The Chicago Park District offers free lakefront for the enjoyment of the residents and visitors travelling to this city. The admission to such beaches is free.

- There are about 15 designated beaches where distance swimming is allowed but you might want to get it confirmed with the Natatorium Instructor or the Lifeguard Captain of that particular beach

- The most preferred swimming beaches in this area are the 12th Street Beach and the Albion Beach

- These beaches come with limited street parking facilities so you might have to park your vehicle blocks from the beach

- In addition to this, the distance swimming for these are parallel to the shore at boat line

- These beaches also have a swimming ban flag notification system for the safety of their visitors

http://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/resources/beaches/

When flying from South Africa, you will find a lot of cities that offer the air travel services to Chicago. There are around 90 cities that have their flights operating between South Africa and Chicago.

Thus you will be connected to Chicago from wherever you wish to fly from South Africa. The longest flight from Chicago to Cameroon is around 8160 miles.

Please check out the following link for more information on this.

http://www.farecompare.com/flights/Chicago-CHI/South_Africa-ZA/citycountry.html