was that I had found assisted swimming routes, with someone in a kayak or, better still, a motorboat alongside. But it was mainly for races or challenges. There’s a guy who swam around France. It’s impressive, but he swam 25 km a day and lugged all his gear with him. He’s a professional explorer.

The Tour du Lac d’Annecy, for example, is a challenge I’d have loved to do. But it’s hard to find information about it, except in the context of supervised races where there are people to keep an eye on you. So what I was doing was completely different, because I didn’t have anyone to look after me. It was up to me to organize myself.

Future projects

Yes, exactly. It was also important not to fall back into the mindset of a race where you put too much pressure on yourself. Here, you did things at your own pace, the way you wanted to. And did it make you want to do this kind of aquatic adventure again?

Yes, very much so. Frankly, yes… but not in a place with tides. It’s really restrictive. It’s fine for 4 km a day, but for longer distances, it’s too complicated. Really, with the tides, it’s not worth it for longer distances.

On the other hand, the place where I was is an exceptional area in Europe, and it made me want to do this kind of adventure again. I’d love to do lake tours. I’ve already done quite a bit of swimming in Lake Como, for example, doing village after village. But then again, some areas are off-limits to swimming, and information on the Internet is very hard to find. In fact, you’d have to scout the area by bike first, then plan a week’s swimming, or know someone on the spot. But the most complicated part is really the planning.

Yes, it sounds really complex. It’s true that you don’t always realize it when you’re not interested in the subject. You think there’s water everywhere, but in reality, there are plenty of places where it’s simply impossible. And finally, if someone is listening to us and wants to embark on a similar adventure, what advice would you give them?

I think my approach to this adventure was the right one. My goal is to go on longer trips, with greater daily distances. As much as I started the cycling adventure with a 6-month trip across the Andes with no experience whatsoever, and that was fine – there are plenty of people who succeed like that – it’s different for swimming. You really have to build up gradually and increase the distances as you get ready.

That’s excellent advice. And where can we follow you online if we want to keep up with your adventures?

I have an Instagram account and a website:

• Instagram account
• Website

Thank you so much for sharing, it was really original. I must admit I was intrigued, and I’m delighted to have learned more, especially about your way of seeing things and organizing this project. We’ll be keeping an eye on you, and maybe you’ll come back to tell us about other adventures in the future.