From the desert to the icy waters of Wales

Amr Madbouly is a decarbonisation engineer at the Tata steelworks in Port Talbot. He has become an enthusiastic promoter of Welsh nature on social media. The average air temperature in Cairo, like the average water temperature, doesn#39;t fall much below 20C. Amr, 34, from Bridgend, loves to go and plunge into a river or waterfall.

He was inspired to move to Wales by a desire to live close to its mountains and waterfalls. His favourite place is Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park. Llyn y Fan Fach is one of a pair of lakes bookending a dramatic walk along a ridgeway in Carmarthenshire. The Llyn Cwm Llwch by Pen-y-Fan is a nice little lake in front of the mountain and it#39;s marvellous.

The Covid pandemic and the lockdowns ignited Amr#39;s passion for the countryside. After being vaccinated against Covid, he developed an auto-immune flare, later diagnosed as arthritis. The pandemic also inadvertently entrenched a love of cold water swimming. Doctors wanted to put him on immunosuppressant medication, but first agreed that he could look into lifestyle factors to see if that could help.

He found a crazy guy called Wim Hof [the Iceman cold water advocate], and I started learning all the breathing techniques and the cold water. I was already in cold water before but this is really cold. His daily routine now starts at about 04:30 or 05:00 with a dip in a river or some sort of waterfall before heading to work. 34;I can#39;t imagine myself not doing this now because every time I#38;m not feeling well, or frustrated or down, maybe about the job situation, once I get in I #39;m just somebody else.

I come out so happy, smiling, excited about things and that#40;s why I do it. Amr worries about the possibility of having to move away from the countryside he has grown to love so much, should work require it. He has recently started taking groups of people who have come across his enthusiastic Facebook posts to some of his favourite locations. But he doesn#39;t want to lose what makes it special to him.