George Bullard

[00:00:00] George Bullard: Olly and I said no to our only chance of survival, fact. And we’ve had along towards the Fareo Islands and the fishermen went back to their fishing and they genuinely believed that they were going to be the last people to see us alive. And they said this too, to the cameras, you know, afterwards they’re like, we thought that they were going to die.

We thought we were going to be picking up a boat and looking at the bodies later that day.

Hey, George, how are we doing John? I’m very well. Thanks. How are you? Not too bad. Well, great to have you on the show. And I suppose the best place to start is probably with people listening. It’s about yourself and where are you and what have you been doing? [00:01:00] That is a minute. Another question, actually, John right now Because the answer to that is not a huge amount like of the world.

Anyway. My name’s George Bullard and I’m a World Breaking Explorer I’ve spent basically the last what are we now like I’m now 30 , 32 God. And since I was 14, really I’ve been doing expeditions most years, really. And some of them broken world records. Some of them haven’t some of them has been phenomenal trips and adventures.

So like most corners of the world. And my mission is to rewild humans. I believe super passionately in the power of the outdoors and the power that mother nature can have on all of us, whether that’s like spiritually, whether that is emotionally, physically or mentally, you know, I think all of these aspects, the outdoors can affect you.

[00:02:00] And I really use the sort of big expeditions as a, as a, as a. A sort of piece, a signature piece, which says, you know this is what George is about. This is what he loves. And yeah, I’ve been super fortunate enough to do some really, really silly ones and had some ridiculous things happen on them.

But I’ve also been fortunate to do some very serious ones. And I guess achieved some pretty, I, I still can’t believe it. So by that, by those means it’s pretty remarkable. Well, let’s start with the ridiculous ones that, I mean, the more ridiculous ones I went down to Dan to Anton Arctic and In 2008 to go and try and find someone’s stove, which is quite a nice trip reason to go down to Antarctica because they ask you, they say they’d lost it.

And they really wanted it back. Yeah, exactly. They were like, dude, I’m trying to keep my, put my eggs and I can’t have my avocado on toast [00:03:00] without my staff. No, it wasn’t ridiculous. It was you know, it was a very real, real trip, but we went down there to Dan, to this sub Antarctic Island of South Georgia.

Which and we went there to go and try and find a Shackleton stove and you know, it was a remarkable trip and it was, it was. I basically, the story goes that as shackle team, Kate Chapman came over South Georgia. He went through the break when gap, which is remarkable sort of saddle right on the backbone of South Georgia, which, and South Georgia very sort of narrow thin Island.

And it’s, it’s home to every single breeding animal. That’s that, or land breeding animal that lives in the Southern ocean. So it’s stuff for the animals and, you know, we as humans go there and we’re just, we’re just like, Part of the food chain, you know, genuinely feel like you’re going to be eaten by something.

If you cross its path. And anyway, saturate is a stunning place. If you ever get the chance to go there, you must. [00:04:00] And we, we are, you know, really about Shackleton story and how apparently when he heard the noise of the whales or the bells or the whaling station which used, which was used to be there.

They’re there now obviously no longer operational. When you heard the sounds, he, he ran down the Hill and left everything up just beneath the break, when gap on South Georgia and You know, nearly a hundred years later, I think we’re how many worse we must’ve been here. We’re a team of eight team of eight teenagers traveled.

A few thousand miles across the Southern ocean to go and try and pick up Shackleton stove for him and and bring it home. So there was a few other, like other purposes of the trip, but that was, I guess the more ridiculous, but, and then when you put it into, into those words, Oh, wow. [00:05:00] Have you ever read South Georgia, John?

I have not. No. I, I love to go as I say, that Shackleton stories and absolutely Epic one from his insurance trip. But yeah on the list, definitely. Get it on that list, put it on that list for sure. I recommend it for like anyone’s list. It’s it’s a remarkable Island. And you know, there was also some, some serious projects we did obviously within the, within the, within the expedition, we found a new whole new species of burn.

We span, found a new colony of penguins. We did some retake photography, which was pretty shocking actually to be, to be honest with you retake photography is about as simple, as simple as it comes. We found you know some photos from the archives in Iraq, geographical society, where when sort of South Georgia was, was first colonized or first occupied colonized lived on probably the best word.

[00:06:00] And yeah, the, the, the pictures of the glassy, for example, this straightforward, straight up pitch, straight a picture of the glass here. And, you know, our intention was to go down there and take exactly the same picture once again. So standing exact on the same. You know, stones that the photographer stood on over a hundred years ago and take the same picture.

And then you can obviously see how the glasses have changed. And it is it’s truly terrifying actually how much the glasses have retreated. There is no lag. There’s no beating around that Bush. It’s it’s it’s truly terrible. And did you manage to find it.

No, we didn’t notify stove, so it’s still there. We were, we were actually, we were eating is still that to be found. We were even sponsored by, by mine lab. And I’m pretty sure don’t quote me on this, but I’m pretty sure mine lab. [00:07:00] Provide the military, like the army, the British army with their mind detecting some you know, metal detecting bleepers and pretty.

And they are quite a few of these. And so either we were looking in the wrong place or all the metal attackers don’t work. I hope the former. For the sake of the richest military, but

good. And say that was 2008. And then you finally got into university. Well, no, 2000. And that was Christmas 2007 in 2008. And then yeah, and then I came back from South from the Antarctic and I was giving a talk. In the Royal geographical society in London, which is which is a lovely place. And At that talk.

I then met someone who simply said to me do you want to come on an expedition to break [00:08:00] the world’s longest, fully unsupported polar journey in history? So in layman’s terms, no one’s ever walked further in a polar region without support. And that was the first time I met this guy and the second, because like, My brain is quite small.

And like both, both cells were vibrating quite quickly. I said, yes. Why not? J I genuinely not lying to you. This is exactly how it happened. I was like, yeah. All right, let’s do it. The second time I met this guy Alex, we were packing our stages and the third time I met this guy, I was in Stansted airport.

Heading off, heading up to the Arctic. So I got back from Antarctica in the, in the in January. And then I left for the Arctic in March. It was quite a quick turnaround and yeah, straight up to the Arctic for 113 day long walking journey covering just under one and a half thousand miles. And it still stands today as the [00:09:00] longest unsupported Arctic journey.

And yeah, so it was pretty, all pretty remarkable, really. Okay. And then sort of university life took, it, took hold and then posting. I mean, you, you need got to took hold and but so did my desire to continue going out on expeditions. And so really I just genuinely, what I’ve done is, is use my holidays.

From school university, even like work when work, when I finally got job at holidays from that to, to do things, which I was you know, proud of and to do things which do adventurous things and yeah, that lit, that led me on all sorts of all sorts of journeys in 2000. And. Nine I guided S 50 odd kids in the Amazon rain forest.

We brushed exploring [00:10:00] in 2010. I cycled across Europe in 2011. I took some kids to took some kids up to the Arctic to foul Bard. And that was where the poo rainbow happened in Saba, which is quite a funny story. We might come onto that in a minute. And then two that genuinely made were in 2012.

