Isaac Kenyon

[00:00:00] Isaac Kenyon: Hello and welcome to the modern adventurer podcast coming up. Yes, it was great. But then when I came back from them, I was bombarded by it all, especially off the Atlantic row. So 40 days of no communication like that. And you just literally talking to your friends on this boat and looking at the sea for 40 days, you come back and is absolutely so overwhelming.

Turning your phone back. My next guest is an eco adventurer who has done some incredible trips over the years from swimming, the length of the English channel to Rowan across the Atlantic. On the podcast. Today, we talk about some of the issues that have arisen over his time, pursuing these adventures from mental health issues.

That is what led him into this incredible way of life and how he speaks on the podcast about the importance of getting outside an intimate. So I am delighted to [00:01:00] introduce Isaac Kenyon to the podcast. Thanks, John. Thanks for having me very excited to have our discussion. Well, it’s an absolute pleasure and you’ve, you’ve just done this incredible trip, which has just come out at the Kendall festival.

I was absolutely fascinated by this sort of process one, because you went from the Orkney islands to the Sealy Isles, but also when you see the pictures of you peddling over water, I was definitely quite intrigued before we, before we sort of get into that let’s start at the beginning and how you got into this sort of line of work and these adventures.

So a long time ago, I was at university and I was studying. I wanted to be a paleontologist at the time. And then my life changed a little bit and decided that maybe the drastic park inspiration wasn’t quite for me as I was doing geology. And I got more interested in energy and energy things. And there was a lot of field trips and that there was [00:02:00] a lot of work behind screens and a lot of indoor work as well.

Something that I wasn’t quite used to. So. At school used to have your PE lessons, your breaks, and that was kind of it. You had your one hour lessons at university. You’ve got so much coursework to do with firemen. I was just indoors all the time and I had a bit of, a bit of a quarter life crisis. I would call it and where I just started having really bad mental health, really bad and high levels of anxiety.

And I wasn’t quite game to grips with what it was and I wasn’t reaching out. Being the guy, you know, we’re quite bad at asking for help when we don’t feel great. And we kind of just tough it on, I have a, quite a tough family like that, just get on with it sort of thing. And it just, it made things worse.

And I started going out sides because my head was racing and I couldn’t think properly and just walking in woods and it was kind of [00:03:00] my Nate, like a bit of natural. Like a prescription from nature for me, where I was able to get away from distractions notifications and just be with myself and just hear the birds, see some squirrels, things like this.

And it was really, really nice. And I was doing about 10, 15 minute breaks like that all the time. And I just got kind of addicted to doing that. And if I tie this in now to my sporting achievements, I was always a swimmer and have been a swimmer for a long time. My mother got me into swimming when I was 10 years old into a swimming club, because I had such high energy and are not a great person to have indoors for too long.

I just have to get out this energy somehow. And usually it was to do sports. I just got thrown in a swimming pool for about 27, 28 hours a week. And then when I got to universe. I was stopping my sports because I was doing my coursework cause [00:04:00] at half time for the sport. Cause I was trying to get these grades and I was stuck in doors and it just was not healthy.

And so I was swimming maybe two or three times a week and I got to a stage where I was just like, I just need to, I just need to combine these outdoor breaks and sports together. And outdoor adventuring outdoor sports came from that really a bit of a realization that it was needed for my mental, mental health.

Ah, the first adventure that I did was swimming the English channel and I did it in a relay. So it wasn’t just me on my own, but this was a massive step for me because it was the first time where I had that immersive feeling of nature, where it was pushing my boundaries mentally, physically, and immersing myself in an environment that was unnatural to me.

I’ve been in a swimming pool for so many years. And when I signed up to swim the English. It was a team led, instigated it all say, oh, all of us had never [00:05:00] really done anything like this before. And I just got this team together to just less try and, and push, push our boundaries and see, see if we can do something great with our swimming.

So we were all swimmers. Why don’t we try and do the English channel swim March came when we decided it was March and we decided to do it that. And we had the funds, the university would back us. So we got funding from the university to do it. And our first training session was down in a lake, just outside of university.

