Dover to Calais: an alternate way
Less than two hours from the continent
Hopping on to a P&O in Dover means that you can be surrounded by crumbly French cheese and Calais in around 90 minutes. Given that, one might be surprised to learn that some people are still quite motivated to propel themselves across the stretch – swimming.
A friend of mine once remarked that he admired the Chinese for ‘persevering with chop sticks for thousands of years after the invention of the knife and fork.’ Admittedly, I feel this same grudging respect for those who feel compelled to swim across the channel.
Few sports require the participant to negotiate oil tankers, swarms of jellyfish and the possible icy bite of hypothermia, but channel swimming is certainly one. Whilst the British Channel has proved to be quite useful in keeping out Hitler and Napoleon – there are a few less notable historical figures who have made light work of it.
First across was a chap called Matthew Webb who kicked and crawled his way across in 1875 in a time of 21 hours 45 minutes. Webb’s achievement was hailed by the Victorians who generally considered the idea of swimming in cold water to be a soul-enriching experience.
Webb, buoyed with his successes decided to tackle a dangerous swim across the Niagara River for a booty of £12,000. The swim was declared to be suicide by many, and sure enough ten minutes after jumping into the waters he was sucked under by a whirlpool and never seen again.
Meanwhile back in the English Channel more than 750 people have now followed Webb’s achievement in crossing the waters. The most notable of these is possibly the comedian David Walliams who completed the swim in 2006, raising £1 million for charity along the way.
Alternately, you could always jump on the boat.
The sky above the port of Dover was the colour of television, tuned to a dead channel.