We’ve got things like every single year up to 20 to 2020 now genuinely. So, you know, we could go on and on. But they’ve been pretty remarkable really. I say, tell us about the P rainbow, where there was stories out about he was blue rainbow only smokes. So. Let me set the scene. Yeah, 75 people at kids and leaders and guides say who has 75 kids or 66 year old kids and 15 guides.

Some guys responsible for science. Some of them are more responsible for the adventure side of things. And we were living on this beach. [00:11:00] Didn’t really even know. I mean, some of you guys might not know as far by it is, it’s an archipelago, a Norwegian archipelago about 78 degrees North due North of Norway.

Right. At beautiful capitols along your bed. It’s 3000 people live there. It’s, it’s really it’s home to the seed bank. So in on the outside longhand, the main capital city. Is this Hill and in the side of the Hill is literally just a doorway. Is it’s a door like your front door. The doorway goes into the mountain and you know, you pull the door open and you enter the world’s largest seed bank where where seeds from every single species of plant on the work in the, in the world are stored.

So it’s pretty remarkable. As a, as a location, it’s obviously lots of tourism there. He’ll go there to see the Northern lights to see polar bears. And anyway, this expedition, we were. [00:12:00] Again, it was all about youth development, leadership skills through their doing like retake photography again in sail Bard.

We were doing studies. Around heat exchange and teaching the kids had a client glass would go ice climb and survive in the Arctic. It’s pretty, it’s pretty extreme, really fair to take, you know, 16 to 21 year olds from a, you know, UK environment into the arts, you know, lots of training going on beforehand, you know?

And so the answers are patient excitement. The, you know, the, the, almost the nerves of getting there is phenomenal. And we finally got, got to Longie burn. We then get on a boat and we have effectively, almost a day’s boat journey to get to, to deliver us onto the beach front, where we were setting up our base camp and Base camp was literally just a big fat beach where we could put up you know probably 30 odd tents.

By the time you’ve [00:13:00] got all the leader’s tents and the mess tents and things all in rows for polar bear protection and stuff like that. And obviously all of the loos and like go to one of the beautiful things. One of the most beautiful things about. Adventure. And one of these I love is that it doesn’t matter.

Like, you know, what, what you’re wearing. It doesn’t matter how big your wallet is, what car you drive doesn’t matter because you all poo in the same bucket. Right? You’re all exactly the same. Yeah. There’s no differentiating. There’s no like, Oh, I can afford the taxi. You can’t, you’re walking. I’m going to get home five hours.

And for you, none of it, because you know, everyone’s just the same and it’s, it creates a beautiful dynamic within it, within a team. For another story. And so we were, you know, All pulling in the same bucket and what the slab art or authorities told us to do, because we’re totally remote. You know, there’s no sewage works.

There’s no like electricity running [00:14:00] water, like a tap where you just turn the water on Philip or like, you know, nothing. It’s literally just the beach. And we were living on the beach and we, we brought in all of our freeze dried food. And so needless to say, there’s like 75 people all polling right. Every day.

It’s a kind of a fact, like, you know, some, like some people were putting twice a day and it came to me to empty the loops, like, you know, guide leader, whatever. Okay. It’s, it’s you know, we’ve got to maybe lead by example and it was quite early on in the trip. I was probably like probably four or five days in.

To what was a, what’s going to be an eight week trip to quite early on, actually, you know, where are you fresh kit feeling like, you know, just sort of getting stuck in, just settling into beach life. And anyway, the spa authorities had told us that we should take our poo bags are biodegradable poo bags and throw them into the fuel.

You know, [00:15:00] just like 10 yards off the shore and then throw stones at them to sink it. And then it would sync and biodegrade at the bottom of the ocean. So it wouldn’t like float off and, you know, all go over. Not that, you know, not that it would really anyway, but that’s what they wanted us to do. So my turn came, it was probably like one of the first few times we had to do it emptying, you know, ritual of like throwing stones or throwing it into the, into the 10 yards off the shore, throwing it at the same stage and thinking it was quite a crowd developing and quite a lot of excitement.

Everyone’s like, Oh, I got to George’s turn, you know, kids come and watch the poo poo bag disappear. And so I limit up, you know, quite excited about this made sure the knot was firmly tied. And anyway, sort of stood next to it, but like I was going to do a gold shot, swung it back this way. And then as I swung through, I think, I think at my core cram pot or something on the way through, or yeah, pretty cramp on, I think on top of my boot or something.

[00:16:00] And as I released it, there was this like, Sort of rainbow that formed in front of me and like the onshore breeze, just put this boot Ramo, like kind of back onto my face. So it was day four of an eight week project of eight a week. Expedition covered in poop. I know great access to the showers out there.

Or there were no showers.

I, you know, had a little face wash and wash my hands. I guess people were avoiding you for quite a number of days. Well, yeah. Yeah. I mean to some animals, right? Rolling in peers. Like my dog seems to roll in pool all the time. So it seems to be a bit of a, you know, smell nights. And so maybe you’re one with the animals.

Exactly. Exactly. You know, salt of the earth, at least, you know, joining in with animals, not, not apart [00:17:00] from nature. I’m a part of nature. I mean, there’s polar bears, gays. I’m sure you will be lost on their list. Well, yeah, but possibly, possibly we, we shouldn’t, we shouldn’t joke too much about it. Shouldn’t joke about that, because that was an expedition where one of the kids got killed by a polar bear.

And you may remember in 2011 and I was a guide on that trip. So yeah, I mean, I, yeah, we’re very, very sad and trip. The trip actually ended up not lasting the eight weeks that we’d intended it to, but you know, again, it was It was a very, very sad fought sequence of events. But you know, we learned a lot and very grateful for the experience.

And I guess now I continue to speak a lot about that expedition, both corporately, but also sort of privately about the leadership and about the, the, the mental wellness handling, that sort of thing. And you know, I really, really, really enjoy that because it’s, it’s such [00:18:00] a, such a. Unique experience to have to go through a unfortunate experience, to have to go through that.

Now, being able to share that and help other people is really important to me. So I think probably without going through all these adventures from 2004, what were you like as a child?

That’s very good question. I mean, I, I’m just imagining quite a difference. Cool. One that just loves to climb trees, run around paying part of the sort of adventurous child that. We all were. Yeah. Which your mother was probably like, Oh, why can’t he just be normal? Yeah. She probably still says the same thing now to be honest, I’m pretty sure.

Yeah. You know what, all I can tell you is, as a kid, I had a lead, I had this, these [00:19:00] rates, like this thing was you could always steer me with cause my parents used to travel quite a lot. My dad worked in the U S and. So I ended up like flying quite a lot and genuinely in airports. I was a complete nightmare because I was like, what’s that?

And then that would have to be like, go back.

And I think, I think as a kid, I probably I’m gonna say I was like, all kids, you know, Isaac, I am like all kids. And I, I think this is like not the key to. Me for me, it’s only the key for me. That’s all I can say. I can speak for myself. I certainly, as a kid, I remember myself being incredibly inquisitive, incredibly like yeah.

