Briton aiming to swim round world

Robert Garside ran across six continents

A Briton who ran across six continents is planning to try to swim 25,000 miles across all the world's oceans and seas, in an odyssey lasting up to six years.

Robert Garside pounded 35,000 miles in more than 50 pairs of trainers during his epic run, which ended this summer.

The 36-year-old revealed on Friday that he will embark on his round-the-world swim in Greece next June.

He plans to sleep in an egg-shaped carbon fibre capsule that will be attached to his foot while he swims.

Serious

"I'm totally serious about doing this," the psychology student said.

"When I got back from my around the world run Tom Hanks said I was an inspiration. That was nice."

Mr Garside said he would be crossing the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the Pacific and the Indian Oceans, as well as a number of seas and islands during the journey.

Much of the time he will be "hugging" the coastlines and will cross seas and oceans via the shortest routes possible.

He plans to start off near Athens in Greece, on 1 June, and head to Morocco, before making his way south along the west coast of Africa.

He then intends to cross the Atlantic to Brazil and will swim along the north coast of South America to the Panama Canal.

Polynesia

From there he hopes to head south to Ecuador and west to the Galapagos Islands before passing through the South Pacific to French Polynesia and then New Zealand, Australia and Indonesia.

I think the greatest problems will be isolation, politics and weather Robert Garside

The final stage of the journey will lead him across the equator to the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea and back into the Mediterranean.

Mr Garside, of Stockport, Greater Manchester, said he had been thinking about swimming around the world since he heard about a French man who swam across the Atlantic.

He will be tracked by satellite and hopes that boats and coast guards will help deliver water and food supplies.

Flippers

He will be equipped with wet suits, flippers, a snorkel, goggles, satellite transmitters, cell phones and navigational equipment.

He plans to swim around six or seven hours a day during the challenge.

"Like the first run around the world, I think that the greatest problems will be isolation, politics and weather," Mr Garside - who wants to raise funds for an autism charity - added.

Critics were sceptical about Mr Garside's previous challenge, in which he ran around the world from 1997 to June this year.

Experts said they were astonished at claims he ran up to 110 miles a day for days on end, without a support team, through hostile environments.

In 2001 he reportedly admitted taking an aeroplane for more than 800 miles of the route from Mexico City to the US border, but insisted he had all the evidence proving his record attempt was authentic.