“I’m coming back.” Cameron Bellamy promises second attempt at Barbados swim

On 7 September 2018, at 7pm, Cameron Bellamy set off from Pebbles Beach and started to swim around the island of Barbados. Twenty seven hours later he halted the attempt after completing 66km out of the 96km. Although he didn’t achieve what he set out to, the 36-year old from South Africa says it was a new personal distance record for him and that he “can’t wait to give it another crack.”

While no date has been set for a second attempt, Cameron is considering returning to Barbados as soon as November for the Barbados Open Water Festival, which starts on the 7^th, and possibly staying on to try again, depending on the weather and conditions.

Kristina Evelyn, who is one of the organisers of the Festival as well as part of Cameron’s support team for the swim says that although Cameron didn’t finish, he did swim through what she considers to be the toughest sections.

“The south-east and the east coast are toughest and he swam from south-west all around south, along east and right to the most northerly tip where he took himself out,” she says.

“Even though he didn’t make it around it was a super exciting weekend with hundreds of locals following the swim physically along the coasts and over 20,000 log-ins to the tracker from all over the world. In fact, the tracker capacity was exceeded frequently and people had to wait to get on!” says Kristina.

Watch Cameron talk about his round Barbados swim attempt (5 minute video)