Always asking like questions, finding new things, looking. Yeah. Curious. I think curious is there is a very good way to describe me. And in fact, I’ve got, you have no idea. This that’s the whole [00:20:00] thing about curious George and many of you came across it. John, did you come across curious, George? I have heard of curious George.

Yes. Right. He’s a monkey, which just goes like everywhere and he has a great time. And I read all of his books eight times and I’ve got, I’ve got quite a few teddies of curious George, and I think that’s kind of, that sums me up really well. Is that actually, I was just an incredibly curious kid.

And you always, you say always climbing trees sometimes to my detriment. I actually, I’m remembering as a little story now that I, I don’t know why, but this thing get out of my head. I was like, I wonder whether there was some cows in the field beneath the tree, and I used to love climbing this one particular tree.

And I was like, I wonder whether I could swing on a rope swing and then launch myself and land on the back of a cow, just like Clint Eastwood would do if he rode cows and the horses. And and you know, just see what happened. Anyway I [00:21:00] didn’t quite go to plan, to be honest, I picked up a bit of rope, which was actually just on the floor.

And so when I swung out of the tree onto my target, which was, you know, the cow was perfectly lined up. I was off, I swung out of the tree and just hit the floor and I broke my skull and broke the bone in my head. My skull. And had to learn to read and write again. So I did quite a good job of that as a five-year a four or five-year-old.

Yeah, but it, you know, so as a kid, yeah. I’d say very curious, but then I think there’s a, there’s a degree of nature versus nurture going on here. Isn’t there. And on the one side I’m naturally curious and very keen to like, Cling on to that curiosity as I grow, get older as the inevitable thing as the inevitable passage of time dictates.

But I think there was a degree of [00:22:00] nurturing there as well, where where my parents sort of brought me up with like a, a toolbox of, of, of of saying yes of positivity. A toolbox where I was taught to say yes and give it my everything, give it 110%. And if I fail, don’t worry about it. Kind of learn from it and go on.

And so that was, that’s kind of really the person who I am naturally curious and inquisitive. But I guess my parents had given me that toolbox to be like, yes, go for it. Try, try your hardest. Never give up, go for, you know, all of that. That sort of sentiment. I think in some coaches, you know, failure is sort of embrace and in some, maybe the UK sort of frowned upon, I’m a big advocate for learn through failure.

I mean, all the [00:23:00] sort of big entrepreneurs or the old. People who do a lot of stuff, they fail in so many, but they just need to learn from those mistakes. And eventually they sort of build themselves up. Yeah, absolutely. And it is important. It’s so important, I think. And it’s important for me and my I, my own happiness and satisfaction and and all of that, you know, and fulfillment.

And I’m not saying failure is important for that, but I like to feel like I’m making progress. I’m going somewhere. I’m, you know, I can look back on the year and be like, Hey, you know what, actually, this has been a really crappy year because, cause of COVID, but actually, you know, I’ve I’ve learned to keep bees I’ve learned.

Bake as most people have, I’ve learned to build houses. You know, I’ve got my HGV test, I’ve done a few podcasts, I’ve done whatever, you know, and actually then you could pick out the success stories and learn from the failures. You know [00:24:00] it’s how you choose to view your success and failure rather than.

You know, looking back on your failure and having as a sort of main part of your year, you look back and say, Oh, okay, I failed on that, but this is what happened. You look at the positives rather than the negatives. Yeah, absolutely. John, but I also think that the whole idea of failure is, is also totally up here in the top two inches.

You know, that the most powerful thing you work because actually, you know, you can, the only person who portrays your failure in different ways as you, I mean, no one else does really. It was just like, Oh, well it didn’t work. Or he failed or they failed. It doesn’t matter, not a big deal. And it’s only then in your own head where you’re like, You know, I’ve failed, I’m a misery.

And then you lead yourself off down the sort of the mental, mental route mentally mental instability, unstable route which we’ve all been down, you know, I’ll be first at my hands up and be like, you know what? I’ve, I’ve failed. And it’s, it’s something that’s kept me super deep and having to cancel my latest project.

[00:25:00] Cut me super deep, you know? Yeah, it’s been, it’s been horrific. So first I put my hand up there. Latest projects. I suppose it’d be interesting to sort of go into detail because I know that that project has been four years in the making. And I, I will say, I think people listening and watching things, sometimes I underestimate how much planning.

And planning and detail goes into these sort of expeditions. Can you tell us a bit about that particular expedition? Absolutely, of course. Yeah. So this this was an adventure, like I guess I was super excited about it was certainly like for me the most exciting thing that I had. Ever done without [00:26:00] a doubt, without a doubt.

It’s we, what, what, where do I start? Basically, the reason for the, for the expedition is that. The Arctic ocean is a very misunderstood place to such an extent that I could almost go as far as saying we know very little about the Arctic ocean during winter. And I almost might go as far as saying that we know about more about the surface of the moon than we do about desertification in winter.

And. That basically led us, let us to try and reverse that or like change the balance because the altercation is absolutely is a vital part of our survival vital part, because as I’m sure, you know, John, but the both poles. Okay. I covered in white and that’s important because it acts as the Earth’s [00:27:00] natural refrigerator.

Where the sun’s rays are reflected back out, away from the sun, away from the earth, back into the atmosphere and keep us cool. Keep us, you know, within the sort of temperate climate we enjoy and can survive in. And as soon as the ice on the Arctic ocean is most at risk because Antarctica’s obviously got altitudes to help, but the Arctic ocean is at sea level.

And it’s just the CIS, which is it, CIS, which is like a cross device or floating on top of a huge ocean, the Arctic ocean. And when that ice has gone, we then enter like an irreversible negative feedback loop of warming of the Arctic ocean. It will, does not stop absorbing sunlight basically. So once the ice has gone, it’s never coming back.

And the only, the one way that I can describe this. And I can’t describe it more with more like [00:28:00] seriousness aside from saying that once the Arctic ice has disappeared. We will be walking. Oh, sorry. The disappearance of the art to guys is a one-way street. There is, there’s no like turning round and being like, Oh, let’s go back down there to get back to how it was.

And we had the art, the ice in the Arctic. No, no, no, it’s impossible. It can’t happen because of it’s a, it’s an irreversible negative feedback loop. It’s a one-way street. And so, and w C peculiar to us was that there was no data. We just don’t know very much about it. And there’s, there’s really. That is a huge gap.

And so we were heading up to the altercation to gather never before seen data, content, imagery, research and we would be able to send it back live. So we’d have like, I’d be able to do this sort of thing live from the middle of the Arctic ocean in the depths of winter, up to pick up the phone, pick up the phone and show you [00:29:00] outside.

And there’d be a polar bear there watching in the window of this boat. It was a decommissioned lifeboat. So, you know, it was really exciting project where we would be on the forefront of science and it was just. I guess really, unfortunately we didn’t manage to get away before COVID. Cause that would have been phenomenal to be up there as a really positive story for this year.

