Swim Trek Mallorca
nvr2late
Central VirginiaCharter Member
I was wondering if any members are going to go to Mallorca for the Swim Trek Long Distance training week. It has previously been held in Gozo, and I was really looking forward to traveling to Gozo, and Malta. It has been relocated to Mallorca this year and the reason given was due to the abundance of jellyfish in Gozo. Anyone planning to go, there are 4 different sessions in April. Has anyone traveled to Mallorca, and can offer advice?
Comments
Gozo is a stunning place and the hotel chosen by Swimtrek was perfect for the swim group. The food in Gozo is plentiful and delicious. It's a shame that the camp has been moved, but the jellyfish caused real problems this year.
The jellyfish in Gozo were a nightmare! I am not exaggerating, there is no point in me doing that. All of the swims were in bays and the guides had to keep moving the planned swims each morning based on the reports of jellyfish in the respective bays. They were primarily the mauve stingers (very pretty to look at but the stings do hurt!). There were also a few small brown ones which really hurt.
Over the course of each day the jellyfish would make their way further into the bay and closer to the surface, presumably as it got warmer. The guides were out on the rib with buckets and nets removing them - I saw pictures afterwards of buckets full of the purple blighters.
As the jellies moved further into the bay each day you could see a wall of purple approaching, the guides would shorten the swim loop to restrict the number of stings. We all got stung multiple times.
I can genuinely say that my 6 hour qualifier in Gozo was the hardest swim I have ever done! I ended up breaststroking through the patches where the jellyfish were more abundant to avoid getting stung. However, it did work. My 16 hour Channel crossing seemed easier - I was only stung twice by jellyfish on my Channel swim, but after the purple ones in Gozo they were baby stings! (I wrote up my account of the 6 hr swim with added jellies here http://zoesadler.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/gozo-swimtrek-day-4-the-six-hour-swim/ )
The SwimTrek LDT course is definitely worth attending - but a few less jellies would be very welcome! I can understand why Swimtrek have chosen to move the camp this year.
We're all just carbon, water, starlight, oxygen and dreams
Thank you Mike.
Erm, I confess that I haven't done a huge amount of swimming since the EC in July. I took 5 weeks off, then swam Lake Windermere and have struggled to get motivated since then. I find it really difficult to focus unless I have something planned.
However, I have booked myself another big swim in 2014 and arranged to meet some folks at a beach tomorrow so hopefully I'll be back in business again soon!
May 26th - morning 5 km / afternoon: Relay: 4 x 500m
May 27th - 4 km
May 28th - 7 km
May 29th - 2.5 km
May 30th - 7.5 km / 2.5 km
May 31st - 1.5 km
June 1st - 25 km
Tobias
http://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Son-Serra-de-Marina/seatemp
Thank you. I'm doing Round Jersey in August 2014. That one should be good fun and scenic. I'm already excited about that one.
I'm also hoping to do 2-way Windermere in 2013 but that's a really big ask as I will need 2 crew who are willing and able to row for 13-14 hours for me including throughout the night.
And the good news is I went swimming in the sea today and loved it!
It might be worth checking if they are going to be there that week before you book. I don't think the email implied that Kevin and Cliff would both be there for all 4 weeks.
This year in Gozo (2012) Nick Adams was there for weeks 1 & 2, Freda Streeter was there for weeks 3 & 4, Cliff Golding was there for weeks 4 & 5. I did week 3 so our special guest guide for the week was Freda plus we had three other Swimtrek guides - Fiona (also a Channel soloist), Mia and Chris.