IT FELT like an eternity, with cramping, exhaustion and confusion in course direction making things tougher, but Bournda resident, Mary Davis, was determined she would finish what she had travelled thousands of kilometres to do, even if it took all day.
Mary was one of more than one hundred swimmers who took part in the Heron Island Inaugural Great Barrier Reef Swim in October.
As it was she spent one hour and 55 minutes completing the three kilometre course, but this 69-year-old granny can hold her head up high.
Tanja resident, Ann Herbert, also travelled to Heron Island to take part in this epic swim.
Both women love to ocean swim and are part of a local group who regularly swim from Tathra Beach to the wharf and back, year-round.
There were two swims offered, an 800-metre short course and a three kilometre swim around the island.
Mary and Ann registered for the long swim.
This swim would present them with many challenges, not the least being the extra distance, but they were prepared to meet them head on.
The four-day event, initiated by the Ocean Swims organisation, attracted ocean swimmers from around the country.
“It was the most amazing week ever,” Mary said.
“We were so lucky to be part of the inaugural Great Barrier Reef swim as they did everything to make it as special as possible.
“We were lucky to even get to the island as Qantas was having all sorts of strikes and unrest so Ann and I were pretty anxious about our chances.”
Mary and Ann arrived by catamaran on the island, “an absolutely beautiful place … the sea being an incredible aquamarine blue with the clearest water imaginable.”
“Just as well we got there when we did as the catamaran broke down the day after they had transported us to the island and the staff on the island was in a flap, as anyone leaving the island had to be taken by helicopter, which could only take about three or four at a time.
“There was no guarantee that we would get off again but at least we were there,” Mary said.
“The whole group was full of interesting people and it was not a cut throat competition that everyone was lining up for, but a fun experience.”
The next day they met former Olympian swimmer, Graeme Brewer, who talked about swimming and offered some tips.
“After lunch they took us (in small groups) on a tour of the course and then dropped us off to swim back about 800 metres.
“Actually, I found that swim hard at first as I was trying to breathe the way Graeme had said and sort of tightened up and didn’t swim too well until I decided just to do my own thing.
“It was also against a current so was hard but it was a good warm up,” Mary said.
On the day of the main swim, the course had to be changed due to the difficult currents around the island.
“It was altered to, supposedly, take advantage of the currents and not have to swim against them.
“The 800m (which turned out to be 1.2km) went first and those of us that were doing the longer swim had to wait for a dozen or so swimmers to come back as they wanted to do both swims.
“That ended up being the undoing as we waited and waited and our swim did not start until an hour after the scheduled time, meaning the tide turned and so all the currents changed.
“We had to swim out 500m from the end of the island (which is shaped a bit like a cigar) and then across 300m to a second buoy and then swim about 2km down the length of the island to the finish which was around the other end.”
Mary set off swimming for the distant buoy but then lost her way after rounding the first buoy.
“A guy came up on a kayak and asked me where I was going.
“I asked him where the second buoy was and found I was going in the wrong direction so I said I was swimming to NZ and then set of in the right direction for the second buoy.”
The swimmers had been told that after rounding that particular buoy, they would then be swimming with the current.
“Crap! I soon realised that it was against the current,” Mary said.
“The guy in the kayak appeared again and said to swim back to the island and stay closer in to get easier currents so that is what I did but the island seemed miles away.
“Anyway, I just swam and swam.
“I was totally determined that I was going to do the full swim, without fins.
“It was incredibly hard and I kept getting bad cramp in my legs so I had to swim with my arms and try to bend my feet up and uncramp my legs.”
Mary was joined by another woman and the two of them swam together silently, knowing they had each other for support.
“Sometimes I would lose sight of her and hope that she had not pulled out and gone ashore but, no, she stuck it out and so did I,” she said.
“I thought we were near the end as we had passed all the resort buildings and were near the last part of the island when Moose, the guy in the kayak, appeared and said that we had to go around a buoy that was about 200m out to sea.
“After having been advised to swim closer to shore, we had to then deviate out to sea again and around the third buoy but I and my mystery swim mate did that.
“Then he said to swim towards the wreck at the end of the island and swim inside the wreck but outside the moored boats at the end marina.
“We did that and I went past the wreck and thought I could finally turn for the beach when Moose appeared again, pointed to another buoy and said we had to swim around that!
“I was so tired but I really wanted to do the full course so I swam out to that buoy and around and there was Moose in his kayak so I said in more colourful language, ‘Are there any more buoys?’”
With that verbal barrage Mary instantly became famous as the swimmer who swore at Moose, who is quite well known as he appears in the TV series, Bondi Rescue.
“I swam back to the beach and came out and just crashed on the sand.”
She was second last, but the time it took did not matter to Mary.
“I would never have believed that that was possible,” Mary said.
“Before we started the swim Moose had told all the swimmers that if they were still in the water after two hours we would be taken out.
“I had no idea how long I had been, but I had decided that if anyone told me that I had to pull out I would have told them to get lost as I was absolutely determined to finish.
“Afterwards Moose said that there was no way he would have made me stop!”
Ann finished about 10 minutes ahead of Mary.
“I think it is the hardest thing I have ever done in my whole life but I felt just great,” Mary said.
Once the big swim was over the rest of the time was total fun with plenty of delicious seafood and fine wines, live music and dancing – a real party atmosphere.
Mary and Ann also had enough energy to do some reef snorkelling and revelled in the opportunity to view such beautiful and diverse marine life around the island.
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