Good evening

On 24 August 1875, Captain Matthew Webb became the first person to swim the Channel, slathered in animal fat to fend off the cold. The shortest distance across the Channel is 33.3km (21 miles) but Webb was blown off course and ended up swimming something like 63km. Since then, around 2,000 successful solo swims have been recorded by the Channel Swimming Association, with swimmers risking hypothermia, cramps, sickness and one of the busiest shipping lanes in Europe.

Clearly it’s not a challenge for the faint of heart, but what if you could break up the 33km into manageable chunks? And swap the choppy, murky Channel waters for warm, clear seas? And if you had the support of a dedicated back-up team and dozens of fellow swimmers to keep you company and boost morale? That’s the idea behind UltraSwim 33.3, a new company that is offering supported, multi-day swims in spectacular locations – Croatia, Montenegro, Greece and Switzerland – covering the same distance as the Channel crossing (or shorter options if that seems too daunting), but in a more achievable, and frankly more enjoyable, format.

There has been a big increase in demand for “challenge holidays” offering participants the chance to take on a physical feat, whether it be climbing a mountain or cycling part of the Tour de France route. For many, the chance to really test themselves is a far more worthwhile use of their precious holiday entitlement than spending a week prone on a sunbed.

As the 150th anniversary of Captain Webb’s incredible feat of endurance approaches, writer Lizzie Enfield signed up for their four-day Croatia challenge, which involves swimming between islands off the Dalmatian coast, and includes a welcoming hotel to relax in at the end of each day. She found the open water swims challenging at first but enjoyed “swimming across the sun-dappled kelp forests, the calm rhythm of stroke after stroke, and the quiet pride of finishing each day’s swim”. And even though she doesn’t manage to complete the full 33km distance, she writes: “I tasted something akin to what Captain Webb must have felt: the slow, steady triumph of body over distance, albeit without the freezing water of the Channel, or the beef tea.”