And I went on line trying to find lakes or places, open waters places. And I didn’t really know much. I ended up getting on this. Like I think it was a nudist website of where you can go to swim quietly naked and no one will find you, but it’s for free. Right? So as students, we were so stingy, we’re looking for a free place to swim.

So I would Everyone does this sort of [00:06:00] this directions, that this new, a new district, but hopefully they weren’t there, but we, when we got there and it was our first swim and it was in March, jumped in Nively for the website on the English channel, says, do two hours and you should be fit enough to do it.

We thought that two hours as soon, that’s fine. We also call soon as we can do that, it was freezing. It just completely shocked us. We were nowhere near prepared. And we all came out in a really bad way about state and that kind of opened my eyes to, wow. There is a whole new world out there and it’s dangerous at times and it kind of felt real.

And I felt like I’ve really hit something that maybe I can’t do or something like this. So I got drawn to it. And from that point it really helped me throughout my university years to. Have a focus and get myself away from the screens. So I was using the training as a way to do that and innings channels to do that.

And then I guess this [00:07:00] outdoor adventure lifestyle has come from that bug of pushing my boundaries, getting used to the challenge, getting used to doing things outdoors, and it felt really healthy and natural because you’re, you’re in nature on the water line. It’s amazing because you can see special creatures and biodiversity that don’t usually get to.

And it’s just very peaceful. The water’s just splashes of water. It’s very good for mental health. And yeah, I had that sort of balance from that. And I also found in those states when I was doing a challenge, like the English channel, which led to other things I’ll go on. I was in a state of conscious in mind where I was just thinking about nature, mindfulness.

Pretty much just took my mind away from everything and cleared everything out. Like just all this junk that was in my head. And I guess they call it flow it scientists and things. Call it flow. I talk about in my Ted talk and this, this, this thing where my performance [00:08:00] increases as well, I feel like I’m on top of my game.

I also feel really happy and I’m just, just enjoying the moment sort of thing. And I’m not thinking about anything else just being there and I don’t get it anywhere else. Just in these sort of outdoors places and challenging. You know, hike sometimes, but I don’t seem to get it when I’m on screens or I wouldn’t definitely not get if I was in this podcast right now.

So yeah, so it was, yeah, it was right. Interesting. And that’s how it all began really jumping into the water and in immersing myself. And then from now I got the bargain for, okay. Let’s try a big hike. And I climbed a mountain. My first mountain was Mount Kilimanjaro and that was pretty amazing. I look back on it.

And if I was to do it differently, I would do it unsupported without Sherpas. Just to add that element of off your own steam. And then after that, I signed up to row across the Atlantic ocean, which was a really big step. That was where I [00:09:00] think. You have to really love outdoor challenges and things.

If you’re going to sign up to do something like that, it was absolutely massive for me. Huge step and 40 days out. See I’m in a tiny little rowing boat in a team of four. The two hours on two hours off was quite quite something to adjust to the M two hours on two hours off was two hours of rowing and two hours of body maintenance for feeding yourself, navigation, all of these things.

And it was on sleep as well. You have to try and find sleep. And that, that was where I think it all started the swim and then going through different journeys. And then once I was on the Atlantic, I actually realized a bit more clearer purpose. And that’s, what’s led to this latest adventure, which is, I would say is the culmination of finding my true ambitions and what I’ve really wants to do in life.

And so it’s taken a long time to get there, but I [00:10:00] feel like I’m finally there and the outdoor challenges was, are just journeys. Take me through sort of a, a thinking process. And now I feel like I know where I’m at, took a long time. Well I didn’t know where to sort of begin with that. I mean, what’s the sort of timeframe from your first challenge, swimming to where we are now.

And so the first challenge I did swimming was when I was 2021. So about six, six years, six or seven years. Yeah. So I’ve done a few things in, in those. Good. And I suppose if starting from going back to the swimming, jumping into that lake for the first time, and that sort of really hit home about open water, swimming, swimming in the cold because you swam the English channel without a wetsuit.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Without a wet suit. That was, that was [00:11:00] the the added layer of challenges there. Did you, did you, did you wrap yourself in goose fat? Yeah. So when I first researched it, there was a lot of discussions that will keep you warm, or it’s just. Reduce the salt friction. I did run myself in goose fat and it didn’t keep me warm.