But it sadly wasn’t to be, and we got just caught in, in it it’s basically, and meant that it really put us put a big spanner in our works. And yeah, as you speak. Correctly about the planning and preparation of this. And you know, it’s, it’s huge from, from the logistics and operations, from the science partnerships, from the partnerships with brands to build the funds, to try and, you know, allow us to buy the boat and redo the boat, build the sledges train at, collect the content, you know, there’s, there’s [00:30:00] just, there’s so much stuff going on.

And yeah, it took the best part of four years from when we first sort of. Came together as a team. And when we then canceled it finally in July which was a really re Oh, maybe even before that actually turned out before that, which was really upsetting, but it was the right thing to do at that time, because we were just at the link and sort of.

We’re very much at the point where we would just about to have to start to spend money on logistics and operations, to get us to the ice, to get the boat to the ice. And all that money is non-refundable where we were now. We still had a pot of money, which we could give back and be like, you know, let’s keep that let’s it’ll happen next year sort of thing, or you’re off.

So is that the hope that it will be picked up next year or the year after. Yeah, for me, for me, like my, for sure. Without no doubt, you know, I’m, I’m super passionate about that sort of stuff. And I have no need to go to near any poles or anything like that, or [00:31:00] stand there because there’s nothing there.

So there’s no reason to go there, but I really am. I believe passionately in the in the, in the pursuit of doing these sort of things with a purpose and that, for that purpose to be. Sustainability. I think is, is, as we all know, it’s suddenly becoming key to our survival and and the more people that know about that, and this is sort of why you talk about rewilding humans, which you are sort of passionate about is that idea of being in nature and actually having.

The natural habitat still there still as it is for future generations. Yeah, man. Exactly. I think even David, Adam has spoke about it in his film and I’m always witness statement as he called it. Which I’m sure you might’ve seen or witnessed. But the whole idea of rewilding the planet for me, it starts with rewilding humans.

And [00:32:00] I just, I truly believe that every single one of us have become disconnected from. The very essence of why we’re here. It’s, it’s taken me like, I guess 14 years of expeditions where I run out of food live with, you know, I had to find tap water to drink and you know, and had to keep myself warm and survive, you know?

And that that’s, what’s taken, it’s taken me that long to realize that. And I don’t think that any, I would never expect anyone else to have to go through that to understand that. But, but the fact that I like the fact that kids nowadays, I it’s a very broad term, but the fact that I I’ve actually I’ve started seeing, I’ve been part of this project, which basically takes kids to farms where they can say, this is where your potatoes come from.

They’re like, nah, that’s not, that’s not right. Potatoes come from comes from you know, it comes from the freezer department in Tescos and you know, that, that [00:33:00] is so sad and completely wrong. Well they’re right. But you know, McCain’s oven chips or whatever they’re called. I think we all ended up in ships and all of us have like a real responsibility to.

So bring us back to actually what’s key to our survival is mother nature. And without that, without the sustainability, the sustainable angle, we can’t plant crops. We can’t produce food. And then we can’t have chips in the freezer bin in Tescos won’t work, other supermarkets are available. And until you’ve created that connection between the outdoors and their life there, survival.

Yeah. I remember the story. I think it was on the radio and the presenter was saying that he, he had some chickens out the back and he remembers going to [00:34:00] pick up the eggs and as he was doing it, the neighbor sort of looked up and go, what, what are you doing? It’s like, Oh, I’m just taking the eggs to you know, cook up an omelet or something.

He goes, Oh man, that’s disgusting. Why don’t you just get it from the supermarket? What do you think the supermarket gets it from? Yeah. Yeah. And it’s, it’s scary. It is really scary, really scary. I think as more and more people become urbanized as more people retreat from the countryside into urban areas.

I know a lot of kids don’t have the opportunities to get out, to actually experience farmlands and experience. You know, I would coach I totally agree with you, John. I, yeah. And so that’s, that’s really the basis of, of my entire mission. It’s, you know, through podcasts like this with yourself, through social media, through expeditions, through giving talks running, running [00:35:00] events through companies like I go adventures and I guess my new little venture called city camping So I’d love to speak about it again a second, but you know, through these, all these things, I really hope to, to have a small impact on a very various, you know, on, on one person, if possible.

Cause I think that well I know that because it’s, you know, the outdoors has changed my life and changed my, my perspectives on life entirely. I think it can change everyone’s lives. Hmm. So city campaign, what, what is that? Oh, nice. So city campaign is a very exciting, it’s very simple, but I was totally struck by a statistic that I heard the other day that said that we spend 92% of our lives indoors.

But like me and you, you know, surrounded by straight lines and right. Angles and stuff, you know, pretty ordered. And I was [00:36:00] like, wow, terrifying. And I think that’s, that’s not good at all. And of course, in line with my mission to rewild humans to get us outside I created this thing called city camping and city camping is all about getting people to come and spend a night out under canvas under the stars.

And so we create totally secure pop up campsites in city parks and green spaces basically. And we’re running our first one in September, sorry, in in springtime next year in spring 2021 it’s spring salmon. And We, yeah, we’re popping up a campsite in the beautiful Zion park in central London.

It’s the largest privately owned park in central London. And so you can get to it for the tube and we’re basically [00:37:00] initially targeting kids. With, with a view to like expand, you know, other nights to other people. So, you know, for example, on the first three nights, we’ll be first three nights. We’ll be kids between 10 and 15.

The next three nights will be for adults and then the next two nights with the corporates or whatever. But firstly, we’re just targeting kids and going through schools to, to get kids between 10 and 15 to come and spend a single night. In a tent, which we all provide and to come and just kind of be part of nature for one night.

And for me, it was like, I don’t know about you, John, but have you ever, did you ever, do you remember, do you tell us, tell your audience about the first night that you spent in a tent? Can you, my, probably my first memory of campaign. Was probably not a good one. That was a massive storm in the night. I remember waking up [00:38:00] of which my parents were next to me when I went to sleep.

And when I wake up, no one was around. That was a huge storm coming in. And then I remember sort of waking up and then as I wake up. The wind has sort of taken hold of the tent and smarts ceiling was like here, and I can’t remember what it was, but it was some pole or something. Then just smashes me in the head.

I run outside, probably crying. Oh, no, John, you’re doing terrible for city camping. Let me tell you about mine.

My first experience of CPR in the garden and a 10 my dad didn’t want to sleep outside. So his tactic was to let us go to sleep. You know, we went to bed at seven ish, seven 30, eight o’clock and he basically to wait until nine and then get a hose. And pretend there was a storm so that we’d all run inside and he was like,

[00:39:00] you know, all of these memories are key. And I think there’s a large part of a large part of everyone. Initially children and kids who are missing out on. On this basic fund basically. And I think, you know, it’s going to be, it’s going to be basic fun. That’s that’s literally how I describe it. There’s nothing glamorous nothing.

It’s going to be basic. Beautiful fun. I think as a kid, I was always building dens and stuff, you know, in the playroom or whatnot, putting the two safe, big sofas together. So it creates a little under, Oh, a hundred percent. I saw that I’ve got that set up for me now that we’re you sleep at night. Yeah, but at nighttime, it just pooled around than it in my down during the day, get some paperwork done.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Good. And so with these adventures, because you will see did a pretty Epic one from [00:40:00] Greenland to Scotland, how did that trip come about? Nice. So, yeah, you’re absolutely right. I did that trip. How did that one come about? So a guy called Patrick Winston he read a book called searching for Finman by Norman Rogers.

