This would have been the third event to be held at the Heia Safari Ranch this summer, and was to have been an official seeding event for the world famous aQuella Midmar Mile which takes place at the Midmar Dam near Howick on the 12th and 13th February 2011.
With over 600 online entries already received, the organizers were looking forward to a highly successful open water swimming event at this picturesque venue which has been dubbed “Gauteng’s cleanest Dam”
But the weather had other ideas in store for both the swimmers and Lake Heritage!
Heavy rains fell on Wednesday night and by early on Thursday morning the water of Lake Heritage had risen over two meters.
The last time the waters reached this level was in January,2006 when the Lake filled in 3 days!
Although the water did look calm it was very dirty and flowing extremely fast and as a result Gaby Burgmer, the owner of Heia Safari Ranch, in conjunction with the swim organizers, decided to cancel the swim fearing for the safety of the contestants.
Although there was no prize giving medals were handed out to those participants that did brave the inclement weather and arrived at Lake Heritage ready to compete.
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1 comment:
Thanks for another great post. We'll need to get back to South Africa and have Erik and Grant do one of these swims in the future.
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