Ghanaian-British agribusiness entrepreneur and athlete, Yvette Tetteh, has been in the news after swimming across the full length of the Volta River.
She reportedly covered a distance of 450 kilometres.
This makes her the first person to attain such a feat.
With support from the OR Foundation, the 30-year-old activist embarked on the expedition to raise awareness about the impact of waste colonialism on the ecosystems.
In a post sighted by Zionfelix.net, one of her team members, JayJay Addo-Koranteng revealed how they did the magic.
Read his lengthy post below.
Just throwing this out there for those of y’all who are wondering whether Yvette Tetteh truly swam 450km of River Volta.
On the expedition, our day usually started at 6.30 each morning. Edwin or Isa would take water samples while I performed a turbidity test using a secchi disk. Breakfast would follow right after, and then Yvette would start her swim, usually around 8.30AM. She would swim between 8 to 10km the first round of 2 hours. While she swam, Cole Ofoe Amegavie would kayak next to her to keep her safe, provide hydrating fluids and snacks and perform photography tasks. I, as Captain and Navigator of the vessel would push the boat into the lead, keeping a distance of about 1km between her and the boat so it was easier for her and the kayaker to stay true to the navigation course I had mapped out.
After the first two hours she would board the boat and take a couple hours break. Once she boarded, I dropped anchor or tied off to a fishing net because we needed to keep the integrity of the swim and ensure that the kilometres we wanted to swim would truly be swam. Then she would swim the second session, covering 15km in total per day. Once that was over, I would usually find the nearest shore where we could anchor and pass the night.
The exceptions to the rule were electric or thunder storms, 4 foot waves, water snakes or a lack of sunlight to power our solar-powered boat, in which case we’d haul butt to the nearest shore for safety reasons, and this is why she swam 450 and not the 538 she would have swam if we hadn’t had weather and vessel emergencies.
I understand people who can’t swim a bucket of water might have trouble believing that a Ghanaian swam all of River Volta. I testify that she did, because I was there through it all, keeping her and my crew mates safe, and all along River and Lake Volta, whole communities can testify that they saw her too.
You need to come out here before you cement the arrogance of thinking you know all that’s possible and all that is not. In the Ghanaian outdoors my team and I do stuff that some of y’all only see in the movies.
And yes, a young woman swam 450km of River Volta.
Y’all better believe it.