WE SWAM HALFWAY AROUND ICELAND... 500 MILES TO GO!

I'm told this is not going to tickle. We are 30 meters. We are 500 miles in as I attempt to become the first person to swim 1,000 miles around the entire coast of Iceland and just wanted to give a little bit of an update. We are in a weird period right now. So officially, we've kind of done the north coast officially, but it's got this weird long corner and this bay that just feels like it goes on forever. So we're not quite on the east coast. I don't know where we are. We're in like no man's land. Also as well, worth noting, it looks gorgeous right now. Do not be fooled. This morning, I was just getting face planted by waves from the Arctic. Now, it is a mill pond. And this is Iceland for you, to be honest. It completely teaches you to swim one way and then just flips the rules of the game like by the afternoon. It is crazy. Specifically the north coast, just because with the north coast, it's not really very well chartered. There's not a lot of boats up there. Certainly no swimmers as well. So what we were trying to do, in my head anyway, is kind of like Adminson, Robert Falcon, Scott Shackleton, when they were going to the South Pole, every single footstep taught them something new about geology, geography. They were just uncovering more. It was uncharted. And in my own very, very small way, like very small way, that's kind of what we were doing. So we were caught in these countercurrents, these eddies. And it would have been nice to have made it through the north coast with some sophisticated nautical genius. I just don't think that was the case. It was more blunt perseverance. But we got it done. And I think that's the important thing. It's, you know, it wasn't fast. It wasn't pretty. And I think the biggest lesson I've learned is when it comes to the north of Iceland, the rules are there are no rules. Me and Tom were really worried at one point. Some of the wounds on my neck, they were actually opening up. And it was just these kind of wide open sea ulcers, which you don't really want near your neck and certain arteries and things. Far from ideal. Tom has been an absolute hero. We'll catch up with Tom and he can actually talk you through weird ailments on my body. But honestly, he has nursed me back from the dead. I don't know how he's done it. You know, Oli, we'll go through some footage where it was really bad. We'll compare it to what it is. Tom's handiwork. It is nothing short of an Icelandic miracle. Also as well, going to be catching up with Sol, a resident marine biologist. That's going to be awesome. Just because I keep saying the swim is obviously a priority. The world record is nice. But also equally as important is just the research that we're doing as well. And Sol, the whole way around is just trapping eDNA samples. eDNA samples are just environmental DNA samples. It just means that anything in the ocean leaves behind a trace, whether it's a Greenland shark, a seal, a chubby bearded Ross Edgley. It will leave behind a trace. And by collecting samples, what we're left with is this kind of incredible map of biodiversity of Iceland, as well as our research into microplastics as well. I'm not going to try to butcher that. Sol's going to do a much better job of explaining. The big news, the huge news is potentially, fingers crossed, touch wood and every other superstition you can think of, this week we should reach the halfway point, which will feel unbelievable. Oli will have it on the map coming up now. If we reach there, in theory, in theory, the tide should be a little bit more predictable. The weather might be a little bit better. We might be a little bit more shielded from the coast. In theory, but there's one thing that I've learned is you make plans and Iceland just laughs at you. So I'm going to get suited, get fed and then start our assault on the east coast. Let's, let's go. Let's, let's depart. Let's, let's go. Sun has actually gone below the horizon for the first time. We actually have a sunset. We're headed south. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, this is, I'm buzzing today to be quite honest. So it is approaching midnight, arctic sun. I'm flagging a little bit, but hero has emerged from the ranks in the form of Aquaman's older, bigger brother, Oli. Oli's jumping in. We're going to get some shots, aren't we Ol? Yeah, we're going to make the most of it being a rather lovely light. First time in a long time. And some people have asked for this as well, wanting sort of like swim techers and stuff like that. So we're going to get in and Oli is going to make media magic. I'd like to say though, that the reason that there is not much of Ross swimming is because me as an okay swimmer, but trying to keep up with Ross whilst holding onto a camera housing, like I know people are expecting me to be just like cruising alongside you, just like nailing eyeball shots. But we don't want excuses. We're having a bombing competition to begin with. Oh, I'm amazing. I'm the best bomber in all of the arc. I'm such a top