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00:22That's the Valkyries, the Norse god Odin's female warriors, dancing in the skies.
00:32And that's their shield shimmering as they take the souls of fallen warriors to Odin, to
00:39Valhalla, to eternal life.
00:43According to ancient folklore, they're probably deciding if I live or die on this swim.
00:50I 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.
01:17I'm well aware I look like the love child of a yeti and a werewolf.
01:22I almost think his 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.
01:39So far I've swum Iceland's west and north coast.
01:42The kingdoms of the bull and the eagle are done.
01:48But I'm told the worst is yet to come.
01:52Putting on your urine soaked wetsuit that's cold.
01:57It's been 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.
02:24I'm not missing the baby's arrival and I'm not not swimming around Iceland.
02:47As we finally enter the land of the dragon, the clock's ticking.
02:52The swim is not going to plan.
02:55We're hoping on this eastern coast, fingers crossed, that we can get Ross on much more
02:58consistent tides and currents and bring us closer to the finish.
03:04At 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.
03:16After two months, it just felt like the Nordic gods, dragons were finally helping us.
03:27As we steadily head south, we pick up speeds that we've never achieved before.
03:32In a single day, we even managed 28 miles. That'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.
04:02We're almost hitting the halfway mark around Iceland.
04:07Is it just 200 more metres?
04:14The whole team is out here to celebrate this moment.
04:19Three, two, one!
04:22Yeah!
04:30That's it!
04:39I'm not crying. I've got a jellyfish stick.
04:43Don't blame the jellyfish.
04:48That's our flair.
04:50It's massive psychologically to reach this halfway point.
04:53The psychological element is huge to this. It's a huge part of the mental game.
04:57So, um, I am trying to smile. It's a really important moment.
05:04Yeah.
05:04So 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.
05:19I'm halfway. I'm proud of you.
05:28I thought a lot about Hester and my family on that day.
05:34I'm just very, very aware that fatherhood is kind of just around the corner.
05:41So, yes, he's been sending me loads of scans.
05:43Um, he's tracking in the top percentile of, um, size.
05:48And I was like, of course, he's going to come out just like a nugget.
05:52Just like that.
05:53That's a good one.
05:55That's a good... He's doing set-ups there, isn't he?
05:57So I can't wait to get about it.
05:58I'm just going to be reading him sagas, like Icelandic Viking sagas and stuff like that.
06:01So then he would come out and be like,
06:03you're the strange man who was telling me about the sagas.
06:08But just when it felt like things were on the up,
06:12as ever with Iceland, the dragon has other plans.
06:17News of a dangerous new low building in the Norwegian sea
06:20forces us to head for Sebesfjorda.
06:23It's one of the few safe ports on the east coast.
06:27We're going to go and hide for him for the next 36 hours.
06:36My dad was a guiding north star when he was here.
06:41And now he's no longer here.
06:43As I swim around Iceland, he still remains like a guiding north star.
06:49And that, that just feels quite nice.
06:56I can talk about my dad now without getting choked up.
07:00It's taken a few years.
07:03We lost him a few years ago now to cancer.
07:07I was swimming around Great Britain when I got a phone call.
07:10It was my older brother and my mum.
07:12And they were like, it's not good news.
07:14Dad has stage four cancer.
07:18There's nothing you can do.
07:19We just needed to let you know.
07:21And my initial thought was, I'm just cancelling the swim.
07:24I was like, I'm just, I'm just going to go home.
07:26And I'm just going to go and be with dad.
07:28And he rung me and he just said, you can come home.
07:32You can come and give me a hug, but it has to be via Margate.
07:35You have to finish what you started.
07:39And I then just swam down the entire East Coast, just gunning it.
07:47And I said, I said I could talk without getting choked up.
07:51I'm almost there.
07:54But he was severely ill as well in Margate and he was in a wheelchair.
08:00And the doctors all said to him, they were like, look, Richard, you shouldn't be around groups of people.
08:07You shouldn't go to Margate.
08:09And my dad just stoically looked them all in the eye and just said, thank you so much.
