Man who swam entirety of Emajõgi River wants to complete lap around Estonia
Many people are currently making their first swims of the summer and swimmers in Emajõgi River in Tartu are also becoming more prevalent. But one swimmer took it upon himself to swim the entire length of Emajõgi River and moreover, he plans to swim around the entirety of Estonia.
It is early morning, skies are menacingly grey and thunder is heard in the distance. Open water swimmer Bruno Nopponen is making final preparations for his long trip on Emajõgi River. The man has decided to swim from Tartu to Peipsi, he told ETV's daily affairs show "Aktuaalne kaamera" on Sunday.
Nopponen said: "Today, I will continue where I left off in 2007. Then we swam from Lake Võrtsjärve to Tartu, now we will go from Tartu to Lake Peipus. And if we continue from Peipus, we'll go to Varnja. To Peipus, I think, it's about 43 km and from there to Varnja another four or six. Around 50 km in total."
Nopponen has stood out with his long swimming trips before. The man has swam from Finland to Estonia and tried swimming from Gotland to Saaremaa, but canceled the latter due to extreme weather conditions.
A little more than 12 hours later, Bruno is where he started in the morning. Only now, in a different mood.
Nopponen said: "The first three hours we were evading thunder, but at one point it caught up with us, rained for three hours. For the last 12 km, my son Jorven swam with me and later said that the water was warmer than it was to sit in the boat. And there were a lot of waves, which I didn't take into account. The last two kilometers were sea waves and I was swimming into them. It took 9 hours and 38 minutes, so not bad."
He concluded: "If I can make a lap around Estonia, I'll finish right here where I started on Emajõgi River. Currently I'm missing Mohni island to Narva-Jõesuu, and then the entirety of Peipus, from south to north, and then Narva River. That would complete the lap."
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Editor: Kristjan Kallaste