Sarah Ferguson Begins Epic 1,500 km Swim from Durban to Cape Town
Most people fly, some drive… but South Africa’s world record-breaking endurance swimmer, Sarah Ferguson, has today (Mon 21 Feb) set off to swim from Durban to Cape Town! Sarah, who set a Guinness World Record when she became the first person to swim around the entire perimeter of iconic Easter Island in 2019, is again […]
Most people fly, some drive… but South Africa’s world record-breaking endurance swimmer, Sarah Ferguson, has today (Mon 21 Feb) set off to swim from Durban to Cape Town!
Sarah, who set a Guinness World Record when she became the first person to swim around the entire perimeter of iconic Easter Island in 2019, is again pushing herself beyond the limits to save our planet.
In her ongoing bid to raise global awareness for plastic pollution in the coastal ecosystem, Sarah is swimming the 1,500km distance to Cape Town! You can follow her epic journey here, her most challenging swim to date.
The 39-year-old stepped off a Durban beach this morning, and set off “with gusto”, according to her team (which includes coach Sarah Houston). Conditions were clear with a light head wind and some jellyfish… but “nothing to stop the machine that is Sarah”.
Here’s Sarah’s update after four feeds and 12.7km in… with ‘just’ 1,473km to go!!
#SarahFerguson today began an #Epic 1,500 km Swim from #Durban to #CapeTown!! #OneOceanSwim #livedeeplytreadlightly #SwimAgainstPlastic🇿🇦💕 pic.twitter.com/xIAnQZYvBL
— South Africa People – SAPeople.com (@sapeople) February 21, 2022
Sarah told gsport: “The plan is to highlight the issue of plastic pollution, predominately single use or throw away plastic as well as highlight other serious conservation issues from turtle and shark conservation, water pollution and seismic drilling.”
She hopes to complete the first leg of her trip in East London in 20 days’ time. If there are any corporates out there who would like to sponsor Sarah, please do for this crucial cause! And if you’d like to personally support the work Sarah’s doing to create a plastic free ocean, please donate here: www.breatheconservation.org
Writing on her Instagram page two weeks ago, Sarah – who is also a physiotherapist – admitted that she was feeling “a mixture of excitement, anticipation and overwhelming ness (if that’s even a word!)
“I have to keep reminding myself that this is what I love and that I’m just swimming a lot every day! Breaking it down into day by day sections is the only way to manage the enormity of what I’m about to undertake.”
Apart from shining a light on plastic pollution, the swim also has meaning for Sarah in that she’s swimming from Durban, where she now lives, to Cape Town, where she grew up.
Hashtags for the swim include #OneOceanSwim #livedeeplytreadlightly and #SwimAgainstPlastic
If you haven’t seen it yet, watch Sarah’s incredible swim around Easter Island in ‘Against the Current’, an inspiring documentary which has been screened at film festivals in SA and the US.
This Durban to Cape Town swim is destined to be as inspiring. As Sarah told gsport: “In lockdown I was forced to look hard at what I could do.. With the Covid pandemic, the single use plastic has risen to exponential levels along with the KZN riots which created serious chemical spills. Now more than ever, I want to use my voice and talent to speak up for the future generations”
And follow Sarah’s Durban to Cape Town challenge on Instagram here: