Swimmers set for icy plunge in one of Africa's coldest regions
Press Release / 18.07.2010
Wearing only Speedo costumes, swimming caps and goggles, the six veterans who include world record holders Ram Barkai and Theodore Yach will attempt to swim a mile on July 17 in bone-chilling Nuwedam in remote Fraserburg, near Sutherland, Northern Cape – one of the coldest regions in Africa. The dam temperature is expected to plummet to below 5°C at the time.
Fraserburg is a five hour drive from Cape Town and is one of the most authentic, well preserved and coldest towns in the Karoo.
The brainchild of Barkai who holds a Guinness World Record for having undertaken the world’s most southerly swim (a kilometre in an icy lake, 1C, in Antarctica in early 2008) the event is a first for Africa and part of Barkai’s goal to undertake an ice swim (5°C or colder) on every continent. The event will also raise funds to help build a school in Fraserburg.
In addition to the mile, 30 other newcomers to “ice†swimming, but all regular cold water swimmers, will attempt a shorter Endurance Swim of 600m in Nuwedam. Both swims are set for Saturday 17 July, usually the coldest time of the year in the area, with temperatures plummeting to minus 10 degrees Celsius or below some nights.
Barkai teamed up with Speedo and invited five other cold water specialists to join him in the mile swim. They are: Theodore Yach, record holder for most Robben Island swim crossings (57), Andrew Chin, who led a team of swimmers (including Barkai) in relay down the entire length of the Orange River, Ryan Stramrood and Kieron Palframan, who have both completed the 34km English Channel and Toks Viviers a veteran Robben Island channel swimmer who swam around a remote Alaskan island (with Barkai, Chin, Stramrood and Palframan) last year. All are regular participants in the annual extreme 7.5km Cadiz Freedom Swim from Robben Island to Blouberg.
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