bomber. So we get the wind now. In the meantime, we can warm you up with some water. What do you want to do right now? This is the hardest reality of swimming around Iceland. Sitting on a toilet between swims while Tom pours hot water down your waist. Not proud of it, but it's happening. Right, well, we got loads of breeze. That wasn't forecast earlier. And we got this long. So, and this. Let's say 18 knots, that's 1500, which is now. Okay, when does it dissipate? Four or five o'clock. Let's say 17, 18 knots, so it's not going to reduce. Wind's actually not going to dissipate within this swim period. That was a Solomon's egg. Fade the beard into here. Got a little mullet going underneath, but his hair sort of sitting on top of it. Tidied up his back. Trimmed his little cheeks. Okay, get a nice picture of that haircut, because that one is next. He's like taxi driver, seriously. He's not a taxi driver, but he had a mohawk, didn't he? No, no, he's like taxi driver. Who is? I'm not going to be outcast from my friends. Yeah, electrolytes. And then oats with the chopped mocha. Potentially, yeah. Boom. Is it three? We got two o'clock. We'll do up and over. Three. Preset the coconut. I think Ross is going to have a better time than we are. For sure. Okay, Sam, can we swap? You're trying to justify your snot balls there, hanging off your beard. Yeah, yeah. No, really guys, it's coconut oil that's been in there for four hours. It's not snot, it's not snot, Tom. It's coconut oil. It's not snot. Okay, I'm going in. I'm told this is not going to tickle. 30 meters. Ready? Lift on. Ready to roll. Yeah. Okay. If we lose our power in this, it's not good. That is making noises it should not make. Oh my god. I've got the oldest shoulders in Iceland. Me and Ollie were just actually just chatting about this. I think what's really interesting is because this swim is obviously, it's not over in days, it's not over in weeks, it's more months. You have to make it sustainable. So it's really strange that now I find myself doing a little bit of, I suppose, strength, prehab, rehab. It's mechanotransduction. It's this idea of like ligaments and tendons all responding to the stress and stimuli that you place on it. Mine's been incredibly high volume, low intensity, just swimming hours, hours, weeks, months. Whereas what I want to do now is just induce a little bit of intensity. It's a little bit of strength through the ligaments and tendons just to make sure that they're strong enough to continue all the way around. We're not quite at halfway yet. So it's this idea of, it's not performance-based. That's not what we're doing. If you see me doing any strength training, I'm not trying to get stronger. It's not your body's ability to generate force. It's nothing like that. It's more just this idea of making the body physically robust enough to make it sustainable, if that makes sense. So we're not going to be having a bro-down, benching, bicep. We might actually, we might, but no, no, no, we're not. Let's not rule it out. But no, you shouldn't see me doing bicep curls, testing my one rep max bench. That's not the purpose. I think that's the thing. Sometimes strength training with endurance sport, it's a bit of a dirty word to some people. And then people think you're just going to end up like the Hulk and be unable to move. Whereas in reality, especially with, it's not really an event. It's more an expedition like this. You have to look at the body breaking down. So that controlled catabolic breakdown of the body, because the body's just not meant to be at sea for this amount of time every single day. So just making it sustainable. So that is essentially, if you see me ever doing this, this is what we're trying to do. I'm trying to become less of a land dwelling mammal and more of a sea one as I just become hairier and chubbier. I've also skipped leg day. I was talking about that, haven't I? That's not good. That's so bad. They're just like, they just become like, this is going to sound really weird, but if you see a newborn baby, go up to the baby and just squidge their thighs. That's what this feels like. Just no muscle tone whatsoever. Just in time. All right, so now I'm head cameraman now. I've taken over. So as I'm doing my strength rehab, Ollie's trying to find something to do box jumps on. This could go horribly wrong. He's found a box full of fish blood. This is not activities for a white hoodie. Why don't you use the wall? Surely that's a logical... This could go wrong. It's like Kespite. Okay, guys, stay tuned for what is going to be the greatest box jump in Iceland's crowd history. Singular. Stay tuned. This is going to be amazing. I hope you're not recording. Get it, Nick, go on. Like a salmon. I thought you said you had to pull on the floor. What makes it even more impressive is the cost. Let's go, let's go, let's go, Luke, let's go. Good old, let's go. I'm going to go over to our resident expert. This is certainly metabolic conditioning. Please talk us through a professional analysis of Luke first. Luke Hallam is a