News articles:

21/02/2008 - It's all about the Preparation

24/02/2008 - Track the progress of James' Challenge

"Every couple of minutes, we receive information from James' Nokia N82 about his position, which means you can watch his progress in real time on the website." Keep track of the progress here.

26/02/2008 - Walliams on Virgin Radio

David was being interviewed on Virgin Radio today about the upcoming Sport Relief challenge. Everything kicks off from this Thursday! David says "the swim from Gibraltar to Morocco is shorter than when he swam the English Channel but the seas are rougher, colder and much more life in the sea (sharks!)"

27/02/2008 -  And he's off!

James' amazing attempt to set a world record is now underway! James left Dover at around 11am on the 27th February and if conditions are good, he should reach Morocco around the 5th March. Watch progress...

28/02/2008 - Walliams reveals shark fear

When Little Britain star David Walliams swims the Straits of Gibraltar next month, it's not the freezing water that will give him goosebumps - but his fear of sharks. Petrified of the predators lurking beneath the waves of his 12-mile charity swim with Olympic rower James Cracknell, the 36-year-old comedian is worried that he'll be a man-eater's catch of the day. "They'd be more likely to eat me because I'm fatter than James.
He probably wouldn't be very tasty because he's lean and muscly but with me there's more fat to chew on. "Mind you, if there's a shark attack, it would make good TV." Source.

Heat World have a video of David in the middle of a city centre, in a dressing gown... Watch video.

01/03/2008 - The laydee is for turning serious

David Walliams surprised everyone – particularly himself – when he achieved one of the 50 fastest times for swimming the English Channel last summer and raised £1m for charity. Now he is preparing to join rower James Cracknell on the final leg of the Olympic gold medallist’s epic attempt to row, cycle and swim from Britain to Africa in seven days in aid of Sport Relief: “I’m jumping in at the end to get some of the glory,” he says. Read full article here...

02/03/2008 - Cold Crawling: Walliams in new swimming quest

Having battled his way through jellyfish, seaweed and sewage to conquer the English Channel in 2006, comedian David Walliams is preparing for a fresh challenge: swimming the Strait of Gibraltar alongside Olympic rower James Cracknell later this week.
Cracknell is currently midway through an attempt to reach north Africa in seven days by rowing, cycling and swimming. He is pedalling furiously down through France and Spain to raise money for Sport Relief, having set off from Dover last Wednesday. Walliams is awaiting a call to join him as he nears the end of his 1,400-mile bike-ride. They will both then swim the final leg to Africa, with Walliams acting as friend and coach. Full story...

05/03/2008 - Viva Tarifa!

Today's target is Tarifa, the starting point of the swim. James says "We're still deciding whether the swim will be tomorrow or Friday. It depends on the conditions and how I'm feeling. It may be safer for me to have a rest day rather than plunge straight in. One thing's for sure, I'm on the home straight now!"

Update: Approx 6pm (GMT) and James has made it to Tarifa. The official websites quotes James as saying in a text: We are here at Tarifa! Africa comes next. 12 miles to go... But not yet. Weather gives us a day off tomorrow and then the swim attempt could be on for Friday..."
"I'm going to be having a medical when I finish the cycle to check I'm in good shape for the swim, which I will hopefully attempt on Friday dependent on the weather. Tonight I will be having several media interviews, relaxing and eating lots of food to provide me with energy for tomorrow... "

It's day 9 for Cracknell's challenge and is a well-deserved rest day to give James a chance to recover from the 1,400 mile cycle before attempting the 14 mile swim. David Walliams is with him and raring to go.

James' blog for day 9...

"Even though it's a rest day, it's not like I'm lying around taking it easy! I was still up early to get some physio. Well, I say early - it was nowhere near as early as when I was doing the cycle leg of the challenge.
I've also been doing a round of press interviews with David Walliams, who's joining me on the swim. David's been on top form all morning. He's revealed a fear of sharks, which wasn't something I was worrying about until he mentioned it.
Of the challenge so far, the 14-mile swim is the section where I have the least natural ability. To stop me getting too nervous about it, there's talk of going to Gibraltar later depending on how many press interviews there are left to do."

Start time: 09:40am (GMT) 

"This is it! The last day of the challenge and it's the big swim. I can't tell you how fired up both me and David and I are. He's almost bubbling over with excitement. Since the doctor gave me the go-ahead yesterday, it's pretty much all we've talked about.
Until I was declared physically fit to undertake this leg of the challenge, I didn't want to set my heart on completing the challenge today. But now I've got medical permission to do the swim, I'm raring to go! I'd put my wetsuit on now and dived in if I could.
Both David and I are under no illusion, the 12-mile swim is going to be tough. It's pretty rough water out there and the water is freezing. But I can't wait. We think its going to take us between four and six hours, which means the end of the challenge is so close now I can almost taste it."

Time: 11.54am (GMT)

Latest text message: "We have 4 pilot whales swimming around James and David right at this moment! Its beautiful!"

