Day one in paradise: it's barely 7.30am and I'm up with the red-vented bulbuls and white-collared kingfishers, which are in full song outside my bure. There's no going back to sleep – nor do I want to.
Dressed in swimmers, I gather my goggles and cap and step out onto the sandy path that winds between hibiscus, frangipani and palm trees towards the resort.
The infinity pool is sparkling in the morning light as staff plump the lounges. That will entice me later, but not now. I'm at Mana Island Resort & Spa in the heart of Fiji's Mamanuca group of islands, to swim – a lot. And, as it happens, my idea of an active stress-busting holiday (instead of flop and drop) is not so strange after all. Almost 30 of us have signed up for this six-day swimming safari of daily distances ranging from one to 10 kilometres.
Assembled on the north-facing beach, my group is easily distinguishable by their attire. Not a bikini or boardshort to be seen, everyone's wearing sluggos and one-piece cossies designed to stay on in the water. Body shapes vary, which reminds me that where distance swimming is concerned, let's just say extra kilos are a boon for buoyancy.
Chief swim captain Paul Ellercamp, the barrel-chested, deeply tanned co-owner of Sydney-based Ocean Swim Safaris, outlines this morning's swim route. Having not seen Ellercamp in his sluggos before, I'm momentarily distracted by some disconcerting extra bulges in the front of his togs – which turn out to be an underwater camera with floaty attachment and his goggles.
"The tide is high enough for us to swim over the reef that surrounds this island," he says, adding more instructions on reaching our destination: about 50 metres offshore, we are to reconvene at the edge of the reef before swimming along the drop-off for a kilometre or so east, past a headland in the distance to a bay around the corner – where the US Survivor TV series was recently filmed. With a final call to keep an eye out for turtles and eagle rays, Ellercamp dives in and we, his obedient school of multi-hued human fish, follow.
Growing niche
Swimming safaris are a lesser-known but growing niche of the global adventure tourism sector, which US-based market intelligence company Technavio predicts will sport compound annual growth of 46 per cent to 2020. Already there's an adventure tour for whatever you can dream up, from heli-skiing to cycling entire continents. Seems that just because we're on holiday, many of us don't want to forego the feel-good endorphins that exercise induces. For others, adventure holidays are an incentive to learn a new skill or get fit again.
"Long-distance swimming is the new marathon," Ellercamp tells me later, by way of illustrating the sport's growth trajectory. He and his partner Suanne Hunt started Ocean Swim Safaris in 2009, a decade after launching oceanswims.com, an online calendar and booking site for weekend open-water swim events mostly run by surf clubs. In NSW, open water swims have grown from 17 events in 1999 to almost 100 in 2016. Australia-wide, more than 47,000 swimmers participate annually. Ellercamp and Hunt figured all those weekend warriors were a travel market in waiting.
"We take people on adventures to places they're never likely to go otherwise," Ellercamp says of the 10 local and international safaris they lead a year, from circumnavigating Heron Island in Queensland to a six-night tour of San Sebastian in Spain. "We don't get hung up about distances or speeds or who's the fastest. We're not forcing you to swim when you don't feel like it. We're there to let you enjoy the place."
And that's the nub of it. How often can you return from a holiday and say you've swum from France to Spain? Or from Britain to the US in the Virgin Islands? UK-based SwimTrek will take you to lakes in Lithuania and Slovenia ringed by fir forests and castles. Or you can channel your inner escapee and swim the two kilometres across San Francisco Bay from Alcatraz Island's famed prison to the mainland.
As for me, I signed up for Ocean Swim Safaris' Mana SwimFest, a six-day event that combines a tropical island break with picturesque swimming.
Each day begins with a casual group swim of up to three kilometres, depending on the tide, marine life and prevailing winds. Day three is an official event: a 10-kilometre race completed either solo or in relays of three. (The solo 10-kilometre event can be used to qualify for entry in the 19.7-kilometre Rottnest Channel Swim the following February.) Day five is for five, three and one-kilometre races.