It just reduced the salt friction. So after that I went, I went back on the blog and I was like, it doesn’t keep you warm.

This is a myth. Yeah. And see, I mean like that. That trip sort of propelled you into, as you sort of say, taking your time from a sort of dark place, as you said at university where you. Struggling mentally to sort of, I don’t know, stare at [00:12:00] screens to sort of loss of concentration. I think everyone listening can sort of relate to that you’re on your screen and then suddenly 20 minutes goes and suddenly you forget what you were actually just about to do.

And I think even now it’s probably almost getting worse and worse. And is that the sort of motivation that you’ve had over these past years is that with these challenges. It’s the only time you feel yourself getting into these states of flow as you call it this sort of moment of total consciousness.

Yeah. These challenges, they are, they are for me some of the best times where I can really escape or as I’ve gotten better at understanding my needs, I’ve noticed that, you know, I just needed to be away from technology. For extended periods of time and I feel a lot better. But I know that’s not important.

That’s pretty impossible in [00:13:00] society to do that. Cut yourself off from everybody on this, come her meal, something that’s not like for me, that’s not quite ideal. And so what I do is I try to break up my days with training, which revolves around no technology, nothing that gangway. And again, I stay at balance cause I found a lot of it is a buildup, so it builds itself up.

So I suffer from like panic disorder and anxiety, which is basically I create all these arbitrary worries in my head. And then I start panicking about them. But a way I can reduce all these worries and the stresses is by reducing the stresses around me and constant notifications. Always online, interacting and things like this.

This just adds another layer, a huge layer of stress on people, emails having to respond to emails instantly because [00:14:00] there is no excuse if that makes sense, because it’s all instant communication nowadays. So you, if you, if you avoid it, you always know it’s there. Once you’ve seen it, you notice that it’s like, it’s like being in a room of some.

And that token T and you’re just trying to not say anything and ignore them, but you, you can’t, if they’re talking T that’s how it feels like with emails and these things. So it’s just an added layer of stress. Our trust, try to break free from, and I just find a couple of hours, Hey, a couple hours there, it breaks it all up and makes it a lot easier.

Looking at TV screens is all like, really so much. And it just opened my eyes to, I need a balance. I need a purpose like this, which is very important. And then I was thinking even deeper as to what really do I like and what do I need in life when I was on that boat, because you have so much time to think, to think about things.

[00:15:00] And I realized that if you took nature away and we started being just in a concrete jungle, every. What would happen to my mental health? So we’re going down a route now with so much more technology than ever before. So much more human intervention activity in green spaces, outdoor spaces, blue spaces, so much more infrastructure, so much more population, bigger towns, less and less wild open spaces where just one goes to clear that.

How does one clear their head? I mean, there’s ma there’s meditation, but I don’t think meditation London works so well when you’ve got all the cars and beeping on a truck. Do you know what I mean? It’s a. That’s where I start. That’s where the next adventure really came in in the, the big, why was like, I’ve just like we have to preserve these spaces.

They’re so important for physical mental health. [00:16:00] And that’s where the pedophiles came from. I think I went off on the tangent then led to something else, but I hope that was good onsite. No, I, I completely agree with you. I, I studied landscape architecture and I remember when we were designing a hostile.

Just a sort of place where patients can go. And originally it was sort of designed in a more sort of plastic planting and everything, but studies, what sort of shame that when people interact with nature in itself, real trees, real plants that they get better a lot quicker. And I think, I remember seeing that, you know, human eyes, he’s more shades of green than any other color because we.

Originally through evolution we’re in and amongst the forest, the grasslands everywhere. And so to take that away in such, in relative short pie in a [00:17:00] relatively short space of time, in comparison to our evolution, it’s going to do huge effects on the mental health of human beings. Yeah, well, it’s designed on which to be communicative interactive creatures.

Movement movement was a big thing. When we were migrate migrating, we never used to stay in one place. This is something that we’ve made ourselves having a home and just staying in one place. That wasn’t a thing we, we do need to keep moving. And, and that’s why there’s a, what is this thing about the travel bug?

