By Gareth Edwards

AFTER 12 hours fighting the current in the freezing cold waters of the English Channel, Karteek Clarke was ready to quit.

Only halfway through his attempted crossing to France, and with bad weather and tides making his job more difficult, his body felt lifeless and even the crew in his support boat suggested it was time to turn back. After digging in for a few more strokes, the agony in his arms and legs getting ever worse, the swimmer agreed and was sadly hauled into the boat.

As they wrapped him up and gave him a hot drink, he looked at the departing outline of the French coast, with the feeling that it was not the end.

And he was right. In the 12 years since that ill-fated swim, which he had attempted on little more than a whim, Karteek has succeeded in swimming the channel seven times. Now he is in preparation for his ninth try - and hopefully his eighth successful crossing - which is due to take place within the next fortnight.

That first attempt, made in 1994, was, he admitted, done without the proper mental and physical preparation needed for a task which has to rank amongst the most difficult of endurance feats.

The 21 miles between Dover and Cap Gris Nez - the narrowest part of the Channel - may be five less than a marathon, but while millions of people have completed marathons worldwide, less than a thousand have ever succeeded in swimming the Channel.

And according to records, only 11 of them are Scottish, with Karteek, 39, a wholesaler from Newington, believed to be the only current Edinburgh resident to have finished the crossing.

"It's an incredibly difficult challenge," he admits.

"Standing on the beach looking out at the Channel, you feel incredibly small, and I always wonder to myself what I am doing there.

"It's almost more of a mental challenge than a physical one."

Interest in cross-channel swimming has been re-ignited after the performance of Little Britain star David Walliams, pictured below, who completed the swim in a very impressive ten hours 34 minutes and raised over GBP 400,000 for the Sport Relief charity.

While not quite in the top 50 times as some reports suggested - official records put him at a slightly more humble 223rd fastest - it is still a very good time.

"It was a really good swim for a first time and he had good conditions for his attempt," says Karteek, whose own record is ten hours and 53 minutes. "But it's really tough and he deserves a lot of credit. He has also raised a huge amount for charity, which is fantastic."

After his first failed attempt, Karteek was determined to try again, but due to injuries and other commitments wasn't able to get back to the task until 1997. This time he was determined there would be no failure, and undertook almost a year of gruelling preparation which included hours at the local pool - "the security guards were always a bit curious, as they'd see you go into the pool and then four or five hours later you would still be there."

This was followed by long swims in the open water of the North Sea, before two final six hour swims in the waters of Dover. This is known as "total body confusion", and prepares people for spending a long time in freezing cold waters, pushing against the kind of waves and tides not found in the average swimming pool.

Then came the big day, July 29, and once again Karteek found himself on the beach at Dover, Vaseline covering his body, looking across the vast expanse of water he was preparing to cross.

This time there were no mistakes, and 11 hours and 57 minutes later he emerged at the other side, completely drained but delighted to have completed his task.

"I swore at the time I would never do it again," he admits. "I had set my goal and completed it so why would I need to do it again? But then I decided to do it in the new millennium, and since then I've not been able to stop."

Repeat crossings are nothing new for channel swimmers, with some suggesting that the crossing represents an extended period of soul- searching for the swimmers which they find almost impossible to give up. "A lot of swimmers get depression after their first crossing," admits Michael Oram, honorary secretary of the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation, one of the two official bodies which verify and record Channel swims.

"They devote so much time to achieving this goal that when they complete it, they don't know what to do.

"It is not the toughest swim in the world or the coldest, but it is probably the best challenge. It is the Everest of swimming, and it is more about the mental conditioning than the physical.

"It changes people, and a lot of them see it almost as therapy, so they come back again and again."

It was this mental challenge that was one of the attractions for Karteek, who has studied meditation with the American-based Indian philosopher Sri Chinmoy. And he believes it has been this meditative practice which has seen him through all of his successful swims.

"About half-way across is when it hits most people, and it is the hardest part of the swim," says Karteek. "You try to keep your mind away from negative thoughts, like what you are doing, why you are there, the fact that you're not going to make it, you can't go on.

"You have the support around you, but with the cap on and being under the water you can hardly hear anything, so it's very lonely. You can hardly see where you are going either, all you see is the murky blue water underneath you.

"Last year was probably the worst. I had been going for hours, I felt totally drained and I just had no energy and no inspiration, and all I could think was 'why are you putting yourself through this?' But I decided to stick at it for another half hour and then just got into a routine.

"You just need to get past that feeling of hopelessness and keep pushing on, and eventually your body will get a second or third burst of energy that drives you to the finish.

"The last part is generally fine, although it can be quite wearying seeing the coastline ahead of you but not appearing to get any closer."

For many people the thought of swimming the Channel just once seems like sheer lunacy, with the problems of physical and mental endurance only added to by the fact that it is one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world and is not exactly the cleanest water.

Karteek admits that there are lots of difficulties to overcome - "everyone has their own story" - but says he has never encountered the raw sewage some reports of Walliams' crossing referred to. "I don't think that's really a problem," he says. "But now and then you hear the roar of the hovercraft taking visitors across to France or see the huge rusty hull of a tanker out of the corner of your steamed-up goggles.

"The tankers and other ships are something you need to be aware of, but the support boat is in contact with them, so when you are crossing the shipping lanes it shouldn't really be a problem.

"Jellyfish can be a pest and I've had a few stings on some of my crossings, but it's not that bad. Other than that all you really need to worry about is a bit of seaweed."

His biggest challenge came in 2000, his second swim, when he was hit with bad weather and rough seas which meant he had to fight against the sea the whole way there.

He eventually finished after a gruelling 14 hours and 52 minutes and again swore he would not be back.

Despite that claim he has gone back every year since, and this year will once again pay the GBP 1500 fee for the support crew, and dive into the freezing cold waters of the Channel.

"It is a great high when you finish, there's no doubting that, but I think I just like the challenge," he says.

He will be one of around 150 people expected to take the challenge this year, and Michael Oram admits that more and more people are now completing the swim.

"We have around a 40 per cent success rate now, which is a reflection of the fact that people are now much more aware of what the swim will take," he says.

"Interest in the sport has certainly been increased thanks to David's magnificent swim, but it was already very popular, and I have bookings right up to 2010 with people planning to try the challenge," says Michael.

"It's a big mental swim, and that is almost certainly the biggest part of it."

And while Karteek knows this only too well, it's clearly not enough to put him off trying yet again later this year.

The Facts

* The first official cross-channel swim was completed in August, 1875, by Captain Matthew Webb, who took 21 hours and 45 minutes.

* Since then there have been a further 1171 recorded successful swims, by just over 800 people - 544 of them men, 262 women.

* 916 of the crossings have been from England to France, 255 the other way.

* The first Scot to complete the challenge was William Barnie, who took 14 hours and 45 minutes to get across in 1950.

* A year later he was back, this time taking just over 19 hours in July 1951, and one month later he did it yet again, in 15 hours and one minute.

* The "King of the Channel" title is held jointly by Kevin Murphy and Mike Read, who have each completed 33 crossings.

* The undisputed "Queen of the Channel" is Alison Streeter MBE,who has completed an astonishing 43 crossings, including one three-way and three two-way swims.

* Christof Wandratsch from Germany set a new worldrecord for the fastest ever English Channel swim on August 1 last year when he did it in seven hours, three minutes and 52 seconds.

* For more information on planning a Channel-swimming expedition, pay a visit to www.channelswimming.net.