Stage 5 Madswimmer.com North to South America crossing
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Transcript of Stage 5 Madswimmer.com North to South America crossing
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STAGE
Continent to
Continent
Swim
North America to
South AmericaCrossing the Isthmus of Panama
Completed
YOU MUST BE MAD!
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Crossing the
Isthmus of
PanamaThe 5th continental crossing for Madswimmer initially seemed quite
easy, a quick dash across the month of the Panama Canal and then a
long swim down the coast of Panama.. if only.
After 6 months and numerous letters to the Panama Canal Authori-
ties, requests through the South African Governments regional
ambassador in Mexico, requests through the office of the President of
South Africa, visits and more letters to the Panamanian Ambassador
in Pretoria, the group eventually opted to cross the Chagres river,
which forms the mainstay of the Panama Canal and is the natural splitbetween North and South America.
A further consideration was that the Chagres river is home to one of
the worlds largest American crocodile colonies. The group considered
various risk mitigation options including rifleman support, acacia root
juice and crocodile cages.
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Due to logistical constraints the Madswimmer team opted to use local
help. The Embera Indian tribe are a semi nomadic indigenous people
in Panama, with some of the tribes living along the banks of the
Chagres river. Having bought large quantities of fruit and vegetables
as gifts we motored up to a suggested Embera village and with our
guides managed to persuade two of their bravest young warriors to
join us and help find a safe place to cross the river for our North to
South America swim.
Just before our swim we saw two large crocodiles enter the water, as
well as a large anaconda, but fortunately they did not hinder us. We
stationed our Indian friends at strategic lookout points on both sides
of our entering point to spot potential crocodiles or electric eels
before we did the river crossing.
local help.
The Embera Indian tribe
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Atlantic coastofPanama
The second half of our swim on the Atlantic coast of Panama was less
eventful, but long. We had a slight knot current against us and
warm water with temperatures reaching up to 30 deg Celsius at some
stages, but to make up for this the weather was perfect with slight
cloud cover and calm seas. The swimmers covered the total swim of
21.3km in 7 hours and 12 minutes, linking North America to South
America, thus completing their stage 5 of the swim successfully.
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History
Europe to Africa1
Europe to Asia 2
Asia to Africa 4
Australasia to
Asia 3
What started off as a bet among friends around a few beers one late night has turned into an annual open water continent to continent charity swim. This year Madswim-
mer completed their stage 5 swim, which was an adventure in its own. This years' Stage 5 swim was challenging due to numerous factors, including the lengthy process
trying to gain permission to swim across the actual Panama Canal as well as efforts trying to mitigate the risk of American crocodiles in the Chagres river. Options consid-
ered included hiring rifleman on boats, sending over a crocodile cage, which would have been a logistical and financial nightmare, as well as using Acacia root sap, a
known crocodile and snake repellent - which we could not procure in large quantities.
This years swim was challenging in terms of trying to obtain permission to cross the actual Panama Canal , more so was the
unknown threat of American crocodiles and how to mitigate the risk.
North America to
South America5
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The Stages
21October2011, AustralasiatoAsia
Jean Craven & Andrew McLaggan
23.3 km | 6hours& 1 minute
23September2013, NorthAmerica
toSouthAmerica
Jean Craven, Robert Dunford,
Evan Feldman, Michiel le
Roux, Linda Main, Gerhard
Zandberg & Johann Theron
21.3 km |7 hours & 12 minutes
15October2012,Asia to Africa
Jean Craven, Robert Dunford,
Michiel le Roux & Johann Theron
21.1km | 4hours & 55 minutes
2014NorthAmericatoAsia,
Team TBC
United States to Russia | Little Diomede
Island to Large Diomede Island
21 September 2009,Europe to AfricaJean Craven & Tim Ziehl
17.1 km | 4 hours & 21 minutes
2September2010, EuropetoAsiaJean Craven, Evan Feldman
& Colin Franks
12.1km | 4hours& 12minutes
STAGE 1:
STAGE 4:
STAGE 2:EUROPE TOAFRICA
ASIA TOAFRICA
EUROPE TOASIA
ACROSS THE STRAIT OFGIBRALTAR
ACROSS THE RED SEA
THE BLACK SEA CROSSINGTHE BOSPHORUS STRAIT
SPAINMORROCO
SAUDI ARABIAEGYPT
TURKEY
STAGE 3:AUSTRALASIA TOASIA
ALONG THE COAST OFPAPUA NEW GUINEA
PAPUA NGINDONESIA
STAGE 5: STAGE 6:NORTH AMERICA TOSOUTH AMERICA
NORTH AMERICA TOASIA
ACROSS THE CANAL ACROSS THE BEIRING STRAIT
PANAMA USA TO RUSSIA
COMPLETED
COMPLETED
COMPLETED
COMPLETED
COMPLETED
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Donorsand our
CharitiesWe are still open for donations! We know a lot of our supporters first
wanted to see if we finished we did!
Thank you for all the support and donations already received. Mad-
swimmer is a registered charity. All proceeds raised in this years swim
will go to registered childrens charities and your donation will make a
difference in a childs life.
All travel expenses are bourne by the swimmers themselves. Only
logistical expenses on the day of the swim are covered by the charity.
South African donations, kindly make an EFT deposit:
Account name: Madswimmer.com Account number: 10011361464
Bank: Investec Bank Limited
Branch name: 100 Grayston Drive, Sandton, South Africa Branch
Code: 580105
Reference: yourname
Donation Tax certificates can be provided
Alternatively for Secure donations via PayPal go to our website
www.madswimmer.com and click on the donate tab there is a
PayPal portal on the donate tab.
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Contact Us
To follow our swim live by receiving a
real time sms on our progress,
please send an e-mail request with
your name and mobile number [email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Cell: +27 (0)82 572 2738
Like us on Facebook
@madswimmer_com
www.madswimmer.com