08:14I appreciate your advice, but I'll be on the beach in Margate when my son swims around Great Britain.
08:23So, yeah.
08:26And that's the biggest lesson that my dad taught me.
08:28You do what you say you're going to do.
08:31That's what really drives me.
08:40So, I thought that Iceland could get any colder.
08:44I was wrong.
08:50Iceland continues to throw up surprises.
08:52We're heading south, but you're just getting all of this water coming off the glaciers.
08:56And there's a massive, hench glacier as well on the south coast that I don't even want to think about
09:02right now.
09:05Sorry, we're going to leave that little bad boy in there.
09:26As we slowly head south down the east coast, we start to see the amazing outline of Iceland's largest ice
09:33cap,
09:33which covers a huge 8% of Iceland's land area.
09:40It's a breathtaking sight.
09:48I love this fact.
09:50A glacier is a massive ice that can move on its own accord.
09:53And it's formed by trillions upon trillions of compressed snowflakes.
10:00And these are glacial tongues, like fingers snaking down into the sea.
10:10The 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.
10:21So not only do I have my arch nemesis, the cold to deal with, it's now late July, which means
10:26nights are coming back.
10:28And that means a whole new level of danger.
10:31Risk of getting lost.
10:32Risk of getting run over by the boat.
10:43We've got night swims going again. First 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.
11:00And those of us that are supervising the swim, because obviously seeing Ross at all times is paramount.
11:08So we have to put obviously a lighting system on Ross, keeping the right distance to the boat and keep
11:13him safe.
11:14I've done many night swims before, but night swims in Iceland, you do not want to get lost out here.
11:24The ferry lights on the side of the boat are like my compass guiding me south.
11:28And Gar has strapped an emergency beacon to my back, which can transmit my exact position to a satellite,
11:34if the worst happens and we get separated.
11:39Ross is taking the feed now there at the moment. He does the feed about every 20 minutes or so,
11:42so he's having an electrolyte drink to rehydrate and put some vital salts back in the system, stop from cramping.
11:50Hey, he's done 3.5k in 40 minutes, so...
11:54Oh!
11:55Haven't seen that in a while.
11:57Let's hope that lasts.
11:59The silent assassin of this entire swim is sleep deprivation.
12:04You swim for six hours, get out for six hours to rest, eat and sleep, but you don't get that
12:10deep rejuvenating sleep.
12:13And ultimately, you never fully recover.
12:23I am haggard.
12:26I'm so haggard.
12:31Yeah, every stroke hurts now, I'm not going to lie.
12:34My shoulders are like, what are you doing?
12:36Why are you still swimming?
12:38It's been months.
12:40Well, 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.
12:48That's different than your average Sunday afternoon swimmer.
12:52It's utterly impossible for someone to appreciate what Ross is actually going through here.
12:56The cold, the currents, the uncharted nature of it, the lack of sleep, living on a boat,
13:01a 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.
13:10He's a pretty extraordinary human being.
13:16So the east coast has been a massive high for Ross and the team.
13:21We've absolutely flown down it.
13:26He's had a lot of help by the tide.
13:29We'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.
13:45Then, like Groundhog Day, yet another storm starts to build deep in the Atlantic.
13:51It sends strong, southerly winds directly into the direction we are trying to swim into.
13:58And we're forced to ride it out in the historic town of Hoffen.
14:02Famous for its spectacular views of the Vatnajökull Hench Glacier.
14:07It's our gateway to the south coast and the land of the giant.
14:13So officially finishing the east coast was an amazing moment.
14:17I was told that dragons love fast-flowing water.
14:19Turns out they really do.
14:22We complete over 165 miles of the east coast in record time.
14:29So we're back on land once again.
14:31Trying to make the most of our time and find out more about Iceland's extreme landscapes.
14:42This 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.
15:01It used to be much, much, much higher, much more spectacular.
15:06The ice cap from where Hoffelschirkut originates is the biggest glacier outside of the polar regions.
15:16It's estimated that all of this ice will be gone, will be melted away in 150 to 200 years.
