Swimming for a cause

TEN open-water swimmers will tackle 22km of ocean water along the Wild Coast to raise funds for ecotourism and marine awareness.

The area is threatened with mining by an Australian company.

One of the swimmers is open-water swimming legend Andrew Chin, whose list of achievements includes the Bering Straits, between Russia and Alaska, and around Cape Horn.

He has been on a mission to swim rivers in each of South Africa’s provinces to send out messages and make a difference, like when he swam the Wilge River in the Free State in 2003.

“We were in for a shock. S**t was flowing into the river just below Harrismith. We got the municipality to fix it and I realised we could make a difference.”

Last year, Chin swam the Mtamvuna River, which enters the Indian Ocean not far from the Mzamba Estuary, where the April26 to May2 Wild Swim will begin.

“The people there live in harmony with nature. They fish, they hunt and they don’t deplete resources, and they do not want mining to take place.

“The dunes will be damaged, and the likelihood of their being restored is remote if mining takes place.”

Chin said the swim could pave the way to swimming as a form of local eco-tourism.

With Chin, who is from Cape Town, will be locals Abigail Ray, a former DJ at East Coast Radio, and Durban-based journalist Fred Kockott.

The others are journalists Mike Loewe and Craig Bishop; Brad Ray and Stan Kozlowski, charity fundraisers; Mervyn Bremner, who competed in the International Ice Swimming Championships in the Arctic Circle in Russia; sprint and long-distance swimmer Marcelle “Splash” Webber; and Robben Island Channel veteran Tony Sellmeyer. They will end their swim at the Mtentu Estuary.

To find out more, go to: https:// rovingreporters.co.za/the-wild-swim1/