Swimming Tourism: ‘Ferries Are For Wimps’
Travel Blog • Jim Benning • 05.08.07 | 11:44 AM ET
Personally, I have no problem with people who ride ferries. But former Australian lifeguard Simon Murie, who runs a company that leads trips for island-hopping swimmers, has declared that, yes, “ferries are for wimps.” SwimTrek organizes trips to places like the British Virgin Islands, the Greek Islands and Croatia’s Dalmation Coast so that serious swimmers can spend their holidays island-hopping—in the water, of course. Swimmers cover up to four miles a day and up to 15 miles a week, often making one journey between islands a day with a chase boat. As a swimmer, I find Murie’s description of the experience pretty compelling.
“It’s based on the idea that you have a sense of journey,” he explained to CNN. “You swim from one island to the next. It’s a lovely feeling turning up to an island off your own steam. You spend the night on an island, get up the next day, walk to the edge of the island and swim to another island.”
SwimTrek’s 2008 schedule includes numerous trips in Malta, the Dalmation Coast, the Greek Cyclades, the Isles of Sicily and the Scottish Inner Hebrides. The company also offers a two-day River Thames tour.
Photo of the British Virgin Islands by D. Knisley via Flickr, (Creative Commons).
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Jim Benning is the editor and co-founder of World Hum.