My tour group is a mix of singles, families and friends. There's a contingent of about 16 medicos and their partners celebrating 60th birthdays, their morning swimming offset by long, dreamy evenings catching up at the resort's restaurants and bars. Another bunch of friends are Can Too charity swimmers, and finally, six blokes in their 40s who train in a Sydney pool squad are here with the goal of each conquering the 10-kilometre swim.
Underwater treasures
The first day's swim to the Survivor village revealed more treasures below water than above. Parrotfish, triggerfish, clownfish and the occasional turtle spun around the psychedelic blue depths as we swam. Our peloton bonded over the marine life sightings, and then again afterwards on the poolside lounges and, later, at the bar. Indeed, that first swim was quite the ice-breaker. And Ellercamp was right – everyone swam at their own pace, washing up on "Survivor Island" in their own time.
After the morning swim there's a buffet breakfast and then the day is ours to spend in a hammock, go snorkelling or indulge in a treatment in the Kura spa. By late afternoon many of us reunite at one of the resort's outdoor bars, comparing notes on our day or the seriousness of our "swimmer's salute" sunburn – an unflattering outline of goggles and bathing cap.
The night before the 10-kilometre race, the local Fijians host a kava ceremony to wish us favourable swimming conditions. Kava is not my typical pre-race strategy. Nor is drinking red wine and betting on crab races, both of which took place after the ceremony.
Despite this, the 10-kilometre race went swimmingly for everyone. Fijians on kayaks followed us around the course, carrying water and bananas; Ellercamp hung off one of the turning buoys taking underwater photos. We all felt a great sense of achievement afterwards, in addition to sore shoulders and slightly swollen tongues from the salt water.
Aside from the more structured Mana SwimFest, Ellercamp and Hunt's itineraries are highly personalised, built largely around discoveries they make while travelling privately. "That's when we say to each other, 'The punters would love this'," says Ellercamp.
Their San Sebastian tour coincides with a three-kilometre local swim race around the Isla de Santa Clara in the bay of La Concha, but also includes a "secret swimming spot" the pair found after getting lost on a walk. "We've also forged close relationships with some incredible little hotels, hidden pintxos bars and tour guides."
Active and away
Simon Murie, the Australian-born founder of Swim Trek, Europe's biggest swim travel operator, is of a similar mindset. "People can organise sun, sand and spade holidays themselves on the internet," says the open-water swim adventurer and minerals engineer. "As our lives become more sedate, people are looking for ways to spend limited holiday time doing something active. Swimming trips are low-impact and don't pose injury risks."
There are 42 SwimTreks each year to 32 locations, ranging from a one-day swim of six kilometres up the River Thames for £60 ($100), to a week in the Galapagos Islands for £3000. SwimTrek took 1500 people in 2016, about 900 of whom were repeats from the previous two years. About 10 per cent are Australian. "Clients often don't know anyone else," says Murie, "but they have a shared purpose, so smaller groups work well."
Like Ocean Swim Safaris, most participants are aged between 30 and 60. Some are regular open-water swimmers, others are pool swimmers who want to give the open a go, and the rest are adventure travellers who might have gone kayaking or cycling the year before. The only prerequisite is that you can swim a couple of kilometres non-stop.
SwimTrek clients are grouped according to speed; the idea being that everyone reaches the destination about the same time. Groups are taken by boat to the start point of each swim, where guides in inflatable dinghies then provide safety cover and refreshments enroute. SwimTreks to Cornwall and Scotland's Outer and Inner Hebrides (14-degree water anyone?) as well as to the Maldives are hosted on live-aboard yachts.
One clue that swim safaris are not yet mainstream adventure holidays – at least not in the sense that cycling holidays are – is the reaction you get when telling others your itinerary includes a 10-kilometre race around a Fijian island.
First there's "You must be crazy!", then "What about sharks?" After that come the technical questions: "How do you rehydrate and eat while swimming?" and "Do you cover yourself in goose fat?" – a little silly, given the water in Fiji is 27 degrees. Murie is also routinely asked whether he's swimming for charity, or "Can't you afford the ferry?" He now sells printed T-shirts: "Ferries are for wimps" and "Been there, swum that".
