<\/p>\n
Andy Donaldson completed his record-breaking swim down the Ord River in just under 12 hours. (ABC Kimberley: Giulia Bertoglio)<\/p>\n
“The last kilometre of the swim is really, really special,” he said as he emerged from the water, cheered on by locals.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Simone Blaser, the first person to do the Ord River ultra swim two years ago in 16 hours and 13 minutes, accompanied Mr Donaldson on his challenge and even swam a stretch with him.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
An adventurous swim\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Donaldson is no stranger to extreme challenges as he has broken multiple world records and is the first person to complete the Ocean Sevens in a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The memory of the white cliffs of Dover disappearing behind him as he set a record-breaking swim across the English Channel was etched in his mind as he prepared for his longest solo swim challenge through the red cliffs of the Ord.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Andy Donaldson swims in Croatia. (Supplied: Andrew Donaldson)<\/p>\n
But Mr Donaldson said he was “blown away” by the Kimberley’s unique environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think that’s probably the best place where I’ve ever swam in my life,” he said. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I think that swim could really become a bucket list challenge for any swimmers around the world.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Andy Donaldson swam down the Ord River through rugged red cliffs. (ABC Kimberley: Giulia Bertoglio)<\/p>\n
The Scottish-Australian swimmer was well aware that while the Ord is monster-free, he was going to share the water with thousands of freshwater crocodiles.<\/p>\n
He said he was not worried about swimming in the upper Ord, a popular recreational spot for locals.<\/p>\n
“You are in their environment in their home, you need to be respectful,” Mr Donaldson said.<\/p>\n
“It is a beautiful thing that we get to share the water with nature”.<\/p>\n
But Mr Donaldson reassured a child asking him if he had any close encounters with crocs that he only saw the ones on his coach’s feet.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The why powering him on<\/p>\n
Mr Donaldson said the dam-to-dam swim, <\/strong>which had been planned for the last 13 months, was not just a personal challenge but a “celebration of all things swimming”.<\/p>\n He was invited to Kununurra by local photographer and swim club president Ben Broady, who said not having a public pool for two years had negatively impacted local children’s swimming skills and water awareness.<\/p>\n Loading…<\/p>\n “It’s like having a kid missing school for two years, it’s not good,” he said.<\/p>\n The ultra-swimmer visited East Kimberley schools and ran clinics, hoping to inspire locals to stay active and physically and mentally healthy in the remote community, where a new Olympic-sized pool will open in the next couple of months.<\/p>\n Kununurra teenager Chyanne said swimming in the Ord River was “refreshing and very calming”, but she looked forward to swimming in a “bigger and better” pool.\u00a0<\/p>\n In the meantime, she got the chance to swim in the same lane as Mr Donaldson in the nearby town of Wyndham and felt inspired.\u00a0<\/p>\n “It made me very confident about myself,” Chyanne said. \u00a0<\/p>\n Chyanne says she loves swimming in the Ord River but looks forward to the opening of Kununurra’s new pool. (ABC Kimberley: Giulia Bertoglio)<\/p>\n Mr Donaldson said sharing the challenge with a team and having a supportive community behind him gave him the extra drive needed.<\/p>\n “You might be the only one swimming, but you have people in your corner, by your side through thick and thin,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Mr Donaldson explained endurance sports were more about mindset than pure fitness.<\/p>\n Andy Donaldson said team and community support are key to his success.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n “You are spending hours alone with your own thoughts and that can be tough and isolating and lonely,” he said.<\/p>\n But having a “powerful why” behind each challenge propelled him forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n “When you do a swim for something bigger than yourself, you find strength you never knew you had,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Australian marathon swimmer has set a world record by swimming 55 kilometres in 11 hours and 51…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":460880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[273],"tags":[202656,202660,202659,18,19,17,202658,202662,202657,133,10905,33036,461,21596,202661],"class_list":["post-460879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-andy-donaldson","tag-dam-to-dam","tag-dam-to-dam-swim","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-lake-argyle","tag-oceans-seven","tag-record-swim","tag-science","tag-swimming","tag-wa","tag-wildlife","tag-world-record","tag-world-record-swim"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116491998740970341","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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