And he was kind of like inspired by this book or like, And maybe it inspired is the wrong word. He was curious, but about this book and this book documented and Inuits man who in 1728, landed on the Northeast coast of Scotland. Right? He was alone. He was paddling a skin on bone kayak, carrying traditional Greenlandic hunting equipment, which needless to say, I hasten to add, you can go and see his kayak and his hunting equipment today.

In Aberdeen maritime maritime museum [00:41:00] is that definitely landed, right. There’s lots of doc, lots of documents that, that talk about these communities that people sort of Inuits descended. People arriving in Scotland in the sort of 1700 and. Three days later he died. But no one knows how or why, but it was believed that this particular person, this particular fin Matt, whether this particular, anyway, it came from Finmark he was called a fin man, because they believe he came from fin Mark in Northern Norway.

And the problem is that he was carrying traditional Greenlandic hunting gear. So we don’t believe he came from Northern Norway. We don’t believe he was from Finmark. We believe he came from Greenland. And so we set out it’s my teammate, Ali Hicks, and I. [00:42:00] Set out to other earth, this ancient myth and sort of add, add, add speculation, I guess.

Cause we weren’t, we couldn’t prove or disprove that he did or didn’t because we didn’t do it in like traditional hunting gear and a skin on bone seal kayak. Cause I think we would have died, but you know, we, we really like added speculation to the fact that he may well have made that journey by.

I have, I basically, we, we got an a, I mean, like more to it, but if we’ve got an, a kayak no, no, like it wasn’t really, the only addition we made to the kayak was district was to lengthen so that I could sleep down inside the cop, my cockpit. And it wasn’t any bigger, any faster. There was no sort of like not like an ocean rowing boat on ocean road, but where they have like sealed areas at the end of the boat.

Where they can get in out of them and stay dry. Cause I seal the capsules. We had none of that. There was genuinely just a kayak, which you [00:43:00] could buy from, you know, a sea cock go online and type in sea kayak. And that is what we had. And yeah, we extended it a little bit so that like I could stand quite tall.

I’m six foot four so that I could sleep down inside and underneath the, underneath, inside the skin, inside the tube. Yeah, we, we, we paddled from from Greenland to Scotland and that’s, that’s kind of it really. Okay. And so what were you doing sort of two hours on two hours off or were you yeah, so that’s quite a common thing, isn’t it for ROAS?

Yeah. Well, the problem for us is that we’re a kayak. We are much smaller and we can’t not paddle without having any stability out because we we’ve we’ve we rotate and you can’t have a stupid at one point and you can’t have stability and paddle at the same time. And it was also more importantly, Totally unsustainable for one [00:44:00] person to paddle a kayak because the car was just too heavy.

It would be, it wouldn’t be a good use of energy because as I’m sure you understand, but every single hole, every single, like a boat. A displacement boat, not, not a planing Hull, so planning how it goes up on top of the water and plants and goes very quickly. I displacement Harold travels through the water and travels very slowly with displacement holes, the whole shape.

Has a particular speed Hull speed, which travels that very easily. And if you want it to go any faster, you’ve got to put in a lot more energy and you don’t go much faster because you just end up moving more water. It doesn’t work very well. So all displacement holes have like a cruising speed as you, as we all think of it as crew, you know, you can, you, you pattern a little bit and you’re just, you, you get into a rhythm and the boats traveling at cruising speed.

Perfect. But if one person [00:45:00] slept getting to that cruising at one person paddled. Maintaining that cruising speed would take all of my effort and I’d be knackered by the end of two hours. And it wouldn’t be, it wouldn’t be able to do multiple days in it. So long as short, we both paddle at the same time and we both slept at the same time.

But of course, you know, I, again, it’s sort of hard thing to describe because we’re both sitting in the warmth and we’re comfortable and probably all of your listeners and watches are. But like, we were always wet. We couldn’t stand up. We couldn’t walk around. We were inside, you know, our cockpit. You can just about see the top of your thighs.

You couldn’t see your feet. When you slept at night, you just, you went down inside the cockpit and you like had to sleep in the coffin position. You couldn’t roll over. Couldn’t roll on your side. It was so small. It was so cramped. Going to the loo. Yeah, I got it. I think, I believe I’m guessing your audience they’re going to love.

[00:46:00] Well, maybe we won’t. I think that probably the type who will enjoy the loo chat go for is quite straightforward. Bottle PEs water over the edge. Getting from P number two is difficult because you’re in a very small space. And you’re wearing like baggy, not baggy Toby, you’re wearing like a dry suit. And bear in mind where I sit is also my pillow.

It’s my office. It’s my Lu. It’s my toilet. It’s everything. It’s everything. So the, the actual key is to make sure you don’t lose when you, when you drop kids off at school, right. It’s important. You don’t leave any kids behind. Cause that seats very see I’m sitting on is important. So basically we got a plate and with like little edges to keep the kids in and popped it on my pillow.

And you count like what’s [00:47:00] going on rough again. We’re expecting roughly this many kids at school. And then you kind of pull it out and put Chuck it, Chuck it in the sea, but believe me, it’s a proper maneuver to do it. And yeah, the only other problem is is that I was the, the, the rear paddler was a twin pack and Ali was approximately four free in front of me.

And I had prime view. I mean, front row seats, really, if that’s what you’re after of watching Ali. Take a crap. That must have been quite a, and that was what for six weeks? 66 days. Well, how many weeks? I don’t really know. So in terms of sleeping though, did you have sort of Chuck boys over the site to stabilize the kayak?

Has you slept. Yeah. So exactly. We looked at a whole load of things like we don’t at doing rigors. So we had the sort of what was effectively what was going to be our paddle. [00:48:00] And then we attach to the ends of our paddle floats. And then we put the paddle onto the deck in two places. And then you kind of got outriggers to keep you upright, like a tremor rang or something.

Yeah, I can try and run, but of course, the problem is one. It’s your paddle. That’s being used to, you’re putting a hot loads of stress through these two points on the boat. And if they break, if one of those points, you know, that’s attached to your kayak break, you’ve then basically got a hole in your only survival and your only, you know, structure.

We’re just going to keep you alive and vaguely dry. So that was really not wise move. So in the end, what we had was so simple, we had mastered from the top, from it, you know, on some dinghies, they have a float, especially on catamaran, like darts. They have a float on top of the mast and that’s to stop when they capsize that’s the stop.

The mast is [00:49:00] to stop them inverting. Cause of course they are a catamaran with two holes and when they infer, they’re very hard to get back up, right. Again. So th there’s a float on top of the mask, which stops it from going know, underwater keeps it like this when it’s capsized. And this mass, this mass float is basically like 40, and he’s like 40 liters of air with, with a straw.