One balmy evening on Mana Island, I share a bottle of rosé and a sublime Asian-Fijian seafood salad at Kura restaurant with Ellercamp and Hunt. We're surrounded by open-flame torches, while an orchestra of crickets has taken over soundscape duties from the bulbuls and kingfishers. The sky is littered with stars and all is at peace with the world. We wonder aloud what's not to like about a holiday where each day begins with a glorious swim and ends with fine food and wine. The answer is silence.
Getting set to swim solo
An unexpected bonus of participating in a swim safari is confidence. As in the confidence to give it a go on your own.
After the Mana Island week, I decamp solo for a couple of days of R&R; to nearby Vomo Island – rebuilt and reopened after copping Cyclone Winston's wrath in February 2016.
Surrounded by reef and sand, with plenty of protection from wind, I quickly surmise it's perfection for open-water swimmers. It's also ideal for lovers of cocktails, hammock time, sunsets, superb food and service. But more on that later.
Vomo comprises two privately owned islands: the resort on the 87-hectare main island and the deserted Vomo Lailai (little Vomo) about one kilometre north-west. Guests can be ferried across by boat and left there for a few hours with a sumptuous picnic and two-way radio.
Before my Ocean Swim Safaris experience it wouldn't have occurred to me, but I find myself asking Vomo's water sports team if there's any reason why I shouldn't swim to Lailai. Apart from the fact that no guest has done it before, they can't think of one.
First I kayak over to get a sense of the currents. It all seems fine. So next I swim it. It's marvellously uneventful – and a thrill to wash up 15 minutes later on Lailai's shore, à la Ursula Andress in Dr No (albeit minus the bikini, dagger and, definitely, the body).
I explore a bit, climb to a timber deck built into the trees and gaze back towards the Rocks Bar and Reef Restaurant on Vomo's northern point. It's quite the Robinson Crusoe moment.
On my return I pass the point and follow Vomo's shoreline until I recognise my villa's hammock strung between two trees. I've definitely earned a swing in that thing.
Swimming never fails to work up an appetite, and Vomo provides. General manager Mark Leslie arrived in 2015 from Desroches Island, Seychelles, and is a Michelin-starred chef. Aware that good cuisine is Fiji tourism's weak link, Leslie has made food and beverage his mission. The four-course menu changes daily, and new executive chef Preeti Bomzon arrived from Six Senses Con Dao Vietnam in November.
The resort pitches itself as five-star luxury for families in the Yasawa island group – and it is all that, down to the "baby butlers" (Fijian nannies) and lavish kids' club. But it's far from a rowdy place. Away from the main resort, the Rocks Bar and Reef Restaurant is an adults-only zone. A wet‑edge pool adjoining it will open this year.
Guest capacity across 32 villas is about 80 people, so you'll never feel overrun on Vomo – just one of many reasons, no doubt, that models Megan Gale and Elle Macpherson have both stayed. Vomo's vast sanctuary of wellness in the form of its Kui Spa might also have had something to do with it.
Forget more island swims: I could have stayed there all day.
The writer travelled as a guest of Mana Island Resort, Fiji Airways and Island Hoppers.
Take me there
Into the swim
Ocean Swim Safaris' Six-day Mana Swim is $1365 for five nights, (flights and transfers not included). Tour date for 2017 is October 24-October 29. South Sea Cruises operates three daily transfers from Port Denarau on the mainland to Mana Island for $43 per adult. Port Denarau is about 20 minutes' shuttle bus from Nadi International Airport.
Rates at Vomo Island Fiji are $FJD2375 ($1503) for two people per night, including Fiji government taxes, meals and non-alcoholic beverages, non-motorised water sports and daily washing service. "Stay seven nights, pay five" deals are offered throughout the year outside school holidays. Vomo is 15 minutes from Nadi International Airport via Island Hoppers helicopter and approximately 75 minutes via South Sea Cruises sea transfer.
Getting there
Fiji Airways flies twice daily direct from Sydney to Nadi, daily from Melbourne and five times a week from Brisbane. Fiji Airways will also fly twice a week from Adelaide from June. Business-class fares from Australia to Nadi start from $1438 return (including tax).
