Lewis Pugh typically starts to plan his next extreme-swimming challenge after just enough time has passed for him to have forgotten how deeply unpleasant the last one was. He opens his atlas – I know! An atlas! – and turns the pages until he finds a body of water that captures his imagination. “I’m flicking through and I think, ‘Can I swim around this cape?’” says Pugh, who is 53, and has been testing the limits of human endurance for 35 years wearing just a silicone cap and a pair of Speedos. “Can I swim down this river? Can I cross this ocean? Can I cross this bay? Where can I shine a light on a place? Where can I tell a story?”
When his next venture finally comes to him, Pugh notes, it is never an “aha moment”, but almost always an “err-duh moment” – something glaringly obvious. “I’m agonising, agonising and it’s not quite right and then suddenly” – Pugh claps his hands – “it was right in front of me. ‘Err-duh! Why did I not think of that?’”