Yacht Trip

After completing the swim, Walliams and Cracknell will be picked up by Dragon's Den millionaire Theo Paphitis on his yacht before being flown back to the UK. Source.

Mission complete

Time: 2:11pm (GMT) Time taken to swim: 4.5 hours.

James has proven how close Africa is, using his own body strength to arrive in just 10 days! He's capsized, suffered from saddle sores and braved shark infested waters.

James' blog for day 10... 

I've done it! I've actually managed to travel 1,460 miles under my own power alone in only 10 days. And it's been an incredible experience.
The swim went much better than either David and I anticipated. It even gave me one of the best moments of the challenge so far when four pilot whales swam around us. An absolutely amazing sight. I'm so lucky to get the opportunity to do these things.
I've got to thank the support crew for making sure we safely navigated the shipping lanes. The Strait of Gibraltar is far from quiet and it could have got quite hairy with some of the large ships and tankers that use this stretch of water.
It took us just 5hrs to swim the 12 miles. Both David and I could feel the support behind us all the way and it's thanks to everyone who's donated money to Sport Relief that we managed to complete the swim in such a good time.
Words can't express how satisfied, pleased, overwhelmed and exhausted I am now that the challenge is over. I'm so happy to have helped raise so much money for such a good cause. And of course, I'm over the moon to have set a brand new World Record. I've managed to burn an incredible 60,000 calories and slept for just 50 hours in the last 10 days. I've also spent more than 108 hours in the saddle. So I'm hoping this is going to be a tough one to beat and I get to hang on to my World Record for a while!

08/03/08 - James Cracknell cracks African epic

As if swimming from Europe to Africa were not enough to deal with yesterday, James Cracknell also had to cope with the fact that his companion, the comedian David Walliams, was repeatedly and violently sick halfway across the Strait of Gibraltar.
Fans of Little Britain were instantly reminded of Maggie, the projectile-vomiting bigot, but this time Walliams was doing it for real, all in the name of Sport Relief.
"It was horrible, absolutely horrible," a pale-faced Walliams said later in a surreal interview on a small, bobbing boat somewhere off the coast of northern Morocco.
The double Olympic gold medallist had rowed across the Channel, then pedalled through France and Spain, but needed a water-buddy to keep him company swimming to Africa. That is where Walliams came in.

This was a brilliant, dogged, truly inspirational swim, taking just over 4½ hours, an achievement that perhaps would even have moved a few real-life Vicky Pollards to raise an alcopop in grudging acknowledgement. Or perhaps they would have just chortled at Walliams' sickness.
Around the halfway point, shortly after the swimmers had been visited by a playful family of pilot whales, the rough conditions, and swallowing too much salty water got the better of Walliams. The noise he made was absolutely terrifying, sounding halfway between the howl from a wounded walrus and a tanker's fog-horn. It was an extraordinary effort to carry on; after all, he has never won any gold medals, just Baftas.
"As soon as I started throwing up, I felt so completely demoralised, and I just wanted it to end, and that's quite a dangerous point to reach," he said afterwards. "It was a mental challenge as much as a physical challenge, and I totally lost it in my head. Oh God, I was thinking all sort of horrible thoughts. Source: Telegraph.

14/03/2008 - James Cracknell Interview

In comparison to his previous epic journey in which he rowed across the Atlantic with television presenter Ben Fogle, it was far less monotonous. "At least with this I had views to look at," he said, "and there were some Brits out there who came out into the streets to cheer us along. In the Atlantic it was just like 'oh look, there's some water and more water and more water'. In fact, in the whole of that crossing I think I saw maybe four boats.
"On the bike there were some lonely times but it was better for my sanity as I knew the support crew was always with me."
Cracknell's European cycle ride ended up in Tarifa where he was met by Walliams whose pre-swim training regime appears to have been somewhat difficult to his sidekicks having spent a night in a Soho lap-dancing club, which was all over the Sunday tabloids.
Cracknell said: "I've not had a chance to ask him about that but it looks a novel way of preparing. It was a bit different to my preparations." While Walliams, who has already swum the Channel, was clearly the more accomplished swimmer, the comedian was sick halfway through his crossing with Cracknell being forced to keep his distance.
"He basically got sea sick so I had to steer clear of him otherwise I would have been sick as well," he said. "It wasn't great for him as he still had two hours left of the swim but, all credit to him, he still managed to do it and it wasn't the easiest swim that's for sure."
In fact, just 200 people have successfully swum across the Straits of Gibraltar, although the company of some pilot whales along the way helped the pair get across. Full story...

Sport Relief Show

The BBC had a huge line-up of entertainment tonight including the Gibraltar to Morocco swimming challenge with David and James.

9.40pm - Top Gear presenter Richard Hammond welcomed James and David to the Sport Relief studio and we got the chance to see a small documentary of the challenge, which will soon be available here for anyone that missed it!

They both raised an astonishing £341,451 and were awarded with medals from Dame Kelly Holmes and Sir Steve Redgrave.