‘Madswimmers’ put focus on dire state of Dead Sea

TALI FEINBERG

The South African “Madswimmers”, with Cyprus Israel Swim Team and Ecopeace, have joined forces to co-ordinate this venture. The team includes South Africans, Israelis, Europeans, Americans, Jordanians and Palestinians.

The “Madswimmers” are a group of ordinary people doing extreme swims to raise money for South African children’s charities. They recently broke a world record by swimming in the Andes at 5 909m above sea level, using pickaxes to cut open a swimming lane in the ice after a tough eight-day hike, and then swimming in only Speedos in hypothermic conditions.

After this highest point, they now head to the lowest – the Dead Sea, which is 430m below sea level. The extremely dry climate, diversion of streams for farming irrigation, and heavy-handed salt evaporation projects in the south have led to the sea losing over a metre a year.

Says Madswimmer Evan Feldman, who lives in Cape Town: “The Dead Sea is a historically important area for all religions… There is a community that has been there for more than 2 500 years and it currently relies on the Dead Sea as a source of living – whether tourism or industry.” 

He explains that desalinisation efforts can be modernised and water can be brought in from the Mediterranean to the Sea of Galilee in order to feed the Jordan River, but “mismanagement and slow policy transformation are hampering these efforts. We want to bring enough awareness that change happens at a faster pace.”

No one has ever attempted to swim across the Dead Sea before – it is difficult and dangerous. Explains Feldman: “All of our swims require massive co-ordination and logistical operations. This swim comes with the additional soft logistical problem of ‘the neighbourhood’. We are crossing borders. It has been a massive issue and challenge to get the right people on board from both the Jordanian and Israeli sides.

“Ecopeace -an organisation that has offices in the West Bank, Jordan and Israel – has been co-ordinating the swim. The hard logistics have been seen to by the Cyprus Israel Swim Team and contain so many working parts.

“There are no boats on the Dead Sea, so we have had to bring them in from the Marina, across the desert and navigate the potential sink holes while launching with cranes. The swim itself is dangerous as the Dead Sea water is poisonous if swallowed and can blind one if your eyes are soaked. We will swim with a newly-designed French mask and snorkel that goes over the mouth, eyes and nose.”

The mask makes swimming extremely difficult, as carbon dioxide builds up in it, it is painful to wear, the swimmer has to keep his head down in a specific position, and you can only swim using your arms – no kicking! Other dangers include exposure to the sun and salt leading to dehydration and skin irritability.

Swimmers are currently training in local swimming pools, for example the sea water pavilion pool in Cape Town. They will only train in the Dead Sea the day before the swim. The team underwent intensive training with world hydrotherapy expert, Ori Sela (founder of Water World and WEST swimming technique).

“We need to be clinical and understand all the issues beforehand,” explains Feldman. “We have three special unit trauma doctors with us. Each boat will be identified by a colour for each pod of swimmers. Each pod needs to stick together and maintain space as we don’t want the masks being kicked off. It is very easy to be disoriented if you find yourself without a mask all of a sudden and drowning becomes a reality. Responsibility and calmness are key.” The group plans to set sail at 04:30 from the Ein Gedi Kibbutz on the Israeli side on eight RHIB boats – similar to “rubber ducks”. They should sail for an hour and get to the Jordanian side, where they have identified a delta to land the boats and prepare for the swim. The swim should take around six to seven hours.

To the South African Jewish community, he says: “My message is stay united, stay strong – challenge yourself with Torah and challenge yourself physically. I hope that the community helps us in achieving our targets for these amazing children’s charities. We have raised over R7 million since 2008. See www.madswimmer.com/donations for more information.”

* To follow the swim on November 15, visit www.facebook.com/MadswimmerSA.