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00:00That's the Valkyries, the Norse god Odin's female warriors, dancing in the skies.
00:30And that's their shield shimmering as they take the souls of fallen warriors to Odin, to
00:39Valhalla, to eternal life.
00:44According to ancient folklore, they're probably deciding if I live or die on this swim.
00:51I really hope that's not me.
00:53I need to finish my swim around Iceland and get home for the birth of our first child.
00:58I'm well aware I look like the love child of a yeti and a werewolf.
01:21I almost think this facial hair and this kind of matted look here, it's almost symbolic
01:30of the spirit of the great Icelandic swim.
01:33It's not poetic and it's not pretty, but it works and we don't give up.
01:40So far I've swum Iceland's west and north coast.
01:43The kingdoms of the bull and the eagle are done.
01:49I'm told the worst is yet to come.
01:52Putting on your urine soaked wetsuit that's cold, swimming past frozen fjords, trying to avoid jellyfish.
02:06Any sensible person would have called it by now, but I'll go down swinging if I have to.
02:13I'm not missing the baby's arrival and I'm not not swimming around Iceland.
02:31As we finally enter the land of the dragon, the clock's ticking.
02:52The swim is not going to plan.
02:54We're hoping on this eastern coast, fingers crossed, that we can get Ross on much more consistent
02:59tides and currents and bring us closer to the finish.
03:05At this point we are so far behind schedule and we need a miracle.
03:09Thankfully it arrives in the form of the east Icelandic current.
03:13This just goes pumping down the east coast.
03:17After two months, it just felt like the Nordic gods, dragons, were finally helping us.
03:28As we steadily head south, we pick up speeds that we've never achieved before.
03:32In a single day, we even managed 28 miles.
03:35That's 45 kilometres.
03:38After the west coast and the north coast, it just felt like Iceland went,
03:42Oh, go on, you little scamp. Here's a little bit of assistance.
03:59There's lots of excitement this morning. Ross is in the water and we're almost hitting the halfway mark around Iceland.
04:05Is it just 200 more metres?
04:08Yeah.
04:09Come on, Ross.
04:10Come on, Ross.
04:11Come on, Ross.
04:12Here you go, buddy.
04:13200 metres.
04:14Yeah!
04:15The whole team is out here to celebrate this moment.
04:19Three, two, one!
04:22Yeah!
04:23Woo!
04:24Woo!
04:25Woo!
04:26Woo!
04:27Woo!
04:28That's it!
04:29Woo!
04:30Woo!
04:31Woo!
04:32Woo!
04:33Woo!
04:34Woo!
04:35Woo!
04:36Woohoo!
04:37Good job, Ross.
04:38Come on, Ross.
04:39Who are you?
04:40I'm not crying, I've got a jellyfish stick.
04:41Hannah?
04:43Don't blame the jellyfish.
04:44Woo!
04:45Good one.
04:46Let's have fun.
04:48Pass off there.
04:49It's massive, psychologically, to reach this halfway point.
04:52Whoo!
04:53The psychological element is huge to this.
04:55It's a huge part, the mental game, so, erm...
04:57I am trying to smile.
04:59It's a really important moment.
05:02Yeah, there's so many times that we probably didn't think we'd get halfway to just...
05:11We started to believe that maybe, just maybe, it could be possible.
05:19Halfway, I'm proud of you.
05:21Show yourself if you're a model.
05:28I thought a lot about Hester and my family on that day.
05:33I'm just very, very aware that fatherhood is kind of just around the corner.
05:40So, yes, he's been sending me loads of scans.
05:42He's tracking in the top percentile of size.
05:47And I was like, of course, he's going to come out just like a nugget.
05:51Just like that. That's a good one.
05:54That's a good... He's doing setups there, isn't he?
05:56So I can't wait to get about it. I'm just going to be reading him sagas,
05:58like Icelandic Viking sagas and stuff like that.
06:00So then he would come out and be like,
06:02you're the strange man who was telling me about the sagas.
06:08But just when it felt like things were on the up,
06:10as ever with Iceland, the dragon has other plans.
06:14News of a dangerous new low building in the Norwegian sea forces us to head for Sebesfjorda.