15:25That's like three generations of human beings.
15:29And the magnitude of the change, the speed of the change, it's mind-boggling.
15:35If you think back about 130 years, then the glacier would have been here, where we're standing now.
15:44And it would have reached about 200-300 meters above our heads.
15:49The melting has been incredibly pronounced and quick.
15:54This 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.
16:09Thore tells me about nine of the biggest volcanic areas in Iceland lie under this huge ice cap.
16:16The weight of the glacier is holding them down.
16:20What happens when all the ice melts is the worry.
16:24The place could be unlevelable if all of these volcanoes that are currently under the ice,
16:30if they are exposed, then they're able to erupt for decades or even centuries.
16:38The important thing is that we each try to do our part.
16:41As individuals, there's just too much a stick.
16:47Thore's words are still ringing in my ears.
16:51It's got me wondering just what sort of a world I'm going to be leaving to my unborn son.
17:04But 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.
17:16But the warnings of what lies ahead sound brutal.
17:20The south coast between Hoffen and the south east is inhospitable, shallow and dangerous.
17:27Tidal streams are strong and irregular.
17:31During the 17th century, much of this coastline was farmed until cataclysmic eruptions made life impossible.
17:39And as lava poured into the sea, it's created exceptionally treacherous, low-lying reefs.
17:46And the navigator is advised to give it a wide berth.
17:50Well, we're not going to give it a wide berth, guys.
17:52Because we've got a mission to get Ross around Iceland.
17:56And if that's not enough, on a more immediate challenge,
18:01ice is breaking off from the glacier and heading out into the sea.
18:08It's just kind of like, like razor blades to the face. It's that bad?
18:15The team do everything they can to keep me warm.
18:19I go completely mute. I actually can't talk my face to Ross.
18:25So he's having a difficult afternoon now, and the kilometres are coming slowly,
18:30and he's having to work very hard for him.
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.
18:38It's a different world down here, and we have these Atlantic swells rolling in
18:42and hitting the southern coast of Iceland.
18:44There's also very few ports down here, so it presents, yeah, many new challenges.
18:50It goes from bad to worse.
18:53And suddenly, the whole swim is in jeopardy.
18:59Storm after storm from the south hits us.
19:03The conditions that I'm OK to swim in, I basically just get beaten up and thrown around, but it's OK.
19:10Whereas the boat, it's getting back on the boat that's the issue.
19:17I'm swimming in these huge swells. I'm exhausted, could have been swimming for 12 hours.
19:24Hyperthermia seeping into your suit.
19:35The ladder's crashing up and down, so I can't actually get onto the boat.
19:38This is a bad place to be.
19:54The conditions are so bad, we decide it's too dangerous to continue south.
20:02It 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.
20:15Then we can join up the dots.
20:17Yes, it's as complicated as it sounds.
20:25As we wait for the latest bad weather to ease, we check out the south coast's beaches.
20:31It's sobering and formidable.
20:37Reynarsfjurra is Iceland's most dangerous beach.
20:41Legend has it, these columns are two giants, which were turned to stone as they tried to drag a
20:46three-masted ship to shore as the sun rose.
20:51And it's said you can still hear the giants moans as they long for their homes in the mountains.
21:01What's so deadly here is sneaker waves, which come out of nowhere.
21:10I've never been to a beach like this. One, there's a permanent weather warning system
21:14that goes from green amber to red. What's crazy is with these waves crashing out,
21:18this is apparently medium, this is amber.
21:22And the reason this beach is so dangerous is there's a steep drop-off very close to the shore.
21:29It means huge rogue waves can form with very little notice.
21:35That's a little bit scary.
21:37There are really clear warnings, but there's a lot of visitors still dangerously close to the sea.
21:47And 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 it was a young girl who drowned.
21:59It's utterly tragic.
22:02I think for me that just really brought home how you cannot take the south coast lightly.
22:16As the winds finally ease, our new plan starts to unfold.
22:22We sail west towards Grindavik, ready to swim the land of the giant in reverse.
