On the 9th November 2005, Dan and myself became the first people in over ten years to successfully swim across the Severn Estuary, following the old ferry crossing route from Beachley Slip to Aust Slip, only previously completed by US Naval Seals as part of a training exercise.

We set off together on a neap tide and within a few minutes of swimming we soon found ourselves battling against the fierce current that this river is so notorious for. The current has been known to flow at speeds of up to 21 kpm! and is arguably the most dangerous stretch of water in the UK, not only due to it having the second highest tidal range in the world, but also because of its extremely fast flow and very deep mud all along its banks.

After fighting the intense current for which seemed like an eternity, but which was probably more like twenty minutes or so, the tide started to change, we were later informed that at this point we were almost one mile further up the river, almost at the nearby power station. Weakened somewhat by the current, I noticed that the SARA rescue boat had moved in very close, probably to check up on us, I decided to give them the ok sign and somehow summoned enough strength to dig in with my stroke yet again and fight my way back to the bridge.

The bridge loomed closer and I soon found myself along side Dan again. As we swam underneath together, as if from nowhere, the river suddenly changed and began to grow quite rough, with waves constantly crashing against me on every breath of my stroke. Dan shouted to see if i was okay and later told me how he had a little laugh to himself as a wave suddenly crashed against my face as i was about to answer him!.

As we exited underneath the bridge the next obstacle was to navigate ourselves around what appeared to be a large electricity pylon which jutted out into the estuary and prevented adequate navigation of Aust Slip, the finish point.

The current appeared to be constantly changing as we swam nearer to Aust slip, which was probably being produced from the underlying mud flats from the continual change in depth.

At last the finish point was in sight! Dan decided to make a dash for it, unfortunately my strength would not allow me to do the same and i found myself battling with the current yet again. With Aust slip now in sight is was a case of using every bit of strength I had to try and reach the shore which appeared to be about only 50m away.

Dan reached the old slip in 1 hr 29 mins, I managed to misjudge the jetty on my approach by about twenty metres or so to finish on Aust shore in 1 hr 30 mins. We had done it!.

I came away from this challenge with a new sense of respect for this river, it is all what it is said to be, very, very dangerous! and very, very strong!.