Sir
Edmund Hilary climbed Everest because it was there. NASA sent Neil Armstrong
to the moon for the same reason.
Tammy van Wisse found her challenge in Bass Strait.
When courageous Tammy came ashore at Apollo Bay, after spending more than
17 hours slogging wearily for 100km, she became the first person to swim
the strait from King Island to Victoria.
This terrible stretch of water with its fickle weather, violent westerly
winds and fierce currents has been Australia's equivalent of the Bermuda
Triangle for 
countless
ships and their crews and passengers. King Island is known as Shipwreck
Island.
With this forbidding reputation, the strait is definitely not recommended
for swimmers.
But Tammy swam all night. As the sun went down the sea grew cold and chilled
her bones. She suffered nausea caused by swallowing too much seawater.
As she neared the Victorian coast, she battled a 2.5 metre swell.
As 1000 people cheered her ashore at Apollo Bay, her brother John, with
whom she once swam the English Channel, said: "Once she's done something,
she wants to try something bigger."
Because it is there.