22:30As we arrive, it's clear that this is no ordinary town.
22:35Grindavik is in an area of Iceland that's seen intense volcanic activity over the last few years.
22:45This is one of the weirdest places I've been in Iceland, and that's saying something.
22:55You're just completely quiet.
22:59You could hear a pin drop.
23:04It's where two tectonic plates meet.
23:07You just get these volcanic eruptions constantly happening over the last few years.
23:12And in fact, the most recent one happened about a kilometre that way only a week ago.
23:19It's so strange to be standing in the middle of what looks like a really busy housing estate.
23:26Nothing.
23:29If you live in Iceland, you have to respect nature.
23:33And if a volcano is going to take out your house, you don't try to stop it, you just move.
23:43We start to swim west to east, retracing our steps back along the south coast in reverse.
23:51And I'm left alone with my thoughts once again.
23:58Anything that happens on land, it might be a conversation with the crew.
24:03It might be a phone call back home to Hester.
24:06Anything 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.
24:14So I'm just left alone with my own thoughts.
24:16And sometimes that's a good thing.
24:17It could be a joke on the, you know, amongst the crew or, you know, you talk about your favorite
24:23song and that just repeats in your head.
24:25So it can be a good thing.
24:32But actually, a few days ago, it was my dad's birthday.
24:35And I spoke about this before.
24:39It sounds great.
24:39And anyone who's lost someone will know, whether it's spiritual, psychological, whatever, you can actually hear their voice so clearly
24:46in your head.
24:48And my dad, he was, he was so stoic and he didn't speak a lot.
24:54But when he did, you always listened and I could just hear his voice.
24:59And it was just, um, I almost got over it.
25:03And, uh, yeah, and, and he just said, you know, finish, finish this with now and get home.
25:32So we've been stuck out now for five days without going to port.
25:36And 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, and not just physically, but mentally and emotionally.
25:51The south coast, here we are.
25:54And as predicted, tides and currents have just, they've completely flipped on us.
26:04All the data said that the tide had turned and it was going to be an amazing swim.
26:18I started swimming for 200 meters.
26:20I turned to the team and I said, guys, this doesn't feel right.
26:23And in the time it took me to finish my bottle of water and to hand it back, I'd gone
26:27back 50 meters.
26:29Turns out the data was wrong.
26:32It, uh, I, I cannot describe what that does to your psychology.
26:37My bottom lip is out.
26:39I am swear.
26:40It's just, I'm in struggle town.
26:44It's, it's bad.
26:45And there's another worry.
26:47Rather than things getting easier, things go from bad to worse.
26:52My wetsuit's getting a little bit looser, so I can tell I'm losing weight as well.
26:56I started this, I think I was like a hundred and maybe three kilograms.
27:02I think I'm about like 96, which isn't good.
27:09I'm eating like a horse and I'm still losing weight.
27:12Something isn't quite right.
27:17Basically, 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.
27:30But sometimes when you are just feeling really low,
27:33the most amazing and unexpected things happen.
27:38We're literally in the middle of nowhere.
27:41And the team have a surprise.
27:53What's going on?
27:56What's going on, you said?
27:58You'll see, just enjoy.
28:01There's some friends coming to visit.
28:03Some friends coming to say hello.
28:16British Navy.
28:18No.
28:18Yeah.
28:19Being a flyby.
28:24You know, just thinking about that moment was amazing.
28:27The very fact that the Royal Navy came to find us and cheer us on.
28:30It was something I'll never forget.
28:34It's just those moments of human kindness that helped so much.
28:59And they dropped something in the water for you.
29:05This dropped out of the sky.
29:12Get in.
29:14Oh, no way.
29:16This is the greatest bucket ever.
29:19It's just full of chocolate.
29:23Absolute legends.
29:25I got weirdly a bit emotional just seeing the flag.
29:28Like, oh, that's really cool.
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,
29:57I'm just not making good enough progress.
30:00We're rapidly running out of time.
30:04Oh, you purposely made that work.
30:11Easy.
30:13Salem completed it.
