Stage 5 Madswimmer.com North to South America crossing

7/27/2019 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

Documents

Stage 5 Madswimmer.com North to South America crossing