Australian grain farm manager Scott Gladman, 63, is attempting to swim the length of the Darling River, Australia’s third-longest river. It begins in New South Wales and finishes at its confluence with the Murray River at Wentworth. Gladman believes he will be the first person to swim the entire 1,650km route.
Gladman started on September 1 from near Brewarrina in far north New South Wales. At the outset, he budgeted 103 days to complete the swim, averaging around 16km per day. So far, he is largely on track. After 49 days, he has covered 660km, leaving just under 1,000km to go.
New to endurance swimming
Interestingly, the expedition is not born from a love of endurance swimming. Gladman was inspired to find a fundraising challenge to support friends impacted by Motor Neuron Disease and Progressive Supranuclear Palsy, a rare form of Parkinson’s. Initially, he considered the Murray. “I just thought I could swim the Murray River, but people have done that,” he told ABC News. “No one has had a crack at the Darling.”
The location of the Darling River in Australia. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Gladman gave himself 18 months to train. In the summer, he swam in the Murray River at Boundary Bend, Victoria, and during winter he completed laps in indoor pools. Now out on the Darling, a support boat of family and friends keeps him company, alongside a canoeist.
“There’s no real form of communication, and I wear earplugs…he’ll [the canoeist] either have to hit me on the back of the head with a paddle to get my attention, or he’ll just start steering toward me, and that will push me one way or the other,” Gladman said.
Despite its length, the Darling River is sometimes so shallow that Gladman needs to float through sections on his back, or walk. The support boat also sometimes requires saving, with Gladman having to help clear a path through river debris:
