The Challenge

Welcome to the Cape Town Beach Challenge 2010. 

This summer, life is all about the beach...and we'll be taking on all 101 of Cape Town's beaches. 

The challenge is to swim at all 101 of Cape Town’s beaches in 101 days!

Just like the great explorers of years gone by, we’ll face many challenges.  We’ll risk life and limb as we take on sand fleas, jellyfish, blue bottles, sand sharks and dodgy car guards.

We’ll have to negotiate killer penguins at Boulders Beach, rip currents at Monwabisi, great white sharks in False Bay and the gale force winds of the West Coast. 

So what makes our challenge so much tougher than anything Jan van Riebeeck ever had to face and why do we deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the great explorers of the 16^th and 17^th Centuries?  The reasons are simple, I’ll list just a few: 

1. Jan didn’t have to worry about city traffic or roadworks on his way to Cape Point;
2. The Ozone Layer is a lot thinner today than it was when Jan was sunning himself on Clifton 4^th;
3. Jan didn’t have to deal with ‘no go’ nuclear coastal security zones in 1652; 
4. Nobody was feeding the sharks in False Bay in the 1650’s;
5. Jan didn’t have to worry about rent boys (who are sure to be appreciating us as we strut our stuff in our banana hammocks at Graaff’s Pool);
6. I’ll bet good money there was no faecal bacteria at Milnerton Lagoon Beach in the 1650’s;
7. We’ll be carrying our own umbrellas and towels (Jan had it easy - Harry the Strandloper would have been in charge of the Nivea and the other 17 slaves would have taken turns carrying the coolbag, the Coke and the deckchairs); and
8. Nobody stole car radios in the 1650’s!

In addition to the above, we’ll have to negotiate hippies in Kommetjie, kitesurfers in Tableview and Deon Bing in Muizenberg.  We’ll try our hand at fishing in Fish Hoek and we’ll hunt for floaters in the frothy, brown waves of Strandfontein.

We’ll search for the undersea cables linking South Africa to the rest of the world at Melkbosstrand and we’ll visit the South African Navy in Simon’s Town.  We’ll hang out with lifeguards at Clifton and we’ll find out just how cold the Cape Town water is when we bare all at Sandy Bay.

We’ll be doing more than just adding our names to a list of great explorers, we will also be cleaning the beaches.  We will only be leaving each of the 101 beaches once we’ve collected 101 pieces of rubbish…. that’s over 10 000 bits of rubbish…I bet Jan never got his hands dirty like that!

The challenge starts on 21 November 2010 and finishes on 1 March 2011, with a three week Christmas break inbetween.  So if you’re brave enough, strong enough and if you’ve got what it takes to swim your way into the history books, then join us on the Cape Town Beach Challenge!