The 7.2 km race is now a major event for South African long-distance swimmers and over 60 competitors took part this year. It took my friend more than three-and-a-half hours to complete the distance and a huge amount of perseverance.
As she writes in her blog
Swimming South Africa she had put all thoughts of sharks – which have attacked many swimmers in the area – firmly out of her mind.

“One of the girls took up position at the back of the boat [that was accompanying her and two other swimmers] to point out things that could be sharks,” she writes. “This was a sensible and helpful thing to do, but it's funny how you perceive things when you're in the water. As I turned my head to breathe, I'd scrutinize the faces of my boat crew for any signs of anxiety or potential threat. The face of the shark hunting girl was beginning to scare me.”

She managed to avoid the sharks, but not the jellyfish.

“Squelch. My hand hit something soft and slimy in the water. I had slammed into a jelly fish. I waited for the pain of the sting, but nothing happened. Brilliant! These were non-stinging jellies. I relaxed and kept to my rhythm.”

But the waves nearly prevented her from finishing.

“Only 30 meters to go. OK, I'll keep swimming I thought and then suddenly a wave swept me up and smashed over the top of me. In the white water my goggle straps were torn off the back of my head and I almost lost them and my cap. What was going on? I couldn't work out why the waves were breaking so far offshore. Afterwards I found out that there were reefs and sandbanks stretching out into the deep water which means waves can break several times before reaching the beach.”

“Then I remembered that waves often come in groups and then stop for while. I was in the middle of a big group now, but if I found a place to wait it out safely, surely they would die down? And only a few seconds after thinking this, that's exactly what happened. The sea seemed to relax around me and the waves disappeared.”

She then swam for it and finished the race.

Joanna will be spending the rest of her trip teaching children in the townships how to swim. Many of them have never been in a swimming pool before.