World Bog Snorkelling Championship

The World Bog Snorkelling Championship is being held today in Llanwrtyd Wells, Wales, the UK's smallest town.

The event is a time-trial, in which competitors, wearing mask, snorkel and flippers, must swim the length of a 60 yard trench, four foot-deep trench cut through a dense peat bog and back again to the start/finish line, a total distance of 120 yards in stinking bog water, without using conventional swimming strokes in the quickest time possible. For the first competitors the water is remarkably clean, but it soon becomes muddy and visibility is reduced to zero. The brave souls taking part also face sharp reeds poking from the sides of the trench and glue-like mud on the bottom.

And of course, peat bogs are filled with creepy crawlies, including leeches, water scorpions, and all manner of biting insects. It's not quite Fear Factor ("Was eating the reindeer testicles and 100-year-old eggnog a big accomplishment for you?"), but still: shudder. On the other hand, house prices around the bog-snorkel zone have risen about 30% over the past year thanks to the publicity, though you have to wonder what housing by a bog was going for previously.