People like traveling all the sirens, they’re just feeding their inner, inner Chimp, I guess, or in a, in a person who just needs to keep moving. It’s just a natural thing that we do. And, and that’s actually quite difficult because. Nowadays. I mean, last week we had PIP Stewart on and she, we were talking about sustainable travel and of [00:18:00] course we’ve people are now saying, well, we shouldn’t be traveling as much with globalization.

Again, it’s going against human instinct to sort of move. And the idea of saying, oh, well, you can’t travel. There because of this or that. Where do you stop it? Is it, well, you can’t really leave your city. You can’t leave your country. You can’t leave your continent. You can’t leave this. It’s sort of where, where is the line?

And having a sort of travel podcast, I’m more encouraging people to venture out and explore. But of course, with that comes its challenges. Three plane travel. Yeah, plane travel. The the only solution I see right now is changing the way we feel planes and changing the way we build planes to be sustainable.

Right now there’s carbon offsetting, which you can do, [00:19:00] anyone can carbon offset their travel, but it feels a bit like a bit like a cop out a bit. But also how do you get from one country to another? But that was, that is a bit of a luxury years and years ago. We never used to do that.

I think some people were road. Yeah, sustainable travel was such an interesting question. That’s where we’re going with our project next. How do we, how do we get from places a, to B in the most sustainable way? What solutions are there? What climate solutions are there right now and what can we do to speed up the way we change our travel?

Things like incentives and government governmental work streams. What w what can piece things together so that we can have a scaled up solution. And so there are there’s loads of different ways of sustainable travel right now, but a lot of them are a bit far-fetched. Some of them are quite difficult, physically, you know, you’re asking some, some new, oh, [00:20:00] it was just psycho everywhere, but you’re going to ask an older, you know, 78 year old to cycle on a bamboo bike or something.

All going to happen. It’s gonna happen. Yeah. So how we, we need to think of different ways we can, we can do that more public transport. That is great. That’s a great idea. Then you need to think about how we got into not disrupt the environment as we build these massive railways or build these huge scale infrastructure projects for allowing public transport.

So. There’s a lot too to think about. There’s a lot of compromises that need to be made. And with that takes a lot of courage. And I think for us to move forward in a sustainable travel, we’re going to have to take some risks. I know we’re going to have to make some mistakes, but that’s how we always learn.

I mean, if you don’t make a mistake, You’re not learning anything. Are you really? Yeah. A lot of people learn them, learn inventions and make some [00:21:00] incredible things. From the first mistakes they made. The only thing is can we make mistakes that are going to detriment us and the environment so badly visor reverse.

This is currently we are making a huge irreversible change. So I feel like any form of courage or doing something differently, can’t be as bad as the trajectory we’re going on down now. Anyway. So let’s experiment and try new things. What trajectory are you sort of referring to? So in climate change right now, our trajectory is currently on course for being a bit.

To us versus nature and we’re going to win, which we have been for the last a hundred, 200 years. So what we need to do is kind of change our trajectory to be in partnership with nature or co inhabitants rather than us versus nature. So be really nice to, to see if we can start [00:22:00] change, changing our society, to be.

With not next to her against and the way we do that is everything that we do, our sustainable travel, the way we live, the way we interact, the way we expand as a population, what we consume, everything needs to be in cohabitants and fair, equal if we can. And it does. That starts the trajectory that. I have in mind.

I wonder if anyone else agrees with that. I hope they do. But yeah, that, that, that’s what I was getting at. Are you sort of referring to sort of term by. Well, that’s a cool term. I’ve not heard of that one before. Can you explain that one? Bio-mimicry is where you design based upon nature. And so, and so you copy nature’s way or design into how you design things.

That’s a architecture [00:23:00] and the landscape was sort of as one, rather than a building and a garden, let’s say it’s almost the garden and the building in and amongst one another, that’s definitely one aspect. And then also regeneration as well. So re regenerate generating. So as we create food for ourselves, we also, we take a lot from the planet.

So how can we regenerate the foods for everyone else, for the rest of my diversity, not just us and how can we reduce the space of the amount of food that we need. So that takes when we grow our food, it takes up a lot of space on the planet. How can we reduce that? And things just being a bit more with nature in that sense.

