Continent to
Continent
Swim
North America to
South America
Crossing the Isthmus of Panama
STAGE
Completed
YOU MUST BE MAD!
Crossing the
Isthmus of
Panama
The 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 Authorities, requests through the South African Government’s 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 split
between 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.
local help.
The Embera Indian tribe
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.
Atlantic coast
of Panama
The second half of our swim on the Atlantic coast of Panama was less
eventful, but long. We had a slight ½ 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.
History
5
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 America
1
Europe to Asia
Europe to Africa
2
Australasia to
Asia
Asia to Africa
3
4
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 Madswimmer 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 considered 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.
STAGE 1:
EUROPE TO
AFRICA
SPAIN
MORROCO
ACROSS THE STRAIT OF
GIBRALTAR
STAGE 3:
AUSTRALASIA TO
ASIA
PAPUA NG
INDONESIA
TED
COMPLE
STAGE 2:
TURKEY
THE BLACK SEA CROSSING
THE BOSPHORUS STRAIT
2 September 2010, Europe to Asia
Jean Craven, Evan Feldman
& Colin Franks
12.1 km | 4 hours & 12 minutes
21 September 2009, Europe to Africa
Jean Craven & Tim Ziehl
17.1 km | 4 hours & 21 minutes
TED
COMPLE
ALONG THE COAST OF
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
STAGE 4:
SAUDI ARABIA
EGYPT
TED
COMPLE
ACROSS THE CANAL
The Stages
COMPLE
ACROSS THE RED SEA
STAGE 5:
PANAMA
TED
ASIA TO
AFRICA
21 October 2011, Australasia to Asia
Jean Craven & Andrew McLaggan
23.3 km | 6 hours & 1 minute
NORTH AMERICA TO
SOUTH AMERICA
TED
COMPLE
EUROPE TO
ASIA
15 October 2012, Asia to Africa
Jean Craven, Robert Dunford,
Michiel le Roux & Johann Theron
21.1 km | 4 hours & 55 minutes
STAGE 6:
NORTH AMERICA TO
ASIA
USA TO RUSSIA
ACROSS THE BEIRING STRAIT
23 September 2013, North America
to South America
Jean Craven, Robert Dunford,
Evan Feldman, Michiel le
Roux, Linda Main, Gerhard
Zandberg & Johann Theron
21.3 km | 7 hours & 12 minutes
2014 North America to Asia,
Team TBC
United States to Russia | Little Diomede
Island to Large Diomede Island
Donors and our
Charities
We 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. Madswimmer is a registered charity. All proceeds raised in this years swim
will go to registered children’s charities and your donation will make a
difference in a child’s 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.
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 to
[email protected]
Email: [email protected]
Cell: +27 (0)82 572 2738
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