Opinion | Cross Harbour Race: ‘I stripped off and swam’ – SCMP’s Alkira Reinfrank overcomes pollution fears to enjoy exhilarating swim of a lifetime
- Video journalist was ready to throw caution to the wind amid pandemic restrictions and describes her 1km journey as a ‘fantastic experience’
- Alkira Reinfrank was among 1,200 who swam from Wan Chai to Tsim Sha Tsui as the annual race was revived after a two-year break
Today I did something I swore I would never do. I stripped off and swam across Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour.
For as long as I can remember, I have been sceptical about joining the city’s beloved Cross Harbour swim. While beautiful, the city’s harbour isn’t exactly known for its clean water. I mean, the annual Cross Harbour swim, which was first run in 1906, had to be stopped for 33 years from the late 1970s until 2011 because of fears over the water pollution levels.
I remember reading a story from 2018 about improving e-coli levels in the water in the harbour. While, don’t get me wrong, that is positive news, it didn’t exactly make this swimmer want to switch from a chlorinated pool to a potential Petri dish.
So fearing an ear infection, I could be forgiven for not jumping at the opportunity to swim in the city’s harbour when the Cross Harbour was last held in 2018.
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Hong Kong’s Cross Harbour swim makes triumphant return amid Covid-19 restrictions
But skip forward to 2021, I found myself in the middle of a pandemic with an itch to throw caution to the wind, jumping off a barge attached to the Wan Chai waterfront ready to swim across to the Avenue of Stars. And you know what, it was a fantastic experience.
The winter sun was warming, the crowds of swimmers (1,200 in total) were joyous and cheering each other on and most of all the water was surprisingly clean and clear. I still took precautions like ear plunges and did my best to keep my mouth closed especially at the beginning and the end when there was an odd smell in the air. But in general the water conditions were so good it was almost easy to forget you were swimming in the middle of a harbour.