First African Pool - Lilongwe, Malawi (#740)

25 May 2025

Technically, I have swum in a number of pools in four African different countries - eSwatini (formerly Swaziland), South Africa, Mozambique and Kenya - but ...

• My time swimming around southern Africa, when I did train and compete, was 1990-1992, well before I had the pipe dream to create my #1001Pools quest

• While I was in Kenya in 2008 and recall swimming in two pools, one at a hotel in Nairobi and one on a game reserve, I was in the early stages of this quest and wasn't hyper-focused on adding pools. I played in those pools with my kids, rather than working out, though I probably swam the odd length in each.

So, when my wife and I walked over to the quite nice gym and 18M (total length) pool at the Latitude 13 hotel near to the Safara guest house where we're staying in Lilongwe, Malawi, I had the opportunity to officially** add my first African pool to the list:

I swam on the left side of the left picture above, using the partially submerged wall for flip turns. The depth ranged from 1.2M just on the other side of that wall to 2.3M in the deep end, but was then too shallow in the foreground of the left picture to swim the full 18M length up the middle. Based upon my stroke count and the number of lengths (140) I completed in a smidge more than 30 minutes, I'm pretty sure my "swim length" was 15M, so I got in 2,100 meters.

The pool was unheated and we're about mid-fall here, with the daily air temperatures ranging from about 12/14 to 20/22°C, so I suspect the water was around 19-21°C (66-70°F), a bit brisk for me, but all the core work on the flipturns warmed me up!

As for why I find myself here? My wife is working with a local healthcare organization, trying to bring to bear her experience in nursing leadership and education. We'd been separated for seven weeks, so it was about time I made the trip to re-connect with her (any swimming I get in while I'm here is secondary, but a bonus).

** Insofar as I'm the only official and the only rules are that I've swum at least 1,001 meters in a pool since I've turned 40 (in 2007)