AUTUMN 2017 // TOUCHDOWN
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WATER HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE MEASURE OF LIFE FOR ANDREW CHIN , THE SON OF A FREE STATE FARMER . THINGS WERE GOOD WHEN IT RAINED , NOT SO MUCH WHEN IT DIDN ’ T .
The 47-year-old father of two still uses water as a barometer for life , only on a larger scale . Since 2014 , the Cape Town-based extreme swimmer has been on a mission to swim a major river in each of South Africa ’ s nine provinces to raise awareness of how important these arteries pumping water to the hearts of our towns and cities really are . He ’ s swum three rivers so far and the message he ’ s come back with is chilling : the water crisis isn ’ t coming , it ’ s here .
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swimming South Africa ’ s lives depend on – water .
SURE TRAVEL JOURNEY : How did this all start ? ANDREW CHIN : I started swimming in 2000 after I had a back operation , it was part of the rehab . At that stage I thought swimming a mile in the dam was pretty extreme ! But I got into it and soon I was swimming to Robben Island . Then I heard about Slovenian long-distance swimmer Martin Stel , who holds the Guinness World Records for swimming the entire length of the Danube , Mississippi , Yangtze and Amazon rivers , and was inspired . I put together a group of swimmers to swim the entire length of the Orange River . We did it over four 10-day trips , one each year for four years . These swims were purely for personal achievement . Then one of my mates wanted to do some
PHOTOS BY ALAN VAN GYSEN
MAKE MEMORIES FOR LIFE // 59