So we, every everything we do, we do take at the moment most of it. So how can we do everything? So that’s more of a give and take. Well, that probably moves sort of nicely on to your recent pedal [00:24:00] for parks trip, which you went from the Auckland islands to the silly Isles. Yeah. Yeah. How, how did this adventure start?

So on? The Atlantic has says I had lots of time just thinking about what matters and green spaces was really important in it. Because I was thinking about it was very selfish. It came from a selfish, I would like mental health health support and nature is how I get it. I want to protect nature. And then I started thinking unselfishly and thinking about, well, I can’t be the only one who thinks like this there’s gotta be others.

So I started asking people and everyone was saying, it’s so important for themselves too. And then I realized this is a big. Change that we need we need to start thinking differently behavior change. And I think that our whole idea was to protect and preserve our green spaces in the UK because the concepts of telling people this is how it should be done and not being yourself is a bit [00:25:00] hypocritical.

I started researching green spaces and outdoor spaces in the UK and how it’s changed, how the landscape changed. How, how has our biodiversity changed? I found some horrific facts that are just not really mentioned too much. I’ll mention some now they are quite staggering, but we are one of the least by diverse places in the planet on the planet.

Sorry. And that was a massive shock. Yeah, UK is so not by diverse. It used to be very biodiverse is not anymore. It’s one of the worst and a hundred to 150 years of. 80% of the UK was forest and now stands is 20%. So in a hundred years, we’ve lost 60% forest. Half of the UK was Forrest. The half has gone.

Like that was staggering. And [00:26:00] I was, I was really, really kind of wow. The pace, the pace. So in my lifetime, if we continue this pace, could all forests be gone? I think there’s a turning point though, happening where it’s sort of probably like population growth where it’s going to sort of peak in 2040, and then drop off very quickly as more.

Developing countries sort of become more urbanized more or less and less people will be having children. I think it’s the same in in respect to how people are sort of adopting where forestry, I think the UK is looking at planting. I didn’t know a million trees or something in the next 10 years.

Well, they are, they, that was a tree planting scheme. 15, 20 years ago, we had a massive government scheme to plant tree. And they didn’t manage the tree. So a lot of them have [00:27:00] died. So there was millions and millions of pounds spent hundreds of hundreds of man hours spent. And these trees are all died because no, one’s managing them from like inception sapling up.

So that’s just another thing. But we have reacted to these facts. That’s the main thing. So yeah, 60% has been lost. Staggering fact, one of the things that made. Really wanted to do something for green space, national parts to talk about restoration. How can we scale these things up? But we still haven’t obviously done the actions yet properly because the results are still, still the same.

We’re still, still depleting. So until it starts reversing, then, then you know, the job is done. So we had I guess an idea. Well, I had an idea. To do that on the Atlantic rose to do some sort of big green initiative of such like a, an adventure that had a bit more meaning behind it, a bit more purpose behind [00:28:00] it to do of green spaces, mental health that was the stop.

And then a friend of mine wanted to do a challenge. And I was basically at this point I was kind of drawing up plans, maybe we’ll just cycle and see what he’s environmental projects and he wants to do. So then he joined based on that, just the adventure part. And then another friend of mine, Alex, in the team, he joined just pretty much, very soon afterwards on the concept of mental health was really important for it.

Outdoors and nature was very important for his mental health and he wants to do something to preserve and protect it. Highlight the projects and actions that people can get involved in to do that. So that was kind of the inception really at that point. And then we devised a route to connect as many projects as possible, which we re researched [00:29:00] that we’re trying to make changes or shift the way we do things.

And we just called them climate solutions for now. They’re just solutions to, to improve our sustainability in the. And that that’s, that’s where it all came about. And the route was from the Orkney islands in bursae the Northwest point. And then we cycled to Alda silly. And the reason why we had the islands included is because they’re quite interesting places to be for various different sustainability and circular economy.

Discussion. So in Orkney, it’s one of the best places for experimenting with new energy types, wind and solar, incredible wind resource, incredible sea title resource there. And also it’s a place where pretty much, most. All forests has gone and they have, I think [00:30:00] 0.01% forest left compared to what used to be like.

