by Jessica Kieras
September 14-15th, Simone Blaser completed the first ever marathon swim down the Upper Ord River, in Kununurra, Western Australia. Undoubtedly one of most adventurous swims of the year, this swim took Simone and crew through over 50 km of Australia’s rugged outback in a time of 16:13:49, pending MSF ratification. Born in South Africa, Simone moved to Switzerland when she was eight, and then emigrated to Australia in 2008. Since 2019, she has been adding marathon swims to her resume, ranging in distances of 10-25 km.

Preparations
She was first inspired to swim the length of the river after taking a group of swimmers to Lake Argyle as a part of her organization, SwimwildEscape, which takes swimmers on adventurous swimming retreats in Western Australia. She found she did not want to stop swimming when it was time to go and promptly organized a crew to help her tackle the unprecedented length of the Upper Ord River. Then she set off training consistently and earnestly, with the help of her coach, Paul Newsome. Her training focused on completing incrementally more volume by week, culminating in an eight hour pool session.
The Swim
The swim began at night. In her narrative, Simone describes the beginning of the swim beautifully: “The surroundings were surreal with the moon three nights away from being a full moon, stars shining bright in this very remote area of Australia. I was focusing on the glow sticks of the kayak and on finding my rhythm. I was in heaven! This is really happening!! The fast flowing sections of the river were exhilarating, I was having so much fun.”

After six hours of swimming, the sun rose. “It was pure magic, the most memorable and beautiful experience of the whole swim,” she wrote. “I was swimming between these two gorges, the colours were breathtaking and the water was calm and smooth. I was overwhelmed with joy!” She got into a meditative state after pushing through a rough few hours between nine and eleven in the morning.

The water was milky and visibility was low. She had researched the local wildlife before the swim and learned that freshwater crocodiles don’t attack unprovoked. Still, she noted she was aware she wasn’t alone. “Once in a while I would hear a loud splash underwater knowing it was a freshwater crocodile sliding from the sand banks or rocks nearby, disturbed by our commotions and going into the water.” A catfish nibbled on her toe and she’s pretty sure she “headbutted” a turtle.


The Finish
When she reached, “Elephant Rock”, about ten kilometers from the finish, she knew she was going to achieve this incredible thing she had set out to do. She described this as, “an unbelievable moment where I still had to hold all the emotions of joy, relief, exhaustion, pain but mostly gratitude in before I reached the end point. I’m a very emotional person and just had to put my head down and keep swimming and not cry until I got there.”

After sixteen hours and thirteen minutes of swimming, Simone emerged from the water as the first person to swim the length of The Upper Ord River. She feels the swim has transformed her in that she is mentally stronger for having done it. “If you step out of your comfort zone and attempt something extraordinary and scary, that’s where you find the magic!” she said. “I’m an everyday mum who started swimming regularly 10 years ago and would have never thought I’d be capable of doing anything like this. I’m very proud of this achievement!”

I asked if she had advice for other swimmers who might like to try something similarly adventurous, challenging and unprecedented. “Do it!” she said. “It’s very rewarding to conquer a feat that no one has ever done before. You need time to research, plan, execute but it’s so worth it. If you are open minded and an adventurous swimmer, get out there, venture and you’ll have the most unbelievable experience.”