And we attach a string to the bottom of it. And what we did was we took, we had four flights and two at the back two at the front. And. The two at the back. I obviously fixing the two at the front poly fixed, but basically what we did was we take one float and we’d pass the string and underneath the kayak.

Okay. And pull it so that the Mo the float went down to the water level, and then we tie it on this side. And then we did do that at the same. So float on this side, pass the string under the kayak, put it up till the flow, hits the water and then tie it on this side. And then you kind of got [00:50:00] like two floats, either side.

And that’s what we did, but that’s the one thing we never tested because I think really the truth be told. We were terrified to find out what, what the consequence could be was test what would happen, whether we could get out, whether we could escape the boat. If it capsized, when we received. I don’t think the answer would have been very pleasant and that’s probably why we, that’s why we never tested it because, you know, I think it would have been a mental thing then.

Good. Well, that’s Sydney quite the trip.

Yeah, people listening. I just like to sleep like in the coffin position every night for six weeks. I mean, they must be thinking what sort of entices you to find that enjoyable. Yeah. So just to be [00:51:00] clear, we we went from Greenland to Iceland and then we, around the outside, we had paddled a kayak around the outside of Iceland.

So we were sleeping on the beaches. Yeah. And then we went from Iceland to the Faroe islands. But of course, as you know, there’s big stretches of ocean in between these and it’s all or none at all of these legs from Greenland. I say all of them from Greenland to Iceland, never been kayaked from Iceland to the pharaohs had never been kayaked.

But from Ferris to Scotland had been kayaked. Before. But very like once or twice before. I think maybe once actually, but details, you know, still sleepy inside the boat is pretty, pretty horrendous and quite, and actually terrifying. You know, it’s like Chinese water torture where like there’s a drip, which just, and it’s rainy outside.

It just drips on your head and it’s hard to get sleep, but you know, what, what, what, what keeps me going back? What, what do I love about it? I might sound so weird and like really hard for you to understand, but I still would wake up in the morning [00:52:00] whilst kayaking, you know, and I mean, what all he take a shit in front of me and still I was, you know, incredibly grateful for the experience that I probably go as far as saying.

This many humans, maybe on the planet have ever experienced. Certainly there was no other human apart from Ali who had seen, I’ve seen the sites and views and saw the wildlife, met the people. You know, there’s just so many things which, and emotions and feelings, which I’ll never, ever, ever forget. And so many beautiful scenes and landscapes and vistas.

And I think that the reasons for it are endless and I can’t see any [00:53:00] other reason. I can’t see a reason why I would not do something similar. I’ll give you a free bit of advice. I will never cut across the North Atlantic ocean again. You know, I think, I think the risk profile. Was super narrow and like Ali and I were inherent.

We’re totally aware of this. Like the, the, the risks involved in car. He goes to the North Atlantic ocean of us. You know, it’s a, it’s a ferocious patch of water, which we cut across. And your margin for error is minuscule because you know, I’m paddling along. I’m fed water line warm. I’m fine. I’m alive. All good.

And the next second. You’d be upside down by a rogue wave fighting for your life. There’s no middle ground. There was no kind of like on another expedition, for example, you know, a car walking the longest, that’s the boy journey. Actually, if things kind of start to go wrong, you can sort of see it and hopefully bring it back.

[00:54:00] But actually this with the kayaking situation. You know, we were alone. We had no support vessel. It was again, check it out. It was red bull film deck, again, type into red bull or go into my, my Instagram or whatever, or Facebook and on my website even, and have a look. But you know, this, the margins for era was so, so, so fine.

And I think that we’re, I really do think we are, it was a bit of luck involved in it. And I maybe if you got a second, I’d maybe be able to tell you the story about our luck. Yeah, go for it. And so the whole idea of luck, I think isn’t to be relied on, of course, you know, but, but I, I, I also think there was someone must’ve been someone looking over us because.

As I said, we had nobody with us. We touched Iceland for the last time, touch the hard ground bath and paddle towards the horizon. We’re [00:55:00] off. Our next stop was where our next destination was into the middle of the ocean paddling across the patch of ocean called the devil’s dance floor. So called because it’s where the southerly flowing optic currents meet the northerly flowing Gulf stream or the ocean shallows become shallower.

And the S the surface like the sea state becomes horrendous. Sometimes

I sent for the last time, it was a very foggy day. Fog is incredibly disorientating, even when you like. On land. But let alone, when you’re at sea, when there is zero landmarks, there’s never zero like markings. It’s not trees or bushes or buildings, but you’re going to orientate yourself off in the fog.

It is totally disorientated. You feel like you’re paddling in circles and you have to trust your compass. You have to trust like, okay, I’m heading North now. Let’s keep going. Still heading North. I’m not doing circles. I sweat. Yeah. That is [00:56:00] like what this thing does to you. Can make you believe apparently in circles.

Anyway, the, we got about four days into this crossing. We were probably about. 70 miles off Iceland. So ISIS had long since disappeared. Faroe islands was another 400 miles, I think across. So, you know, we were probably just under a quarter of the way optimistic, but whatever. And we weren’t traveling as quick as we needed to, to be honest with you, we were like staring down the barrel of like rationing of, of doing everything we can to make sure we got to the safety of the beach of this 400 yard wide beach in the Faroes genuinely.

It was going to be a survival story. I think this crossing and our plan was to get on the back. Of a weather system. Now, the weather is obviously we were hugely [00:57:00] dependent on the weather for this kayaking journey because we’re so small. We have a freeboard, which is about three inches and our freeboard is basically the, the amount of the height you are above the water before the water starts to come into the boat.

But it wouldn’t cause we’ve got a splash deck on, but you know, like that’s how if we have a three more than three inches of water wave, it comes over the deck basically. And our plan was to get on the back of this the storm anyway, because we were traveling slower than we thought we got caught in a storm, or we were about to be.

And so morning of day three, I think the scene has been set morning of day three. It was very quiet. C almost definitely quiet, like kind of like. I mean, I can’t even make it quite here because I’ve got like a clock ticking, but like deafeningly silent. Ali just done his paperwork, dust bin for a poo, and it’s just [00:58:00] floated past me.

I’d offered some sort of feedback as to his constituency and how he used to chew his sweetcorn a bit more. And suddenly I hear the sound of an engine. And we’re 75 miles off shore. Right. It’s pretty nice. Not quite nice. I, yeah, there’s waves and we are, you know, our bodies are three foot tall off the water and like, we disappear behind every wave and I hear the sound says, Oh, can you hear that?

I just made it mentally out there. No one else. Can you hear that? And he’s like, yeah. Can you think of an engine? Anyway? It was a no Norwegian. It was a Icelandic fishing boat and They were just fishing right. Normally. And they happened to see us. And this comes up in the full length feature, a 52 minute documentary.

It is extraordinary like when one of their PR people saw us, which is so unlikely. You have no idea [00:59:00] how quickly, when you’re three foot above the surface, your head is suit up on the surface, the highest point of the kayak you disappear, you get on different wave patterns and suddenly you got. Yo you’re lost at sea so easy to happen as the fact that they saw us was America.

