Pictured below before a charity swim on behalf of the Western Cape Cerebral Palsy Association, at Camps Bay on Women's Day, are the four swimmers (from left to right): Fred Louw, Chris Green, Kieron Palframan and Ryan Stramrood.

At its narrowest, the channel (from Dover, England to Calais, France) is 35km wide as the crow flies. They've been training up to this distance every week for the past 12 months in preparation for the swim. Most of that training is in a small 25m pool (that's 1400 lengths a week, or around 230 daily!). If you've ever swum in a gym pool, you'll know how much time that is to spend swimming backwards and forwards while staring at a single black line.

They will have a six day window period between August 23 and 29 in which to attempt the swim - when the tide is in its neap cycle. The tides are hard to predict as they are strong and change direction approximately every six hours. They also change in height and flow speed every day. Some other facts to consider:

• The swim is expected to last 13 hours if all goes well
• The channel is relatively cold water (16 °C) and is a primary reason why swimmers fail in their crossing attempts
• A standard swim costume must be worn to cross the channel. The costume must not provide thermal protection or extra buoyancy - meaning no wetsuit!
• The channel is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, with over 600 ships navigating its path daily
• 25 South Africans have succeeded in crossing the English Channel - the first was fellow Capetonian Peggy Duncan in a time of 16 hours and 17 minutes. Thirty nine years later in 1969, CLDSA chairman Peter Bales became the first South African man to do it
• About 1200 people have succeeded in total since the first in 1875

The crossing success rate is commonly known to be only 10%!

So let's hold thumbs and wish them the best of luck! Post a comment below if you'd like to relay your words of encouragement and I'll be sure to forward the messages on.

Men's 4 x 100 metre freestyle relay featuring Roland Schoeman, Lyndon Ferns, Darian Townsend and Ryk Neethling. 3:13.17 is the time to beat. Ah wah ah ah ah!!

And while on the topic of swimming, I just saw that both Natalie du Toit and Zim's Kristy Coventry made it onto TIME's 100 Olympic Athletes To Watch. Go girls!

We arrived in Gibraltar just before sunset. The airstrip is as wide as Gibraltar itself and the landing was spectacular. Gill's friend Chris ("The Chrisalator") fetched us from the airport and we crossed the border into Spain where we've been sharing an apartment in the heart of the town for the past week.

We haven't done much more than drink, eat, tan, sleep, and repeatedly kill a few good Borat quotes or Spanish phrases, in and around Tarifa and the Costa del Sol region. The weather's been ok - this place is notoriously windy but the sun's always out in force. The language barrier has been a difficult one, also considering that Chris speaks fluent Spanish, so I haven't really had to do much talking myself.

The swim took place yesterday, after waiting the whole week for the wind conditions to improve. It was a great success with all eight swimmers (seven South Africans and one American) reaching Morocco in under 4.5 hrs. I believe the Strait of Gibraltar is the busiest shipping channel in the world and we were continously dodging giant container ships...from a small inflatable dingy it's truly an experience worth repeating. Upon arriving at Morocco's coastline I caught sight of two flying fish - wow, never seen anything like it. We also saw some Pilot Whales on the return trip. Congrats to Gill, Ryan (who is now the first Saffer male to swim the Strait) and the others who reached their goal and who I've spent my time here with.

UPDATE [28/09]: Siblings conquer Gibraltar at News24.com (features one of my photos)

It's my last night in Tarifa. I said goodbye to Gill, Chris, Ryan and Nicky earlier and depart on my solo trip up the coast towards Cadiz and then Seville on route to Portugal where I'll spend roughly two weeks. Will write again soon, so adios until then!

I fly from Gatwick airport on 18 September, where I'll meet up with Gillette and the rest of the swimmers who are attempting the 15km crossing of the Strait of Gibraltar, which connects Europe to Africa. From Gatwick we fly to Gibraltar, and then cross into the south of Spain (into a small town called Tarifa) where we'll spend a week. From there, I plan to backpack around the rest of Western Europe for the next three months until mid-December.

As if that's not enough, I've also been in contact with Steven Klugman, another Capetonian open-water long distance swimmer, who's coming to England in a couple of days. In February this year he became the first South African and the first male to swim across False Bay. Last year he won a swimming marathon around Manhattan Island. If all goes according to plan, I'll be seconding on his attempt at the English Channel double. i.e., to France...and back, in one day. To date there have been only 17 successful double crossings.

The "seconds" escort the swimmer from a boat and assist with providing refreshments, taking photos (ah-ha), etc. Basically helping out. That should be an experience! Read more about both swims in this Sunday Times article.

UPDATE [30 Aug]:'Strait across' by Sue Seger, published in The Witness today.
Also, George Brunstad - a retired pilot - became the oldest person to swim the English Channel today, at the age of 70.

UPDATE [03 Sept]: Follow the progress of Steven Klugman's "Double Trouble" attempt over at Open Water Swimming South Africa.

Well done boys! And a new world record to boot.

ATHENS - The South African Men's 4x100m Freestyle Relay team proved that Australia and the USA are not the only superpowers of swimming at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games when they won gold and set a new world record on Sunday night at the Olympic Aquatic Centre.

And this via IOL (who took almost 12 hours to post the story...):

The victory was made all that sweeter after some trash-talking by the Americans at the practice pool this week. It was reported that the Americans had told the South Africans how badly they were going to beat them, but the green-and-gold team apparently laughed it off.

Viva!

Yet by anybody's standards it doesn't even begin to compare to the challenge faced by those we were setting out to accompany. 4 long distance swimmers, 3 Cape's spanning 11km of hostile ocean, 13°C water with meter-high swells and strong currents, an officiator in a kayak, 2 shark repellants, torrential downpour with strong winds, 1 bottle of Champagne and lots of Energade - all accumulating as the Triple Cape Challenge swim. A successful record-setting attempt by my brave friend Gill, record-holding long distance swimmer Lewis Gordon Pugh (profiled on the Extreme Planet website along with Ben Saunders. Coincidentally, Lewis is the record-holder for the "Most Northern Long Distance Swim in the World" for his North Cape swim, north of the Arctic Circle!) and CLDSA members Tony and Kevin.

I was serving as lookout and photographer while accompanying the swimmers around the three Cape's: Cape of Good Hope, Cape Maclear & Cape Point - to Buffelsbaai in a 11km swim that had never been attempted before. For some perspective of the distance involved, click on the digicam icon accompanying this post. Swimming the three Cape's is a world-first achievement and I'm humbled by the gutsy performance of Gill and the others. As someone who finds diving through a wave intimidating, I'm feeling so inspired right now.

I only wish my digicam was up to the challenge. I decided to brave the drizzling rain (which minutes later turned into torrential downpour) to get some shots an hour into the swim. Inevitably I suppose, a smidgen of wetness found itself into the part of my digicam responsible for deciding that it would no longer function from that moment onwards. Before we even reached Cape Point! Shit happens!! The view of the notoriously dangerous coastline from the boat was incredible, and we passed a raft of penguins after rounding Cape Point which made being drenched in sea water for the day all worth it. That and of course the success of the swim.

I have a huge backlog of photos to upload but right now I'm going to bed. Subservient Chicken is so distracting. G'night!