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Experience a Twist on Traditional Snorkeling at the Bog Snorkeling Championship in Wales

Published by Kristin Cowles, Editor-in-Chief

Country: United Kingdom

The Experience

One of the dirtiest weekends in sports is held every August in the smallest town in Britain, Llanwrtyd Wells, population 606, and the cause is none other than the Bog Snorkeling World Championships. The racecourse is no more than a trench on the outskirts of Llanwrtyd, roughly 150 feet long and four 4 deep. Each year it draws over 100 participants from all over the world to compete for this coveted quirky championship title. To add to the hilarity, fancy dress and costumes are encouraged and rules govern against using conventional swimming strokes.

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Books and DVDs

Wales Travel Guide - Lonely Planet
Lose yourself in timeless rural scenery laced with glistening lakes and jagged peaks. Amble from festivals of food and opera to celebrations of art and ecology.
Journeys of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Greatest Trips (Hardcover)
No one knows the world like National Geographic—and in this lavish volume, we reveal our picks for the world's most fabulous journeys, along with helpful information for readers who want to try them out.
Lonely Planet's Best in Travel 2009: 850 Trends, Destinations, Journeys & Experiences for the Year Ahead (Paperback)

Elsewhere on the Web

Green Events Ltd. - Official Site
Green Events Ltd is a non-profit making business and innovators in the world of unusual events. Back in 1979 the Tourist Association of Llanwrtyd Wells was started to enhance the local economy by marketing unique events within the town and surrounding area.
Bog Snorkeling - Wikipedia.org
Bog snorkelling is a sporting event that consists of competitors completing two consecutive lengths of a 60-yard water filled trench cut through a peat bog, in the shortest time possible.
Travel Report UK - Voyages.gc.ca
WARNINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Media References

New champion for bog snorkellers - BBC News (television)
Iain Hawkes, originally from Llandrindod Wells, triumphed in the world bog snorkelling championships in Llanwrtyd Wells in Powys on Monday.
World Mountain Bike Bog Snorkelling Championships - The Walrus.com (magazine)
Perhaps bored by the ho-hum world of alpine mountain-biking, bog-snorkelling competitors incorporate the threat of drowning into their extreme-cycling experience. The racecourse is a forty-metre-long, two-metre-deep water-filled trench cut into a peat bog.
Small Wonder The littlest town in Britain is home to every sport you've never heard of (newspaper)
As is often the case with fairy tales, it all started with a frog. One day in 1732, while strolling through the wilds of Wales, the sickly Vicar of Llanwrtyd stumbled upon a foul-smelling spring.
Adrift in the Weird World of Sports - NY Times.com (newspaper)
In August 2006, he was in Wales to shoot the bog-snorkeling world championship, which featured 100 contestants — some wearing pajamas — with snorkels and flippers in a muddy trench about 150 feet long and 4 feet deep. Rules governing the sport forbid using conventional strokes.

Language Guides

French , Hindi , Italian , Japanese , Mandarin , Portugese , Turkish , Vietnamese are some of the languages spoken in United Kingdom. If you know of a freely available phrase book or podcast for one of the missing languages, let us know!

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