This will be the 29th year that the annual Polar Bear Swim, or the “Ysbeertjie”, will take place.
“In 2024, Goldco Spares may have a fourth swim in George (Victoria Bay and Herolds bay) in an attempt to put George on the Ysbeertjie map when we take Boendoetjie, our resident polar bear, to the sea,” says Felix Burri, organiser.
In 2023, three swims were introduced to form the now famous polar bear season, namely Aldam (Ventersburg), Doringbos (Bloemfontein), and the Rogge Cloof-estate (Sutherland).
Burri says there will be a Goldfields event at Aldam on 29 June at 12:00, at the Willem Pretorius Game Reserve.
“We dedicate this event to Alet van der Walt. She was a staunch supporter and swimmer of polar bear, and wrote many articles for Volksblad. She always had the Goldfields community at heart,” he says.
This year they expect about 300 swimmers at Aldam.
The Bloemfontein swim will take place on 7 June at Doringbos, starting at 12:00. The venue is 35 km outside of town, on the R64 route.
“This is our new event and we hope to grow to 200 swimmers this year. The social 4×4 event will coincide with the swim at Doringbos.”
For enquiries, call 066-118-7957.
The swim at Rogge Cloof will take place on 13 June at 12:00.
There will be an access fee of R100 per vehicle at each event, which will be directly donated to a local charity identified by the organisers.
The charity for the Aldam event is the Odendaalsrus Rotary club, the Bloemfontein charity is the Therapea-kinderhuis, and the Sutherland charity is the Johenco retirement home.
The Herolds Bay charity will be announced.
The target for this year’s charity fundraising is R5 000.
The swim entry is R100 per person and all participants must be ten years or older. There will be a full colour medal for each swimmer. Refreshments will be available.
Direct enquiries at 082-772-7010 (Aldam), 082-376-8902 or 066-118-7957 (Doringbos), and 023-004-1161 (Rogge Cloof).
Follow the Polar bear/Ysbeerswem Facebook page, or call Burri at 082-851-4584 for more information.