06:22It's one of the few safe ports on the east coast.
06:25We're going to go and hide from him for the next 36 hours.
06:36My dad was a guiding north star when he was here.
06:40And now he's no longer here.
06:42As I swim around Iceland, he still remains like a guiding north star.
06:47And that... That just feels quite nice.
06:55I can talk about my dad now without getting choked up.
06:59It's taken a few years.
07:01We lost him a few years ago now to cancer.
07:05I was swimming around Great Britain when I got a phone call.
07:09It was my older brother and my mum and they were like,
07:11it's not good news.
07:13Dad has stage 4 cancer.
07:17There's nothing you can do.
07:18We just needed to let you know.
07:20And my initial thought was, I'm just cancelling the swim.
07:23I was like, I'm just going to go home and I'm just going to go and be with dad.
07:26And he rung me and he just said, you can come home.
07:31You can come and give me a hug, but it has to be via Margate.
07:34You have to finish what you started.
07:38And I then just swam down the entire east coast, just gunning it.
07:45And I said I could talk without getting choked up.
07:50I'm almost there.
07:51But he was severely ill as well in Margate and he was in a wheelchair.
07:59And the doctors all said to him, they were like,
08:02look, Richard, you shouldn't be around groups of people.
08:06You shouldn't go to Margate.
08:08And my dad just stoically looked them all in the eye and just said,
08:12thank you so much.
08:13I appreciate your advice.
08:15But I'll be on the beach in Margate when my son swims around Great Britain.
08:22So, yeah, there's...
08:25And that's the biggest lesson that my dad taught me.
08:28You do what you say you're going to do.
08:30That's what really drives me.
08:32So, I thought that Iceland could get any colder.
08:44I was wrong.
08:45Iceland continues to throw up surprises.
08:47We're heading south, but you're just getting all of this water coming off the glaciers.
08:55And there's a massive, hench glacier as well on the south coast that I don't even want to think about right now.
09:01So, we're going to leave that little bad boy in there.
09:05As we slowly head south down the east coast, we start to see the amazing outline of Iceland's largest ice cap,
09:20which covers a huge 8% of Iceland's land area.
09:36It's a breathtaking sight.
09:43I love this fact.
09:48A glacier is a massive ice that can move on its own accord.
09:52And it's formed by trillions upon trillions of compressed snowflakes.
09:59And these are glacial tongues, like fingers snaking down into the sea.
10:03The joyful news is that when these bad boys break off, they send icebergs into the ocean.
10:15That is going to be brutal to swim in.
10:20So, not only do I have my arch nemesis the cold to deal with, it's now late July, which means nights are coming back.
10:27And that means a whole new level of danger.
10:30Risk of getting lost, risk of getting run over by the boat.
10:43We've got night swims going again.
10:45First time in a while, the sun's actually set and it's dark outside.
10:51His only reference point of the dark is the actual boat.
10:54Yeah, definitely presents its challenges.
10:56For the actual helm, it's difficult, obviously, for visibility and safety.
10:59And those of us that are supervising the swim, because obviously, seeing Ross at all times is paramount.
11:07So, we have to put, obviously, a lighting system on Ross, keeping the right distance to the boat and keep him safe.
11:13I've done many night swims before, but night swims in Iceland, you do not want to get lost out here.
11:19The ferry lights on the side of the boat are like my compass guiding me south.
11:27And Gar has strapped an emergency beacon to my back, which can transmit my exact position to a satellite, if the worst happens and we get separated.
11:36Ross is taking the feed now there at the moment. He does the feed about every 20 minutes or so, so he's having an electrolyte drink to rehydrate and put some vital salts back in the system.
11:47Stop from cramping.
11:48Hey, you said 3.5k in 40 minutes, so...
11:53Oh!
11:54Haven't seen that in a while.
11:56Let's hope that lasts.
11:58The silent assassin of this entire swim is sleep deprivation.
12:03You swim for six hours, get out for six hours to rest, eat and sleep, but you don't get that deep rejuvenating sleep.
12:11And ultimately, you never fully recover.
12:20I am haggard.
12:24I'm so haggard.
12:27Um, yeah.
12:30Every stroke hurts now, I'm not going to lie.