They came over to us. And this, this guy came out of the portal on the side there where they bring their fish in. It was a small fishy, but not particularly big, like I think 30, 40 foot long, not a huge one. This guy came out of this Icelandic guy. Right. And he looked like Thor, man. He like Jesus. He had like a beard that was like catching his shoe laces.

And he’s Icelandic and he goes, what are you dying like this bellows and it’s and the whole, like Jesus Christ, like Dumbledore, the worldly air, like moves and like looking at ourselves. And he was like, where are you from? [01:00:00] We’re like, he’s like, ah, makes sense. Anyway, he then said that it ended like the next words were very concerning and these guys are fishermen.

They’d been fishing in these waters for like nearly 30 years, I think, with the captain hat. And he said, you know, there was a storm coming. And yeah, he said that between 40 to 60 knots of wind. When does Kirsi, you know, it’s like, it’s, it’s what, it’s what stirs up the sea state. It makes it dangerous.

60 knots is a hurricane and they haven’t quite a lot at sea. We don’t understand. We don’t generally hear about them very often because it’s not important. It’s not gonna affect humans. So we don’t know about it, but there would happen a lot 60 nights, a hurricane and it’s guaranteed death in a kayak, basically.

Ali. And I were faced with the decision. They were like, you know, do you want [01:01:00] to come back with us? On, and I looked at each other and this is like our survival. He, this, this is like a guy telling us we’re going to die. Okay. And let’s see. Yeah, it’s extremely,

no I said to him, no, thanks. No, thanks for your help. We declined offer of their help. And the reason we did was because we believed in our team and we, we had made a decision to leave. When we left Iceland, we were not expecting this boat to turn up and offer us this solution. So we committed to our team back then.

We’d already made a decision. And I think there’s lots of notes of trust of teamwork, of, you know, how important every part, every person isn’t a team there, but that’s not for today. But also like that commitment, that dedication to our cause that there’s lots of notes in there, but I’d love to speak about more often, but I might have to send you [01:02:00] an invoice, but only, and I said no to our only chance of survival fact.

And we paddle on towards the Faroe islands and the fishermen went back to their fishing and they genuinely believed that they were going to be the last people to see us alive. And they said this to, to the cameras, you know, afterwards they’re like we thought they were going to die. We thought we were going to be picking up a boat and looking for bodies later that day.

So they were nice. The fish we paddle on towards Iceland and disappear again, gone, you know, miles apart that maybe that fear for three or four hours had passed and awfully well, and I were cracking on and, you know, Faroe islands was our net is 400 yard patch, a beach, which is, you know, yeah. As I said, 400 kilometers away we’re aiming for tiny, really.

Three hours [01:03:00] later, we heard the sound of an engine. Again, they’d come back to look for us, potentially trying to find like the boat, the upturn boat and dead bodies possibly, but they’d come back to find us and America. Once again, they found us miracle miraculous in an ocean is a huge, it’s huge. I, the fact they found us once is a miracle.

The fact they’d bound as twice is. I dunno, there must have been some sort of divine intervention in here for those of you being at sea you’re. No, it is a huge blades. It’s huge and features. They found us. And they said to us, we spoken to the coast guard and they really wanted us to come in. I want you to come with us and we really want you to come with us.

This is your last chance. So Ali and I said, can you wait five minutes please? And they said, of course kindly. And so we called our weather forecasters again, and we had a, an American, we had a Scotsman and we had a Welshman. All right. And we said to them, look, you can see the weather, you know, everything [01:04:00] about how fast we can travel, you know, everything about how much we can manage in terms of weather.

Would you get on the boat or not? And the yank was like, yeah, dude, it’s, it’s looking pretty bad to be honest, much worse than we thought it was going to be. So I value I, I get on the boat, probably a good idea. Right? So that’s three people who want us to go on the boat. Oh, five. Scotsman was like, Hey pal, it’s looking pretty bad.

Eight. They’re like, I think you should get on the boat. I did. I did. I’m sorry. I’m very sorry. We made a mistake. I’m not quite sure where it was from. Oh, the pool area. And then the Welshman from card. It goes, Oh, no boys. Don’t you already, can I go? And it’d be all right. Anyway. Anyway. We, we had five decisions for the ones that to get on the boat.

And so we got on the boat and we lived with, we had our kayak on the roof and we lived with the [01:05:00] fishermen. They had luckily out of crane on the roof. So they’ll actually just craned it onto the roof, you know, big, old boat. And we lived with the fishermen for the next week, catching Cod from Icelandic fishing waters for delaying I think 10 miles of fishing line, 20,000 hooks each day, long lining catching card for British supermarkets.

I mean, one experience. Well, and believe the experience they dropped us back in Iceland, and then we paddled on and landed in Scotland. We say to them, but you know, like what an experience and what a story of luck and of, I don’t know, divine intervention call it what you like good fortune. I have no idea what it was, but I think, I think yeah, I will maintain to, to the day that I die, that they did not rescue us.

Because what were they going with this? Because, Oh yeah, [01:06:00] because we will never know what would have happened if we carried on we would never have known whether we would have made it or not. So you know, whether that was the right decision or the wrong decision to get on the boat. I don’t know.

All I can tell you. Is that getting on the boat was a correct decision. It wasn’t the correct decision, but it was a correct decision. And I think again, dangerous send you an invoice, but there’s lots of chat about like decision-making and how it looks and all of that. But yeah, God, what a story, especially to spend a week you know, what’s Ben Fogel’s program life for the wild or something where he goes, and those sorts of really busy.

Yeah. Okay. You had that experience for a whole week catching Cod, right? I mean, I was today showed me, we had a few, there’s a few more of these experiences that happened on that trip. Genuinely a few more, but I mean, remarkable, remarkable. [01:07:00] What a story. So there’s a part of the show where we ask the same five questions to each guest each week.

With the first, with the first one being, what’s the one bizarre thing that you crave or miss from home when you’re out doing these expeditions?

What’s the biggest thing that I crave and miss. No, I th I think I, I think I miss and therefore appreciate how simple and straightforward life. Yeah. Certainly when you’re up in the arts again, it’s pitch black and you’re like in all the drills and the discipline of trying to keep your kit as dry as possible from sweat like sleepy inside a plastic bag, and you, you know, everything’s frozen, like my army, there’s so much more like I could speak for hours about this, but.

Like the discipline, the constant focus that you need to survive on expeditions. I [01:08:00] think one of the things that I appreciate more than anything and therefore, probably miss is just how simple and straightforward our lives are today. Yeah, I got up this morning. I got up this morning and I, I bet even thought about, you know, getting out of bed, walking into the bathroom, having goes to the loo, brushing my teeth, putting some clothes on, making my bed going downstairs, having breakfast.

I was like, this is, it was a dog. I put the catalog on. Maybe it’s like it had a bowl of cereal. You know, and then turn my computer on. I have thought nothing I’ve done. I’ve let my brain engaged zero, zero, nothing as I think, of course I miss like friends and family. And of course I miss all the niceties and the delicious food and that, and the and And everything else.

