By Carolyn Webb
Many of us dream of sightseeing in Manhattan, New York, on foot or by subway, but Melbourne veterinarian Rob Gropel is going to swim around the island.
While other tourists stroll down Broadway, people-watch in Central Park and have a drink in a bar, Gropel will spend eight hours in the drink, swimming freestyle and dodging ferries.
Dr Rob Gropel trains at Aquarena Aquatic and Leisure Centre in Lower Templestowe.Credit: Joe Armao
His 48.5-kilometre, non-stop swim, scheduled for August 24, is called the 20 Bridges Swim, and involves braving the currents of the East, Harlem and Hudson rivers.
It’s the latest super-sized fitness challenge for Gropel, 44, an Ivanhoe East veterinarian, who in the past 15 years has climbed both the highest mountains and the highest volcanos on seven continents.
Gropel has also swum 34 kilometres across the English Channel and done the 32-kilometre Catalina Channel swim in California, skied 111 kilometres to the South Pole and skied 540 kilometres across Greenland.
He says his late wife, Marisa Strydom, who died in 2016 while the couple were climbing Mount Everest together, was in his thoughts on those quests and will be again while he’s swimming in New York.
Shared love of adventure: the late Marisa Strydom and husband Rob Gropel on their Mount Everest climb at Base Camp in 2016.
Gropel says that had she survived, Strydom might not have swum around Manhattan with him — she was more into mountain climbing.
“But she would be supporting me, for sure,” Gropel said.
On the 2016 Everest climb, Gropel reached the summit, but Strydom had grown too weak to do so after suffering altitude sickness. She developed cerebral oedema (swelling on the brain) during her descent and collapsed and died.
Strydom and Gropel had aimed to climb the world’s seven highest mountains together, a popular mountaineering challenge called the Seven Summits.
Before Everest, they had conquered three of those summits, and Gropel believes Strydom would have wanted him to complete the project. “That’s what I believe. That was my motivation, to keep going,” he said. “It was her dream, her idea.”
Gropel started swim training four years ago, and swam the English Channel in September last year, having trained in the seawater in Brighton, Melbourne.
Gropel is now training for the Manhattan swim 12 hours a week at the heated Aquarena outdoor pool in Lower Templestowe.
He runs his own vet practice and sometimes trains at 6am before work or for hours afterwards until the pool closes at 10pm.
Rob Gropel prepares to swim the English Channel in 2023.Credit: Instagram
He has been lucky with injury but tore his meniscus (cartilage in the knee) last December — in the office, by turning too quickly while getting up from a chair.
He had surgery and missed just two weeks of training. He completed a 100-kilometre Oxfam charity walk six weeks later.
After the Manhattan swim, Gropel has another adventure lined up. “As soon as this swim is done, I’ll be back in training, pulling tyres to emulate a sled for an expedition to the North Pole.”
Gropel trains 12 hours a week, before and after work.Credit: Joe Armao
His hobby is an excuse to stay fit and travel.
“I just love it. I love the wild, I love the challenge. I’m always thinking about the next thing.”
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