Firstly - thanks for taking the time to check out our Just Giving page. I'm Jack Hudson, the youngest of The Wild Swimming Brothers (www.thewildswimmingbrothers.com), and I want to tell you about our next adventure... in Norway.

So we'd just finished the 'Swim the Eden' expedition, having scrambled, swum and blundered our way down the full ninety miles of the River Eden, in Cumbria. We'd also recently crossed the Corryvreckan, which is the third largest whirlpool in the world, swirling wildly between the Hebridean islands of Jura and Scarba, in Scotland. And so, conscious of the ever-increasing lure of the sofa, we thought we'd better take a few months off and then plan our next big adventure. 

This time, we're heading 'Into the Maelstrom' with a world first attempt at crossing the two biggest and most powerful whirlpools in the world, the mighty Moskstraumen and Saltstraumen in Norway. Swirling violently off the Norwegian coast, above the Arctic Circle, these two whirlpools possess the strongest and fastest tidal currents in the world. Made famous in Edgar Allan Poe's 'A Descent into the Maelstrom' and also featured in the climax of Jules Verne's 'Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea', when Captain Nemo's submarine (the Nebuchadnezzar) is sucked into the deep... they are truly the stuff of literary legend.

The Mosktraumen swim is an 8km point-to-point crossing between the islands of Vaeroy and Mosken, across the strongest and biggest whirlpool in the world. The central whirlpool has a diameter of some 40–50 meters (130–160 ft) and unpredictable tides, combined with the northerly Norwegian Sea currents and storm-induced flow, which can result in currents of up to 10.7 knots (20 km/h; 12 mph).

The Saltstraumen swim is a rapid sprint across a 0.25km tidal split with the world's fastest whirlpool, as up to 400,000,000 cubic metres of seawater forces its way through a 3km long and 250-metre wide strait every six hours, with water speeds reaching 22 knots (41 km/h; 25 mph). 

No one has ever attempted either of these swims and we're truly heading into uncharted waters. We can assure you that it is safe (although it doesn't really sound it) and we'll be supervised by two captains who know the local waters well. That being said, though, this will undoubtedly be our greatest challenge yet. Not only will we have to contend with the currents and icy Arctic water, we're also flirting with the likelihood of encountering a few of the 600 orcas that roam the region, as well as the infamous Lions Mane Jellyfish, which can grow bigger than a human. 

For our last swim, we raised money for the Swimming Trust. This time, we want to support a charity that's close to all of our hearts: the WWF (World Wildlife Fund). This is a global organisation that's devoted to protecting the fellow members of our animal kingdom - those without voices or the proper means to defend their habitats - from the yoke of aggressive, unconscious human expansion. What we quickly learnt from our last expeditions was the value of support, in whatever form it is made manifest. That's why we're calling upon you to help us out. Please make a donation and together we can support this wonderful charity: www.wwf.org.uk