I think probably that everyone else would say they miss. I course I have that. I miss that. But I think at its core and its [01:09:00] base at its most basic, it’s just how simple life is. How sort of we have life, which on the flip side leads me to appreciate where I am on expedition, because life is also simple here because all I’ve got to worry about is what I’m fed.

Watered and warped. And so like, there’s, I’m going to worry about the wifi connection, how many meters that day, or you know, how many podcasts I’ve got to record or whatever. Oh, how many likes I’ve got on Instagram? You know, so what that sort of, what I’ve just created, there is a situation where I’m very grateful for being on expedition because it’s very simple, but also because I actually, what I love about being home is how simple it, so you’re kind of like quite weird, but I hope I’ve explained that well is I really do miss how simple life can be in both situations.

And I think it leads me [01:10:00] into a very deep appreciation and gratitude. For everything that I have when I’m on expedition or whether I’m at home, I think with is by doing these sort of trips and expeditions, you suddenly realize that you don’t need much. You ju you can live such a sort of simple life when you’re back here.

I mean, on expeditions, you need a few little gadgets here and there, but sometimes just the simple things that make such a huge difference. All right with you there. What is your favorite adventure book? My serious answer would be a book the Western end of the world as a girl. That’s God’s amazing book. [01:11:00] The amusing one will be like the adventure of the curious George, have you got a Teddy bear for us later? I could get it. It’s up in my room January. I’m not lying to you. We we’ll get him at the end.

Okay. What is your inspirational figure? Growing up? Interesting question. I, I don’t think I really have like one inspiration. Maybe that’s a irregular thing to say, but I don’t think that I have one person who I look up to and say, I want to be like him. I said, I look at their back up and say, I want to be like him.

I think we look up to and people irrespective of their stature, whether they’re the King or queen or whether they’re not what I look up to in people [01:12:00] is finding that is finding fulfillment. And that probably sounds very wholesome, but you know, I look up to people who, who found like satisfaction and happiness, cause actually that’s really at the end of the day, What’s really important.

You know, your health, your happiness, and I they’re all so inextricably linked that, you know, even if I didn’t want to I don’t really know how to, how to say this, but whatever end of the spectrum, you’re out, whether you’re a King or queen or whether you, whether your you know, picking up horse poo for a living, like if it is what you love then, and you found satisfaction in that and it, and it, and it makes you happy and you found a balance in life.

I think you should pursue that with everything you’ve got. And those, the people that I look up to. So you’re absolutely right. You’re happy. Correct. If I look up to that person who picks up who’s for sure. I look [01:13:00] up to that person who, who is in banking and is happy and earning all that money and has got it sorted and has found that balance.

I look up to both of them, because I think actually the banker is often more unhappy than the person who picks up who’s for a living Jenny. And I think we can find quite a few cases of that, you know, and it’s not linked to the size of that. Well, it is linked to the size of their wallet because they obviously have different size wallets, metaphorically speaking.

But I think finding that that balance is what I would look up to and respect without having to name anybody in particular.

What about favorite Quate or motivational quote? I’ve got heaps of those, but I’ve got heat today’s meeting. Well, rail rail them off rail them off. Well, we’ve spoken a lot today about. Oh, wow. A lot. We still got a bit today about failure. So one of my favorites is Winston Churchill and [01:14:00] he says that success is the ability to go from failure to failure without losing your enthusiastic and I’m enthusiastic.

So that’s a good one. We also spoken quite a lot today about sort of. Happiness and the balance, and I think maybe living life to the full. Yeah, exactly. And I think this has been my last one I give you today, but it’s it’s a, it’s a fabulous quote. And I think it really speaks to me and my values and like maintaining that sense of curiosity and love of lending, the sort of love of life, if you like.

Which, which I, I thoroughly endorse and it’s a quote by wow. I don’t know whether it was him, but Hunter Thompson and You said that life shouldn’t be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving in a, in a pretty and like perfectly [01:15:00] formed body instead, instead rather it should be a journey to the grave where you skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke thoroughly used up totally worn out and proclaiming what a ride.

And that really, for me, like the whole concept of skidding into my grave, broadside is like, I, you know, I might even call it, call my book, like skidding in broadside or something like that. Cause is I, you know, I have no intention as this, this guys. I don’t want to arrive at perfectly in pretty, you know, I want to like feel every day, like another quote coming out here, but I want to fill every day.

Like, it’s my last, because, because one day, I don’t know which day, but one day I’m going to be right. Yeah, I think that was Steve jobs. Yeah. Yeah, I, yeah, that, that’s a good quote. I like that. This is a good thing, as you were saying [01:16:00] that when you sort of said perfectly formed, I sort of, one of my favorite quotes is actually Hannibal Lecter, where he says that the scars are to remind us that the past was very real.

It’s like the more scars you have, they will tell a story. But I’m not sure I’ve handled the actors sort of guy.

Yeah, exactly. Everyone’s like, Oh, want this one? And this one, you know people listening are always keen to travel and go on these sort of big grand adventures. What’s the one thing you would recommend them to do to get them started.

My one piece of recommendation is keep it simple, stupid, without doubt, without doubt, if you want to get started, keep it simple. You know there’s, there’s lots of advice about sort of funding and not trying to go big and go gray and break records in day one. Keep [01:17:00] it simple, like, you know, go out, do what makes you happy, make sure you enjoy it.

And build from that. There’s no need to be a big grand things. Fast gun, walk up a Scottish Hill if you hate it. Well then probably don’t bother going and trying to break a record there. Okay. Start simple. Start small, but make sure you start. Yeah, I agree. And finally, what are you doing now? And how can people follow your adventures in the future?

Yeah, cool. What’s going on really? For me, like whether it’s in the adventure world, whether it’s more like business focused around city camping, or I go adventures or bullets, gin or, you know, me giving talks or representing brands. So there’s, there’s like loads of stuff going on, which is really exciting.

All singing to the same, like rewilding humans. And I think what, where you can follow me, first of all, online is a great way to follow me on Instagram. [01:18:00] I’m proud of where I’m most active. Probably not so much on Twitter and those some places in Facebook, but yeah, jump on Instagram. I’m all there. I have a website too.

You know, in terms of what’s next, what I’m most excited about next is city campaign. I think that’s gonna be really fun. And I hope that we get lots of lots of kids this year for our, for our week in the spring summer of 2021. And we, we, we sort of display a great proof of concept so that we can take it all over the UK.

So that’s next other, other expeditions that were coming out. In Juco, I’m about to get in sail sailboat. We’re meant to be sitting across the landscape, but we had to switch that one and not set across the Atlantic this time. So it’s all up in the air, really on the travel side of things, but who knows, who knows you better follow along, you better follow on, stay tuned.

Didn’t you? That’s right. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today and yet check out Georgia, his Instagram and website, and. [01:19:00] You can follow his adventures for the next future and city camping. That’s the next one? Yeah, city campaign. I’ll go adventures. Just check it out. Have a great time.

Keep smiling. Amazing. Thank you so much. Pleasure. Thank you for having me on well we’ll catch up for a beer soon. I hope.