30:15But, you know, here at Vesmanai, there are worse places to hang out.
30:20I love this place just because it is home to the largest colony of puffins in the world.
30:27And who doesn't love puffins?
30:35But actually, like me, some of the puffins here in South Iceland are not doing that well.
30:41I'm hearing that seabirds on Iceland's Atlantic coast are having to travel further to find food for their young this
30:47year.
30:48And that seems to be down to the seas warming and less fish in the ocean.
30:55It means that for some of the puffins young, like me, they're not as fat as they should be for
31:01going it alone in the Atlantic.
31:04The warning signs our world is changing fast are everywhere.
31:10And I'm changing fast, too.
31:13So 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 look, in 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.
31:40But that's kind of it.
31:41Form follows function.
31:43It 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.
31:54It's organised chaos.
31:55I know where everything is.
31:56So I'm constantly eating.
31:57I'm in a state of perpetual carb loading.
32:01I'm not trying to make up 10,000 calories today.
32:04You'll notice I've got two water bottles.
32:05They're marked.
32:06That is for drinking.
32:08This one is for going to the toilet.
32:12Don't get them mixed up.
32:14Don't do it.
32:16That's why I put tape on one, because I mixed them up once.
32:21It was a bad morning.
32:26With the boat loaded up with more pasta and peanut butter, we head back out to sea.
32:32To chip away at those last elusive miles of the south coast.
32:40In the past, my body's broken before my mind.
32:43Like, so I'll push myself into hypothermia, cellulitis, rhabdo, all sorts of things will put me in hospital.
32:50And that's not a good thing.
32:53It'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, I'm stupid and stubborn enough to swim so the mind won't break.
33:05But I'm also aware that I'm not bulletproof.
33:12And there's no doubt the swim is taking its toll on my body.
33:16Over the last three months, salt water has destroyed my tongue.
33:21Giving me sea ulcers and multiple jellyfish stings has sent me a little bit crazy.
33:27It just feels like my whole body is on the verge of giving up.
33:36Oh, I'm struggling.
33:38I think I've been putting on a little bit of a brave face, if I'm being honest,
33:42just because I don't want the team or anyone to worry.
33:45But basically what it is, it's called rhabdo.
33:47So that's short for rhabdomyolysis.
33:50And the muscles are essentially liquefying.
33:54The reason I know it's pretty bad, that's a bottle of my piss.
33:59That 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.
34:11And you're just trying to basically filter it.
34:13Most 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.
34:24And keep this between us, for the time being.
34:27But that is a deal with it later problem.
34:35We're walking a tightrope between trying to get this swim done.
34:39But also not pushing Ross too hard, so that his body breaks down.
34:43And it's not easy to watch someone that you care about suffer like that.
34:49The reality is, I am feeling a ****.
34:52It takes so much effort to get out of bed and just put one arm in front of the other.
35:01And there's more.
35:04We've had storms before, but nothing like this.
35:13We have a hurricane, which is the tail end of which is going to hit us probably the day after
35:17tomorrow.
35:18We're going to lose anywhere between two to three days of swimming time, which means up to eight swims.
35:23So that's very worrying.
35:28As Iceland starts to feel the tail end of Hurricane Erin's deadly power, it forces us to take shelter once
35:36again.
35:39So 48 hours have sustained these long winds, which creates a little bit of a service carry.
35:44It's a tiny bit of help, which might just send me back home just in time to see Hester deliver
35:51the baby.
35:55I know my body is not going to hold out much longer.
36:00This is my last chance to nail this swim.
36:05Let's go swim this.
36:07Let's get me home.
36:09Even if we don't make it, I'll go home and at least we tried.
36:16Dad's words of finish the job ring in my ears.
36:20So there's one last roll of the dice to get us over the finish line and me back home to
36:27Hester.
36:39We swim the tail of the hurricane.
36:52The year that my first child is going to be born, I'd want to say we finished the swim in
36:59time and got home because I said I was going to do it.
37:11Great teams aren't built on victory laps.
37:15They're built in the trenches.