12:32My shoulders are like, what are you doing?
12:35Why are you still swimming?
12:37It's been months.
12:39Well, Ross obviously is under pressure now to get as many kilometres as he can get done per day.
12:43Because, yeah, it's a mammoth task, swimming 1,600 kilometres.
12:47That's different than your average Sunday afternoon swimmer.
12:51It's utterly impossible for someone to appreciate what Ross is actually going through here.
12:54The cold, the currents, the uncharted nature of it, the lack of sleep, living on a boat, a lack of space, lack of privacy.
13:02So, it's relentless and the lack of recovery is absolutely massive in this.
13:07It's an incredible endeavour.
13:09He's a pretty extraordinary human being.
13:15So, the East Coast has been a massive high for Ross and the team.
13:20He's absolutely flown down it.
13:23He's, um, he's had a lot of help by the tide.
13:28We're now almost at Hoffen, which is the sort of mark at the end of the East.
13:33And looking at the South Coast, it could be a different story.
13:37Then, like Groundhog Day, yet another storm starts to build deep in the Atlantic.
13:50It sends strong, southerly winds directly into the direction we are trying to swim into.
13:55And we're forced to ride it out in the historic town of Hoffen.
14:01Famous for its spectacular views of the Vatnajökull Hench Glacier.
14:06It's our gateway to the South Coast and the land of the giant.
14:11So, officially finishing the East Coast was an amazing moment.
14:16I was told that dragons love fast-flowing water.
14:18Turns out they really do.
14:20We complete over 165 miles of the East Coast in record time.
14:27So, we're back on land once again, trying to make the most of our time and find out more about Iceland's extreme landscapes.
14:35This feels like we're walking through kind of like Lord of the Rings.
14:45Yes, it's a very dramatic landscape.
14:48It really bears the mark of tremendous natural forces.
14:54It really does, doesn't it?
14:58I've never seen anything like it.
14:59It used to be much, much, much, much higher, much more spectacular.
15:06The ice cap from where Hoffeldschirgut originates is the biggest glacier outside of the polar regions.
15:15It's estimated that all of this ice will be gone, will be melted away in 150 to 200 years.
15:24That's like three generations of human beings.
15:28And the magnitude of the change, the speed of the change, it's mind-boggling.
15:34If you think back about 130 years, then the glacier would have been here, where we're standing now.
15:42And it would have reached about two, three hundred meters above our heads.
15:49The melting has been incredibly pronounced and quick.
15:53This is a very immediate evidence of changes that are taking place on planet Earth because of climate change.
16:05And if that isn't bad enough news, there's more.
16:07The place could be unlevelable if all of these volcanoes that are currently under the ice, if they are exposed, then they're able to erupt for decades or even centuries.
16:28The important thing is that we each try to do our part as individuals.
16:43There's just too much a stick.
16:47Thor's words are still ringing in my ears.
16:50It's got me wondering just what sort of a world I'm going to be leaving to my unborn son.
16:54But right now, I've got a job to do and a country to swim around.
17:09And finally, we're back on the move again as we enter the land of the giant.
17:13But the warnings of what lies ahead sound brutal.
17:19The south coast between Hoffen and the southeast is inhospitable, shallow and dangerous.
17:27Tidal streams are strong and irregular.
17:30During the 17th century, much of this coastline was farmed until cataclysmic eruptions made life impossible.
17:37And as lava poured into the sea, it's created exceptionally treacherous low-lying reefs.
17:44An avigator is advised to give it a wide berth.
17:49Well, we're not going to give it a wide berth, guys, because we've got a mission to get Ross around Iceland.
17:54And if that's not enough, on a more immediate challenge, ice is breaking off from the glacier and heading out into the sea.
18:05It's just kind of like razor blades to the faces. It's that bad?
18:12The team do everything they can to keep me warm.
18:18I go completely mute. I actually can't talk my face his throat.
18:24So he's having a difficult afternoon now.
18:27And the kilometres are coming slowly and he's having to work very hard for them.
18:31The east coast will get hit four to five kilometres per hour.
18:34Down here in the south, we're struggling to get three kilometres per hour.
18:36It's a different world down here and we have these Atlantic swells rolling in and hitting the southern coast of Iceland.
