COLD COMFORT

This Cape Town woman loves nothing more than taking the plunge into icy waters - and it's winning her world records

- ALULUTHO GUZANA

TO DESCRIBE Norway's Lake Mysutjernet region as cold would be an understatement.

In March, the start of spring in the northern hemisphere, the area sees highs of 1°C and lows of -6°C and for those not used to these icy climes the mere thought of going for a walk might be hard.

But swimming in the frozen lake - in only a bikini? That sounds like madness.

To Amber Fillary of Cape Town, however, no challenge is too great. Her goal: to smash three Guinness World Records.

Amber (51) is surrounded by her team and a crowd of onlookers and, in her brightly coloured two-piece swimsuit, looks as though she's been teleported from a beach on the Mother City's sundrenched Atlantic Seaboard to the snowy Norwegian wonderland.

A large rectangular hole has been cut in the icy surface of the lake and smaller holes pockmark the ice over the next 120m or so.

The big one is easy for her to slip into, the smaller ones are there in case of emergency.

There's no wetsuit to protect her from the freezing temperatures - it's just Amber and her bikini all the way. "I'm totally adapted to the cold so I don't even get brain freeze anymore," she says. "As soon as I get in and start swimming all my anxiety disappears."

In she goes. Her mission is to swim horizontally 100m under the ice with a single breath in just her swimsuit and without fins a feat that would earn her a Guinness World Record.

She aces it, but she isn't done yet. The next day she's back, breaking her own record by swimming 105m - and then breaks a third record by swimming 110m under the ice in a single breath in a monofin.