Now I need a good sleep!
After 49 days and 330 miles, plastic crusader finishes his epic swim
HE wasn’t the first to swim the English Channel, of course. But for Lewis Pugh the 22-mile crossing from Dover to Calais would have been far too simple.
Instead, yesterday he became the first to complete the journey lengthways – a 49-day, 330-mile slog from Cornwall to Kent, in cap, goggles and Speedos.
As he came ashore at Shakespeare Beach, Dover, accompanied by dozens of swimmers from a local club, the 48-year-old said he was relieved and exhilarated. But he admitted: ‘Now I need a really good sleep. It’s been very, very long. I’m exhausted, physically exhausted, mentally exhausted, so delighted to be here.’
Mr Pugh, an endurance swimmer who swam without flippers or a wetsuit, completed his ‘Long Swim’ – the equivalent of 15 Channel crossings – to raise awareness of marine pollution, especially the threat from plastic waste.
He took to the water at Sennen Cove, near Land’s End, on July 12, completing between six and 12 miles a day, sometimes swimming at night and braving jellyfish, storms and a shoulder injury. Between sessions, the former SAS reservist spent time on his support boat, came ashore to highlight conservation issues and grabbed a few hours’ rest.
Mr Pugh, who was born in Plymouth but now lives in South Africa, was greeted at the finish with a hug from his wife Antoinette Malherbe and congratulated by Environment Secretary Michael Gove.
‘Completing the Long Swim is my biggest achievement in all of the years I have been swimming and campaigning for ocean issues,’ Mr Pugh said, adding he was ‘really shocked’ by the lack of fish he saw.
‘ I saw plastic on picturesque Cornish beaches and found party balloons five miles off the coast at Brighton and saw countless other examples of the impact of climate change and human behaviour on UK waters. I’ve seen a few dolphins, a few birds, lots of jellyfish, but virtually nothing else – the oceans around the UK are so badly overfished.
‘We need urgent action from the Government to protect the seas along the UK coastline.
‘Our oceans are in crisis. Unless we take real, serious action now, it’s very difficult for me to see how they can recover.’
‘We need action to protect the seas’