This morning we opted for a slightly different mode of torch-carrying and we decided to take a shortcut by swimming across Hvalfjörður. (This means whale fjord in Icelandic).
With most of us being runners and the fact that the water temperature was a frigid 9 degrees centigrade we enlisted the support of Gangane Stefán Stefánsson to swim the 2km across the fjord.
Gangane definitely attracted the attention of the seagulls.
Gangane's swim was ably assisted by the search and rescue volunteers who very kindly escorted him for the entire duration. Those on the boat were complaining more about the cold than Gangane who was actually in the water.
After 75 minutes in the water Gangane reached the other side to be met by a TV reporter from channel 2.
The torch was passed to Suren who adopted our more usual mode of transport, running.
Next stop was a grove of trees the Icleand Sri Chinmoy Centre has been planting in honor of Sri Chinmoy's poetry series entitled 27,000 Aspiration Plants.
An estimated 21,000 trees have been planted so far.
Today we planted about 70 trees.
Interestingly the 30th anniversary of when Sri Chinmoy embarked on this series of poems in 1983 was just a one of day ago on July 10.
Aspirants planting.
Our first formal meeting was in Mosfellsbær were we met with local youth who are spending their summer helping clean up the town.
We planted an Elm tree dedicated to peace.
Salil shared some reflections on our how grateful we were to have experienced the beauty of Iceland, in both in its nature and its people.
Next we headed over to a nearby track for some running.
We were delighted to see Laufey who had been with the team for most of our journey but had to return to Reykjavik a couple of days ago.
After our formal proceedings Kaya and Gautami were inspired to race 800 m. Gautami finished second with 2 min 43 while Kaya came in first with 2 min 38.
The painful aftermath.
Hey now they're laughing.
Inspired by the previous race some of the other girls had a shorter race.
Thank you for welcoming us.
Next we began our last 19 km section into Reykjavik. The three women on the left had volunteered to run the entire way.
We picked up some more runners with about 11 km to go.
With 4 km to go the group swelled to a very large bunch.
Our final stopping point in Reykjavik, it is hard to beleive it is all over. What a beautiful, rich and rewarding experience for the team members and thank you so much to the wonderful country of Iceland for sharing your beauty, your genorousity, your encouragement and most importantly your yearning aspiration for peace.
Congatulations to our 19km champions! Well done!
