Many of us dream of sightseeing in Manhattan, New York, on foot or by subway, but Melbourne veterinarian Rob Gropel is going to swim around the island.
While other tourists stroll down Broadway, people-watch in Central Park and have a drink in a bar, Gropel will spend eight hours in the drink, swimming freestyle and dodging ferries.
Dr Rob Gropel trains at Aquarena Aquatic and Leisure Centre in Lower Templestowe.Credit: Joe Armao
His 48.5-kilometre, non-stop swim, scheduled for August 24, is called the 20 Bridges Swim, and involves braving the currents of the East, Harlem and Hudson rivers.
It’s the latest super-sized fitness challenge for Gropel, 44, an Ivanhoe East veterinarian, who in the past 15 years has climbed both the highest mountains and the highest volcanos on seven continents.
Gropel has also swum 34 kilometres across the English Channel and done the 32-kilometre Catalina Channel swim in California, skied 111 kilometres to the South Pole and skied 540 kilometres across Greenland.
He says his late wife, Marisa Strydom, who died in 2016 while the couple were climbing Mount Everest together, was in his thoughts on those quests and will be again while he’s swimming in New York.
Shared love of adventure: the late Marisa Strydom and husband Rob Gropel on their Mount Everest climb at Base Camp in 2016.
Gropel says that had she survived, Strydom might not have swum around Manhattan with him — she was more into mountain climbing.
“But she would be supporting me, for sure,” Gropel said.
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