18:43There's also very few ports down here, so it presents, yeah, many new challenges.
18:49It goes from bad to worse.
18:52And suddenly the whole swim is in jeopardy.
18:57Storm after storm from the south hits us.
19:01There's conditions that I'm okay to swim in.
19:05I basically just get beaten up and thrown around, but it's okay.
19:09Whereas the boat, it's getting back on the boat that's the issue.
19:14I'm swimming in these huge swells.
19:19I'm exhausted, could have been swimming for 12 hours.
19:22Hyperthermia seeping into your suit.
19:25The ladder's crashing up and down, so I can't actually get onto the boat.
19:37This is a bad place to be.
19:39Conditions are so bad, we decide it's too dangerous to continue south.
19:58It forces us into a radical change of plan.
20:05For both the boat and my safety, we decide to change the direction of the swim
20:10and do the last 260 miles of the south coast in reverse.
20:14Then we can join up the dots.
20:18Yes, it's as complicated as it sounds.
20:20As we wait for the latest bad weather to ease, we check out the south coast's beaches.
20:31It's sobering and formidable.
20:36Reynersfjurra is Iceland's most dangerous beach.
20:40Legend has it, these columns are two giants which were turned to stone
20:44as they tried to drag a three-masted ship to shore as the sun rose.
20:49And it's said you can still hear the giants moans as they long for their homes in the mountains.
21:00What's so deadly here is sneaker waves, which come out of nowhere.
21:05I've never been to a beach like this.
21:11One, there's a permanent weather warning system that goes from green amber to red.
21:15What's crazy is with these waves crashing out, this is apparently medium, this is amber.
21:20And the reason this beach is so dangerous is there's a steep drop-off very close to the shore.
21:28It means huge rogue waves can form with very little notice.
21:33That's a little bit scary.
21:36There are really clear warnings, but there's a lot of visitors still dangerously close to the sea.
21:46And on a really, really sombre and sad note, we were actually there on the beach
21:51just a few hours before somebody lost their lives.
21:54It was a family who was swept out to sea, and it was a young girl who drowned.
21:58It's utterly tragic.
22:00I think, for me, that just really brought home how you cannot take the south coast lightly.
22:15As the winds finally ease, our new plan starts to unfold.
22:19We sail west towards Grindavik, ready to swim the land of the giant in reverse.
22:28As we arrive, it's clear that this is no ordinary town.
22:34Grindavik is in an area of Iceland that's seen intense volcanic activity over the last few years.
22:39This is one of the weirdest places I've been in Iceland, and that's saying something.
22:48You're just completely quiet. You can hear a pin drop.
23:00It's where two tectonic plates meet.
23:06You just get these volcanic eruptions constantly happening over the last few years.
23:10And in fact, the most recent one happened about a kilometre that way only a week ago.
23:15It's so strange to be standing in the middle of what looks like a really busy housing estate.
23:25Nothing.
23:27If you live in Iceland, you have to respect nature.
23:31And if a volcano's gonna take out your house, you don't try to stop it, you just move.
23:42We start to swim west to east, retracing our steps back along the south coast in reverse.
23:50And I'm left alone with my thoughts once again.
23:53Anything that happens on land, it might be a conversation with the crew, it might be a phone call back home to Hester.
24:05Anything that happens, I will then swim for hours in this world of sensory deprivation.
24:11So I can't speak to anyone, you know, I can't really hear anything, so I'm just left alone with my own thoughts.
24:15And sometimes that's a good thing. It could be a joke on, you know, amongst the crew or, you know, you talk about your favourite song and that just repeats in your head.
24:24So it can be a good thing.
24:31But actually, a few days ago, it was my dad's birthday and I spoke about this before.
24:38It sounds fair, and anyone who's lost someone will know, whether it's spiritual, psychological, whatever, you can actually hear their voice so clearly in your head.
24:47And my dad, he was so stoic.
24:51And he didn't speak a lot, but when he did, you always listened.
24:56And I could just hear his voice and it was just...
25:00I almost got over it.
25:03And, yeah.
25:06And he just said, you know, finish this with me now and get home.
25:26So we've been stuck out now for five days without going to port.