37:34Finally, finally, finally, we conquer the land of the giant.
37:49It'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.
38:08107 days since this crazy swim started, we retrace our steps back to the kingdom of the bull.
38:16There's now just 35 miles left, back to where it all started.
38:24As night falls, finally, we see the beam of the Karor lighthouse and the distant lights of Reykjavik, welcoming us
38:32back.
38:39This is Iceland just showing us the exit.
38:41Having had enough of us swimming around, urinating in the pool from get out, like go home now.
38:52112 days.
38:54Is that what it is?
38:55Yeah.
38:55Oh, I was a young man when we started this.
38:59I was so naive.
39:02So full of hope and optimism.
39:07And then suddenly, it's nearly all over and there's just miles to go.
39:16And as if to come out in celebration, the Northern Lights put on a show for us.
39:43This is nuts, isn't it?
39:46This is so crazy.
39:52I was so cold, but I don't care.
39:57Look at that one.
40:09This is hands down the best swim so far.
40:16All those days of thinking I would never finish, of cold, of feeling alone.
40:25It almost makes you forget, losing parts of your tongue, chafing all around the coast of Iceland.
40:32It's like, oh, this is amazing.
40:34I'll do a second laugh.
40:35It's like, no, no, no, no.
40:37Do not forget.
40:40This is the first time I actually get to enjoy it a little bit.
40:45Right.
40:46See, Dad.
40:47Probably think about finishing this.
40:49I've got a baby to get back.
41:00The aurora is dancing.
41:03It's magical.
41:04Really, really special.
41:09Nothing.
41:10Nothing.
41:15What a last night.
41:22There's now just one final swim to go.
41:26News starts to filter out that we're approaching the finish.
41:30Ross, just to say, I knew you could do it.
41:33I'm so proud of you.
41:35A truly world-class feat.
41:38One that is not going to be repeated for many years.
41:41Huge respect.
41:42What a titan you are.
41:44I'll raise my hat to you, brother.
41:52To many people, that is a lighthouse.
41:54To me, that is the finish, salvation, and home time.
42:00Yeah.
42:00That's what it is.
42:06Wow.
42:09It has been an honor serving with you, gentlemen.
42:12Yeah, we'll kick you off the boat one last time.
42:14Yay!
42:17One of my friends said, most people travel and collect souvenirs.
42:22You collect stupid ideas.
42:25This was amongst my most stupid.
42:32That's quick.
42:41Here we go, dudes.
42:43Yeah.
42:44It's a...
42:45You're emotional.
42:58Thank you, thank you, thank you.
43:03we are at the end the end is right there and ross 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 it just required levels of patience and discipline and a bunch of other
43:31stuff that i didn't even know i quite had in the locker history made so proud of your brother this
43:46is what you were made to do big love man well done all right ross there's the mate you are
43:54some kind
43:55of epic viking warship i love you mate you're an animal see you soon brother this swim has been
44:01amazing the whole adventure has been incredible i don't need anything else a lot of the team
44:07they were volunteers they completely selflessly just volunteered their entire time sleepless nights
44:14getting smashed by arctic storms they just did that out of the goodness of their heart and i think
44:20they they really deserve an amazing finish they deserve to be celebrated so i think
44:27personally i just want to go home i want a burger and i want to lay on hester's belly and
44:32listen to
44:32the baby that's what i want that's awesome this is how it should end
44:52i didn't know how to finish this swim i haven't i haven't really allowed myself to think about the
44:58end because i was just so focused on putting one arm in front of the other now the end has
45:05arrived
45:06i got on land and i sort of panicked and i just sort of decided that it'd be nice to
45:14bookend the swim
45:15because this place we started the whole journey here just kind of felt not right but it just just
45:23kind of felt nice to come back here and just sort of sit and and reflect
45:30after swimming for so long i'd love if this is almost a letter to my future son but also a
45:37tribute
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
45:55i don't want to wish away the finish and i don't want to rush the start of the next chapter
46:05one country four kingdoms a thousand miles a hundred and fourteen days iceland done
46:13my dad
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