particularly impressive athlete. I've got him on my radar for a while. I think in the 21 to 25 category, we're going to get him doing some crossfit. I think he's got the makings of a brilliant downhill skier. He's just an absolute tank. That man, that man could charge, charge a small infantry, I think. Is that it? Well, it depends what's inside here, as to whether that breaks air or water. Here, these wires are, that's the fuel. I didn't point Ross anywhere. He decided he was going to go in the wrong direction. So he may have just gone back across the halfway point. But hey, he's happy. We're all happy. It doesn't matter. Only you and me know, so it's fine. And now the whole of YouTube, but it's all right. His face is freezing cold and he's being stung repeatedly. So every time he smiles at us, he's just doing that for the team. But he's in a lot of pain right now. And he's popping up right now. You showed yourself out there today. Well done, buddy. How do I film that? You didn't tell me it was your birthday. You, you bugger. Oh, you numb-faced bastard. I know, I know. Hey, mate. It's all downhill from here, mate. All downhill, mate. That flail was awesome. Yeah, here you go. You can see my cheek fowling. Yeah, no way. Yeah. I was stung so many times. You! Then it's the birthday boy. Yeah, were you going to tell anyone? No. Quietly bake some cakes for him. My face, is it bad? Fine, it is absolutely not fine. You see how many there were? Everywhere. It was like a jellyfish apocalypse. Just like that. I thought we had a truce. I spoke to them yesterday and everything. What was his name? Bruce between friends. That feels so good. Thank you, Tom. How long have you been on Helmsworth? About four hours now. You know, everyone's feeling bad for Ross swimming. I had to stand up for four hours. So... Has it been good ice landing summer weather? Oh, it's been beautiful. It's been raining for three hours. It's just stopped now. And the fog has cleared as well. So you can finally see land. Before, when it wasn't raining, we were just going through wet mist, which was sticking to everything. So it was just as wet as when it rained. But now I'm glad that we can see land. It's nice and flat at the moment. It's calm and I get to go to bed soon. So a naked bride is going to say something. I'm Solomon Weston. I'm coming from the University of Plymouth and I'm studying marine biology right now. I'm going into my final year. So starting in September will be my dissertation year. And yeah, I'm spending my summer on the boat alongside a man who likes jellyfish and weeing in his wetsuit. Break it down. We have microplastic one, microplastic two, eDNA and whale identification. So the whale identification is very easy. That's just taking photos and stealing Ollie's photos because Ollie's much better at it than I am. So we can ID whales, track their migration patterns from here to the Azores to the Canaries maybe. And then this is microplastic one. This is a big surface net. So you get to tow behind the boat. On the end here, I screw on a little collection bag on this ring. So all the water goes in and all the big stuff gets trapped in the collection bag. So we're looking at the microplastics that are getting stuck in the bag so we can record levels around the coast. Microplastic two is very similar and it's just a straight-up water sample, 15 mils, in here. So I take these every 20 miles. This is being used by the University of Victoria to test a new peptide-based microplastic analysis machine they have which is very fancy and very exciting. This is being used right here in Iceland. The net is being used here in Iceland and processing this is going to let scientists make a whole map of microplastic levels around the coast. So we can look at local currents, see this is pushing this way, this is pulling this way, we're getting high levels here, we're getting low levels here and it's going to be the first complete map the whole way around the coast. This little machine down here, this little doohickey, is for measuring eDNA levels. So eDNA, the E is environmental, environmental DNA. So this is anything left behind by animals as they move through the water. Sort of the way that we leave a hair here, fingerprints, skin cells and people get rumbled on CSI or something. We are CSI, we're trying to rumble the animals. So we see a few whales, that's all well and good but we know there's a lot more going on that we're not actually looking at. So eDNA is things like their skin cells, bits of tissue, bits of faeces. So in here is a little filter, it's quite hard to see, this is the filter here and I slap it on which is basically just a big hoover. So I get a bucket of water, I get my big hoover, I put on my filter, filter it in the water and then when I turn it on, that's the sound of the hoover sucking water in and then all the eDNA, the nice stuff we want, the skin cells, the faeces, all that good gear gets trapped in the filter. I take the filter off, bag it up and this lets us build another map around Iceland but this time for