Poem by Robert Service, recited by Christopher Herwig, 1-2 lines a day while hiking and rafting across Iceland with Alastair Humphreys from North to South in July 2010.

Mr. Herwig is also the filmmaker here, I think. Some very good editing and of a course a brilliant idea, even if one does get a little tired of looking at him by the end of it. Their journey across Iceland was truly epic, judging from Alastair’s report:

The plan was simple: we were trekking inland from Iceland’s north coast up into the central highlands. We would cross the Hofsjokull ice cap to gain access to the headwaters of Iceland’s longest river. There we would inflate the packrafts we were carrying and attempt to paddle down two separate rivers, eventually reaching the southern coast of Iceland, the ocean, and the end of our expedition.

We were carrying everything we needed. There would be no villages or resupplies on our route. We carried food for 25 days. We had camping equipment, and ropes and crampons for the glacier crossing. There was a fair weight of camera equipment, batteries and solar panel chargers. And we also were carrying all the gear you need for paddling glacial whitewater rivers. The weight of the packs crushed our knees and spine and gouged our shoulders and hips. We feared that we had bitten off more than we could chew.