This morning after the swim I’m doing the brain cancer charity walk from Shelly Beach to Curl Curl, so as I’m super-organised and a little short on time I prepared most of this blog yesterday :). Also, I took some great close-up photos of a wobbegong this morning but just discovered that the memory card was missing. So apologies for no swim photos in today’s blog.
I’m forever impressed with those courageous, sometimes a little crazy, ocean swimmers who attempt first crossings and channel swims. So today’s blog will look back in time at a selection of some of the greatest swims in history…
The Hellespont Strait (also known as the Dardanelles). In 1810 Lord Byron, an English poet, politician and revolutionary, and Lieutenant Ekenhead, successfully crossed this infamous stretch of water that separates Europe from Asia. I suspect a wager of sorts must have kept them motivated. That’s Lord Byron below, sporting pre-swim attire rarely seen amongst the B&B crew!!
Next up, and much closer to home, is the Maori legend of the first crossing of Cook Strait, which separates New Zealand’s north and south islands. According to the story, the beautiful Hinepoupou made the 22km crossing girded with a small amount of seaweed. Since then, official records show that only 126 swimmers have completed the crossing. Looks nice, but I reckon it would be cold…
One of my favourites would have to be the Strait of Gibraltar crossing, around 16km from Europe (Spain) to Africa (Morocco). Swimmers must dodge all number of obstacles including ships – about 300 per day pass through the straits – and even killer whales! Congrats Mark Mallinson on completing this swim last year. Here’s what it looks like from space…
I would be remiss to exclude the English Channel swim from this list and it was first crossed by Captain Matthew Webb in 1875. Too many stories of courage and perseverance to detail here (including by some B&B swimmers), but I was particularly impressed with Sarah Thomas, a cancer survivor who earlier this year became the first person to swim the channel 4 times without stopping. Here’s a GPS record of Sarah’s swim…
As good as all of those swims were and are, our daily trek across Cabbage Tree Bay and back has to rank as one of the best in my opinion.
Stats: 17 degrees (felt cooler to me) and it seemed like loads of people heading in for the 7am swim.
6 comments
Anne
20/10/2019 at 10:30 am
Very interesting blog, thanks
Elizabeth Stewart
20/10/2019 at 1:57 pm
I agree that the first ones to do those crow wings are extra courageous but what Ana chievemebt for any swimmer who does them. 126 is not many people out of the whole world who have crossed north to south nz island
John
20/10/2019 at 4:08 pm
Thanks for the blog. Some swimmers were lucky enough to see that wobbegong near the point this morning.
Although nothing of the magnitude of those marathon swims, a few BnB swimmers have done the historic Dardenelles swim.
Gemma
20/10/2019 at 5:57 pm
Thanks Tim – inspiring stuff! Paul (who used to swim with us) was training for a swim which I think went between Hokkaido and Honshu islands in Japan.
Lesbubs
20/10/2019 at 7:10 pm
I’m pretty sure Jules who started bnb .. has swum all these swims as well? 🤔
Sarge
22/10/2019 at 10:15 am
Hey Timbo, great blog. However…….. you’ve missed one of the great swims. It has everything, and very few people have done it…..