LONDON – Adventurer Ross Edgley became the first man to swim around the coast of mainland Britain as he completed a 1,780 mile-trip to make a triumphant return to dry land in Margate on Sunday.
The 33-year-old, from Grantham, Lincolnshire, had left the Kent town on June 1, swimming in a clockwise direction. He had not set foot on land once and slept on a support boat.
Edgley, who swam up to 12 hours a day, battled through strong tides, hundreds of jellyfish stings and had to cope with a disintegrating tongue caused by salt water during his Great British Swim.
He expended an estimated 500,000 calories during the journey, and ate more than 500 bananas to provide him with a constant source of energy.
In mid-August, he broke the world record for the longest stage sea swim of 73 days set by Benoit Lecomte, who swam across the Atlantic Ocean in 1998.
This was Edgley’s latest record-breaking feat. In April 2016, he completed the world’s longest rope climb, equivalent to the height of Mount Everest. That was two months after he completed a marathon while pulling a car.
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