25:35And that means the boat is rocking from side to side, smashing, banging, a lot of noise, wind.
25:41And it's very, very difficult, if not impossible, to sleep.
25:44So that really compromises Ross's recovery, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.
25:48On the south coast, here we are.
25:53And as predicted, tides and currents have just completely flipped on us.
26:04All the data said that the tide had turned and it was going to be an amazing swim.
26:09I started swimming for 200 metres.
26:19I turned to the team and I said, guys, this doesn't feel right.
26:22And in the time it took me to finish my bottle of water and to hand it back, I'd gone back 50 metres.
26:28Turns out, the data was wrong.
26:31I cannot describe what that does to your psychology.
26:35My bottom lip is out. I am, swear. It's just...
26:40I'm in struggle town. It's bad.
26:44And there's another worry.
26:46Rather than things getting easier, things go from bad to worse.
26:51My wetsuit's getting a little bit looser, so I can tell I'm losing weight as well.
26:55I started this, I think I was like, a hundred and maybe three kilograms.
27:00I think I'm about, like, ninety-six.
27:04Which isn't good.
27:08I'm eating like a horse and I'm still losing weight.
27:12Something isn't quite right.
27:16Basically, it's like your body saying, mate, look, we can't keep doing this.
27:20We've had enough.
27:22But maybe, unwisely, I choose to ignore it and keep on going.
27:29But sometimes, when you are just feeling really low, the most amazing and unexpected things happen.
27:36We're literally in the middle of nowhere.
27:40And the team have a surprise.
27:51What's going on?
27:54What's going on, you said?
27:57You'll see. Just enjoy.
27:59There's some friends coming to visit.
28:03Some friends coming to say hello.
28:16British Navy.
28:18No.
28:19Being a flyby.
28:20You know, just thinking about that moment was amazing.
28:26The very fact that the Royal Navy came to find us and cheer us on.
28:30It was something I'll never forget.
28:33It's just those moments of human kindness that helped so much.
28:36Oh!
28:52Being a bit emotional.
28:54It's like the Royal Navy.
28:56Oh.
28:58Listen to me, look.
29:00And they dropped something in the water for you.
29:03This dropped out of the sky.
29:11Get in!
29:13Oh, no way.
29:15This is the greatest bucket ever.
29:18It's just full of chocolate.
29:22Absolute legends.
29:25I got weirdly a bit emotional just seeing the flag like...
29:29Oh, that's really cool.
29:32Oh.
29:36After days at sea, we head into the remote islands of Vesmanai.
29:41Six miles off the mainland for a badly needed restock of food and fuel.
29:52But with the end of the summer fast approaching and the baby due in four weeks,
29:56I'm just not making good enough progress.
29:59We're rapidly running out of time.
30:06Oh, you purposely made that work!
30:09That's it!
30:11Easy.
30:12Sail and completed it.
30:13But, you know, here at Vesmanai, there are worse places to hang out.
30:18I love this place.
30:20Just because it is home to the largest colony of puffins in the world.
30:26And who doesn't love puffins?
30:27But actually, like me, some of the puffins here in South Iceland are not doing that well.
30:40I'm hearing that seabirds on Iceland's Atlantic coast are having to travel further to find food for their young this year.
30:47And that seems to be down to the seas warming and less fish in the ocean.
30:52It means that for some of the puffins young, like me, they're not as fat as they should be for going it alone in the Atlantic.
31:04The warning signs our world is changing fast are everywhere.
31:10And I'm changing fast too.
31:12So, basically, your legs account for 10% of overall propulsion on long-distance swims, sometimes even less.
31:18So, I barely kick my legs at all.
31:20And I think now, just looking at my body, it's just so weird.
31:25I've just become this, like, sea-dwelling mammal, you know, with just kind of semi-good triceps and arms,
31:32but severely just atrophied legs that have just kind of completely shrunk.
31:36Erm, but that's kind of it. Form follows function.
31:42It doesn't look like much, but this is honestly, when you've been swimming for so long
31:46and you are just frozen and you can't feel your fingers and your face, this is a sanctuary.
31:51It's so nice.
31:53It's organised chaos. I know where everything is.
31:55So, I'm constantly eating them in a state of perpetual carb-loading.
