Axel crawls to Iceland’s president with a signed photo

Axel Máni Bjarnason plans to finish crawling from Njarðvík to Bessastaðir on Saturday evening and give President Halla Tómasdóttir a signed photo of himself, mbl.is reports.

Axel has livestreamed the journey on TikTok and gained followers along the way. He says he also wants to encourage people to follow through on their ideas, however unusual they may seem.

He had kept the contents of an envelope he is carrying secret, promising to reveal them when he reached 5,000 TikTok followers. He reached that milestone and disclosed during a livestream on Wednesday that the envelope contains a signed photo of himself. He also hopes to ask the president to become his friend on an alarm-clock app that a friend is developing. Axel says the app connects people in a different way from social media.

Axel says he has not been in direct contact with the president’s office about handing over the envelope, although he knows several people connected to Bessastaðir. It is not yet clear whether the president will meet him there.

He took a break from crawling when he spoke to mbl.is on Thursday morning and planned to resume around midday. His knees are holding up, he says, but his hands are under considerable strain and his fists are badly swollen. He managed only four hours of crawling on Wednesday because of the pain and planned to aim for 12 hours on Thursday. He remains certain he will complete the journey on Saturday evening.