Victorian farmer Scott Gladman goals to be first to swim size of Darling River

For months, Victorian grain farm supervisor Scott Gladman has spent each working day coaching for what might be a monumental feat.

At the age of 63, the grandfather plans to grow to be the primary individual to swim the total size of the Darling River, 1,650 kilometres, to fundraise for causes near his coronary heart.

His journey, which he’s calling ‘Fight the Current’, started on Tuesday close to Brewarrina in far north New South Wales, and can finish when he reaches the Murray River at Wentworth within the state’s south-west.

He is elevating cash for Fight Parkinson’s and MND Victoria, and expects the journey to take roughly 103 days, if all the things goes to plan.

Why the Darling?

The plan happened after a coronary heart scare on the age of 54 prompted Mr Gladman to concentrate on benefiting from his second likelihood at life.

In 2022, his longtime pal, Russ Wardle, developed a type of Parkinson’s illness and was later identified with Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), a uncommon type of Parkinson’s, in 2024.

Around the identical time, one other household pal, 36-year-old Pat Russell, was additionally identified with Motor Neurone Disease (MND).

“I’ve just seen a lot of people along the way that get all sorts of different illnesses and things like that,” Mr Gladman stated.

“I’ve got a bit of a second chance [but] they don’t have a second chance; they’ve got a big battle ahead of them.”

Mr Gladman stated he turned his thoughts to embarking on a bodily fundraising problem for his mates and all households impacted by MND, PSP and Parkinson’s.

“I just thought I could swim the Murray River, but people have done that,” he stated.

‘He’s a machine’

The thought of the endurance swim was first communicated to Mr Russell and Mr Wardle in September final 12 months.

Mr Russell stated he and his spouse had been in awe at how devoted Mr Gladman was to seeing it by.

“It’s shocking and humbling that he would do this for me and my kids,” Mr Russell stated.

“And the quantity of psychological grit and issues he is completed even earlier than getting within the water has been phenomenal.”

Mr Russell will steer a boat ahead of Mr Gladman as he swims the Darling.

“He’s twice my age; he is not a younger man anymore,” he stated.

“To get his physique in that nick to deal with it’s a credit score to him as a human.

“He’s a machine, he sets his mind to something and makes sure it happens.”

Preparing for mammoth process

Given the problem, Mr Gladman tapped famend swim coach and Australian marathon swimming corridor of fame entrant Mike Gregory for recommendation.

In preparation, every day of the working week, Mr Gladman awoke at his farm at Natya, in Victoria’s north-west, at about 4.30am.

He would hop in his ute at 5am and within the hotter months drive 20 minutes to the Murray River at Boundary Bend, Victoria, earlier than swimming about 4 or 5 kilometres.

As winter approached, he would as an alternative drive an hour to Swan Hill to swim laps of a 25-metre indoor pool.

Sundays he would save for lengthy swims of about seven or eight kilometres, and Saturdays had been his solely relaxation day, the place he would assist take care of his grandchildren.

For his journey down the Darling River, Mr Gladman plans to start out swimming 12 kilometres a day earlier than ramping up the gap.

“I have not swam that distance yet, that might sound a bit strange … I haven’t really been much over 8 kilometres,” he stated.

The journey forward

Also becoming a member of Mr Gladman on the three-month journey are his spouse, a household pal, and Canberra man Mike Bremer, who has paddled a number of rivers within the Murray-Darling Basin.

Despite the pair solely assembly not too long ago, Mr Bremer determined to affix the Darling River journey in a canoe.

“I just said to him ‘are you interested in paddling the whole distance with me?’ And he said ‘yeah, I’ll be in that’,” Mr Gladman stated.

“There’s no real form of communication and I wear earplugs … he’ll either have to hit me on the back of the head with a paddle to get my attention or he’ll just start steering towards me and that will push me one way or the other.”

But it might not be all swimming; Mr Gladman stated he might be pressured to stroll in some areas if the Darling River will get too shallow.

“We’ve got the other interesting challenge that we’ll have to get the boat and everything over [any weirs], so we’ll be winching it up beside the bank, and then pulling along the bank a little bit and then we’ll be dropping it back down the other side,” he stated.

“A few things I’m sure that we’ll find out along the way that may work and some things that may not … that’s all the fun of it, I suppose.”

Missed milestones and fundraising

During the swim, Mr Gladman will miss quite a lot of occasions, together with the grain harvest season, the Victorian election on November 28, and an vital household milestone.

“We’ll swim for them on that day.”

Having secured sponsorship to buy an ATV and a ship for the journey, Mr Gladman stated he would raffle the boat and promote the ATV as soon as he has accomplished the swim.

He stated he hoped to get extra sponsors on board and is working a GoFundMe through his Fight the Current web site to lift cash for his chosen charities.

He stated once they get to the end, cash from the sponsors and donors can be break up “half and half, one [lot] to MND and one to Parkinson’s”.