32:00I'm not trying to make up 10,000 calories today.
32:03You'll notice I've got two water bottles. They're marked.
32:05That is for drinking.
32:07Erm, this one is...
32:09..for going to the toilet.
32:11Erm, don't get them mixed up.
32:14Don't do it.
32:16That's why I put tape on one, cos I mixed them up once.
32:20It was...it was a bad...
32:23It was a bad morning.
32:25With the boat loaded up with more pasta and peanut butter,
32:28we head back out to sea.
32:31To chip away at those last elusive miles of the south coast.
32:39In the past, my body's broken before my mind.
32:42Like, so I'll push myself into hypothermia, cellulitis, rhabdo,
32:46all sorts of things will put me in hospital.
32:49And that's not a good thing.
32:52It's an absolute personality defect.
32:55Iceland, it will break something.
32:58It will be your will or your body.
32:59And I just know from past experience,
33:02I'm stupid and stubborn enough to swim so the mind won't break.
33:06But I'm also aware that I'm not bulletproof.
33:11And there's no doubt the swim is taking its toll on my body.
33:16Over the last three months, saltwater has destroyed my tongue.
33:20Giving me sea ulcers and multiple jellyfish stings
33:24has sent me a little bit crazy.
33:26It just feels like my whole body is on the verge of giving up.
33:35Oh, I'm struggling.
33:37I think I've been putting on a little bit of a brave face,
33:41if I'm being honest, just because I don't want the team or anyone to worry.
33:45But basically what it is, it's called rhabdo,
33:46so it's called rhabdo, so that's short for rhabdomyolysis.
33:50And the muscles are essentially liquefying.
33:53The reason I know it's pretty bad,
33:56that's a bottle of my piss.
33:58That is not the piss of a healthy man.
34:03That is not healthy urine at all.
34:05You'll notice the colour, basically.
34:07Muscles breaking down, liquefying, ended up in the bloodstream.
34:10And you're just trying to basically filter it.
34:12Most doctors will say stop swimming and go to the nearest hospital.
34:17I don't want to do that.
34:19So we're basically going to tuck that away
34:22and keep this between us for the time being.
34:26But that is a deal-with-it-later problem.
34:35We're walking a tightrope between trying to get this swim done,
34:38but also not pushing Ross too hard so that his body breaks down.
34:42And it's not easy to watch someone that you care about suffer like that.
34:48The reality is I am feeling .
34:52It takes so much effort to get out of bed and just put one arm in front of the other.
34:56And there's more.
35:00We've had storms before, but nothing like this.
35:07We have a hurricane which is the tail end of which is going to hit us probably the day after tomorrow.
35:12We're going to lose anywhere between two to three days of swimming time, which means up to eight swims.
35:22So that's very worrying.
35:23As Iceland starts to feel the tail end of Hurricane Erin's deadly power, it forces us to take shelter once again.
35:35So 48 hours of sustain these long winds, which creates a little bit of a service carry.
35:43It's a tiny bit of help, which might just send me back home just in time to see Hester deliver the baby.
35:54I know my body is not going to hold out much longer.
35:57This is my last chance to nail this swim.
36:04Let's go swim this.
36:06Let's get me home.
36:08Even if we don't make it, I'll go home and at least we tried.
36:15Dad's words of finish the job ring in my ears.
36:18So there's one last roll of the dice to get us over the finish line and me back home to Hester.
36:39We swim the tail of the hurricane.
36:48The year that my first child is going to be born, I'd want to say we finished the swim in time and got home.
37:00Because I said I was going to do it.
37:02Great teams aren't built on victory laps. They're built in the trenches.
37:15We're going to go, buddy!
37:34Finally, finally, we conquer the land of the giant.
37:43We're good, man.
37:45It's the first time it's felt like this on the boat.
37:51In that, I am 98% sure we're going to finish now.
37:55107 days since this crazy swim started, we retrace our steps back to the kingdom of the bull.
38:14There's now just 35 miles left, back to where it all started.
38:21As night falls, finally, we see the beam of the Karor lighthouse and the distant lights of Reykjavik, welcoming us back.
38:31This is Iceland just showing us the exit.
