This historic body of water is called the Hellespont in Greek and the Dardanelles in former Turkish times. In modern-day Turkey it is known as the Strait of Çanakkale. The Strait separates both the Asian and European land masses and has been a natural barrier for invading armies for millennia, including King Xerxes I of Persia in 480BC and Alexander the Great a century-and-a-half later.
Love, death and swimming
In ancient mythology, Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite, lived on the European side of the Hellespont. Leander, a young man from the Asian side, swam across the Strait every night, guided by the lamp which his mistress had lit, so he could spend the night with his lover. One stormy night Hero’s lamp burned out and Leander lost his way and drowned. Hero, seeing his body, threw herself into the Hellespont and likewise drowned. Lovers happily united in death.
The poet, Lord Byron inspired by Leander’s nightly conjugal exploits, succeeded in swimming the strait in 1810, thus becoming the first person since Leander to achieve this feat. The swim is thus considered to be the oldest open water swim in the world.
ANZAC returns
Bordering the Hellespont to the north, the Galibolu Peninsula is interspersed with monuments, cemeteries and battlefields commemorating the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign. The area includes names that are firmly etched into the collective psyche of Australians: Anzac Cove, V Beach, Lone Pine and Chunuk Bair.
My Great Uncle Lt. Rev. Herbert Hare arrived on the Gallipoli Peninsula with the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force in July 1915. He was injured, repatriated to Malta only to re-join his battalion and was later killed on the Western front on 8th August 1916.
Troy Boys
The remnants of the ancient city of Troy, with a lineage of over 4,000 years, is often quoted as the centre of ancient civilization. For many years it existed largely as a fabled city, only to be rediscovered in the 19th Century strategically located on the shores of the Strait near Çanakkale.
The Swim’s The Thing
My intercontinental crossing of the Dardanelles / Hellespont Strait was steeped in history, culture and personal significance.
On 30th August 2019 our flotilla of 700 swimmers set-off from European Turkey at Eceabat at 8.30am to swim the 4.2kms across the Strait to Asian Turkey. Sea conditions were choppy and we swam into a brisk 3-4 knot North Easterly wind and a strong cross-current. Both air and sea temperatures were in the mid 20’s celcius. 160 of the swimmers were international with the balance from Turkey.
The biggest challenge of this swim is determining the point at which to turn right towards the finish line, usually about the mid-point in the Strait. Too short and swimmers are swept down the Strait towards open water and too late and we are effectively halted by eddy currents and back flow from the Asian shoreline.
I made it across in 1 hour ten minutes, so my turns were finely judged. It was an exhilarating swim. At the finish line we had a red carpet to walk up and a local dignitary handed out medals with congratulatory words, albeit in Turkish.
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