biodiversity. So we can see what species are present in the water at that time and that will give us a map of the whole Icelandic coast again. The first time it's ever been done and this is really amazing because this is the sort of science that helps governments put in quotas. So we had a lot of herring action in Siglafjordur, maybe the eDNA we get is going to say we didn't see lots but there's a lot of herring coming back and that will help new fishing quotas come in or there's not very many whales over here as we thought there were, we need to protect that a bit more, that sort of thing. It's amazing, I'm very privileged to be here and having a lot of fun. It has been an immense week but firstly I feel I need to address this because honestly this fjord, it is boiling at the moment and it looks like the Maldives, I can assure you it's not. The water is still freezing, you can still see snow on the mountains but I really felt I needed to address that because this feels exotic and on the outside it is, in the water definitely isn't. Also I probably need to address my appearance, probably don't I Oli? I look like kind of if Poseidon had a distant cousin who no one really talks about and is just kind of quite unhygienic and they don't invite to Christmas. That's kind of, that's what I look like and it's only going to get worse as well but this is serving a function. This is armour against the jellyfish so I'm not taking it off because I swam through what can only be described as a jellyfish apocalypse. They were just everywhere, they were just going crazy. So some of them bounce off the chin, others get me in around my nose and then one even got my gums, I don't even know how one gets my gums. These have not stopped following me as well since the west coast, genuinely. Also really cool story on that as well so I'm going to try to keep this quite brief. I love folklore, I love Icelandic folklore and there's this one particular story that talks about this foreign king who basically sent a sorcerer disguised as a whale over to Iceland to see where he can invade. And first of all this whale, this sorcerer came to the west coast and that was the bull. So this bull, this massive bull was standing guard, it was a guardian of Iceland. It was like whoa we're not going to go there. So then it went to the north coast to check out if that was weaker, if it could attack from the north and then it found this massive eagle protecting the north coast. Then it came down the east coast, on the east coast it found a dragon and it was like whoa that's a bad idea as well and then it went to the south coast to see if that was any better and found a massive giant. What's interesting is obviously that's a really cool story in folklore. I believe it because these guys who are just the companions of the eagle have been following them since the west coast, since we turned that corner and now they just seem to be continuing to follow me now as we go down the east coast to the kingdom of the dragon. So a little bit of folklore for you there. But all of that aside, this week I had in one particular swim it was the best swim possible, the worst swim possible and the fastest swim possible all in one at the same time. The waves were biblical. At the start it was it was so much fun like it was a novelty swimming in under waves crushing it felt amazing. That novelty wore off I reckon about oh maybe like 30 minutes in and then I think I really realised it was going wrong when I was trying to out swim my own sick. So I just shunned her and then that's being sent at the same speed so I'm swimming trying to swim past it but then at the end the metrics we got we covered so much distance as well and that's what basically led us what is now officially this feels so good to say officially the halfway point that has been a long time coming we've had to fight for that but here we are west coast done north coast done officially over the halfway point everything we do now is just south and just takes us closer to celebrating burgers. So that feels really nice we've got a big week planned we've got a lot of ground to cover hopefully some tides and currents they start to pick up and we're going to throw around some ideas so as always in the comments Oli's been amazing just replying to all your comments I know you fed back on what you wanted to see we've tried to deliver so let us know what you want to see if you like the video like it subscribe follow share and then we'll be seeing you hopefully as we just gun it down the east coast I say I say gun it as always I'm overselling that aren't I Oli limping crawling slowly meandering down the east coast but for now I'm going to eat sleep big swim tomorrow so what we've got here if we're if we're really quiet we're going to approach the uh the rarely spotted Luke Hallam it's mating season at the moment that's why he's naked I think he spotted us we might be in trouble they can get quite violent quite quite quite violent during mating season let's go and see what he's up to he's been clocked Hallam's got this