38:41Having had enough of us swimming around, urinating in the pool for get out, like go home now.
38:50112 days.
38:53Is that what it is?
38:54Yeah.
38:55112 days.
38:56I was a young man when we started this.
38:57I was so naive, so full of hope and optimism.
39:03And then suddenly, it's nearly all over, and there's just miles to go.
39:15And as if to come out in celebration, the Northern Lights put on a show for us.
39:22****, Doug.
39:43This is nuts, isn't it?
39:45It's made up, Doug.
39:46This is so crazy.
39:51I was so cold, but I don't care.
39:56Look at that one.
40:00This is hands down the best swim so far.
40:15All those days of thinking I would never finish.
40:19Of cold.
40:20Of feeling alone.
40:22It almost makes you forget.
40:26Losing parts of your tongue.
40:28Chafing all around the coast of Iceland.
40:31It's like, oh, this is amazing.
40:32I'll do a second lap.
40:33It's like, no, no, no, no.
40:35Do not forget.
40:36Do not forget.
40:37This is the first time I actually get to enjoy it a little bit.
40:43Fine.
40:44Fine.
40:45Fine.
40:46See, Dad.
40:47Probably think about finishing this.
40:48I've got a baby to get back.
40:50The aurora is dancing.
41:02It's magical.
41:03Really, really special.
41:05What a last night.
41:18There's now just one final swim to go.
41:24News starts to filter out that we're approaching the finish.
41:29Ross, just to say, I knew you could do it.
41:32I'm so proud of you.
41:33A truly world-class feat.
41:36One that is not going to be repeated for many years.
41:39Huge respect.
41:40What a titan you are.
41:42I'll raise my hat to you, brother.
41:51To many people, that is a lighthouse.
41:53To me, that is the finish, salvation, and home time.
41:58Yeah.
41:59That's what it is.
42:06Wow.
42:07It has been an honor serving with you gentlemen.
42:11Yeah.
42:12We'll kick you off the boat one last time.
42:17One of my friends said,
42:18most people travel and collect souvenirs.
42:21You collect stupid ideas.
42:24This was amongst my most stupid.
42:32Wait.
42:37I'll cut.
42:38Here we go, dudes.
42:41Yep.
42:42Yes, sir.
42:43Are you emotional?
42:45Yeah.
42:46Good.
42:47Thank you, thank you, thank you.
42:48Good.
42:55Thank you!
42:56Thank you, thank you.
42:59we are at the end the end is right there and roth is just coming into his final final stretch
43:11there's a whopping 900 meters left and yeah it's crazy now he's whipping into the finish line
43:18it's amazing four months
43:21it just required levels of patience and discipline and a bunch of other stuff that i didn't even know
43:32i quite had in the locker
43:34history made so proud of your brother this is what you were made to do big love man well done
43:49all right ross there's the mate you are some kind of epic viking warship i love you mate you're an
43:58animal see you soon brother this swim has been amazing the whole adventure has been incredible
44:03i don't need anything else a lot of the team they were volunteers they completely selflessly just
44:11volunteered their entire time sleepless nights getting smashed by arctic storms they just did
44:17that out of the goodness of their heart and i think they they really deserve an amazing finish they
44:23deserve to be celebrated so i think personally i just want to go home i want a burger and i want
44:30to lay on hester's belly and listen to the baby that's what i want
44:34that's awesome this is how it should end
44:48i didn't know how to finish this swim i haven't i haven't really allowed myself to think about the
44:59end because i was just so focused on putting one arm in front of the other now the end has arrived
45:06i got on land and i sort of panicked and i just sort of decided that it'd be nice to bookend the swim
45:15because this place we started the whole journey here just kind of felt not right but it just
45:22just kind of felt nice to come back here and just sort of sit and and reflect
45:28after swimming for so long i'd love if this is almost a letter to my future son but also a tribute
45:38to everything that my dad taught me at the same time that'd be really nice
45:42yeah letter to my future son tribute to my dad that'd be nice
45:48i don't want to wish away the finish and i don't want to rush the start of the next chapter
46:02one country four kingdoms a thousand miles a hundred and fourteen days iceland done
46:13so
46:20so
46:21I don't know.
46:51I don't know.
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