And that’s been a lot to do with agricultural land and at a big population. So that was an interesting place to include. And then the Alva, the all is a silly, have a really interesting organic farming approach. Way of circular living, where they are producing their own foods and produce trying to produce their own electricity for the island to be self-sufficient.

So it was like a, I guess, an almost an off-grid island from the UK and is how, what they’re doing there. How could that be scaled up across the UK? Is that possible? And so those were two islands and then we connected those islands with a bit of adventure bit of, bit of exciting water bikes They are really interesting devices.

They’re just spinning bikes on floats and they’ve got a propeller, vast attached to a belt drive chain, and you can go about three to free to free knots or say across water. [00:31:00] They’re not very stable. So you do need really good conditions, but we use that as a way to get across, to try and keep it as a sustainable journey from just cycling all the way through.

And then we had loads of different climate solutions on mainland G. We visited six national parks out of the 15. And we are two weeks only to do this project because to do the sea crossings or motorbikes, there’s a neat tight, which is a really low tide where the tide is not that strong. And you need, you do need that.

These bikes would definitely not make it on a high tide or a strong tide. And what the first top one up in Orkney is called the pendant first, that that stretch of crossing has a tide of 50 miles per hour at times. So that, that really, you really need to go on the right right day for that and the right time.

And the neat tides were really important. And the neat tides were two weeks roughly between each other, from the one in the north, which was the Orkney [00:32:00] crossing to the one in the south from Nan’s ends to the ALS. So there wasn’t a lot of time on land to get there. So there was a bit of a timeframe to get to, to land’s end.

And we did it Oz in 12 days. And so, yeah, that was the why the, why was less highlights climate solutions to try and improve and give them a bit of a raised profile against the negative noise that was coming on with climate change. Drive people to support those projects so that we can grow as a, as a society in a, in a sustainable way.

And that will help everyone’s physical, mental. That, yeah, that was it. Well, I think for people listening, because this was their meat into a documentary, that’s just come out at Kendall mountain festival. And I suppose for people who are interested, how did the sort of sponsorship [00:33:00] go? Yeah, the sponsorship was very tough and so.

If you think about the duration of the project happens 20 19, 20 20 when the pandemic struck. So all of the, the whole project needed to be self-funded. We didn’t have big backers or anything like that. So what we needed to do was get people aligned with what we were trying to achieve here. So.

Brian’s and some, some sort of organizations and things to see if they would sponsor us money to, to, to produce a film like this and be part of this project. And it was quite hard at the start because marketing budgets were just getting caught, left right. And center because people just had no idea, even if they had staff next year and what was happening COVID was just wrecking everyone’s finances.

Yeah. We were asking people for money at that time. And [00:34:00] I mean, that’s, that’s a really hard time to ask people for money. But we did manage to convince and get people involved in our project. Fat. This really needed thing. The pandemic, as we all know, has opened people’s eyes. How important outdoor spaces have been like people being locked inside during lockdown, outdoor space has been so important for them to escape.

So I think that resonated. And that’s one of the main messaging of our film is that, you know, we’re highlighting these climate solutions, we’re doing this hard adventure. We’re cycling to meet all these people to highlight what they’re doing, which are incredible things that can help preserve and protect and regenerate these green spaces, which are important, not just for biodiversity, but for you as people, you know, mental health and physical health is so important.

So yeah, we managed to get some convinced and then eventually momentum. Built from there. It was quite hard of course, and even getting a film crew involved because obviously they have no idea if this would go [00:35:00] ahead, because they might not want to get involved because there’s no funding or because of COVID things canceling.

So it was quite a difficult project to manage alongside full-time work. So it was a one hell of a journey. So if anyone needs sponsorship tips or whatever I’ve got, I’ve got. One of which is make sure you’re very clear on your why and make sure that your, why aligns with other fields. Why before you ask them for money, like if there, if this is a brand and they’re doing something completely different to what you’re doing and they’ve, they’ve been focused on that.

It’s highly unlikely. They’re not going to support you. So don’t get like that reject. And take your own board is probably because you weren’t aligned. So think about people who are aligned with you and, and your mission, your goals, and also persistence as [00:36:00] well. When with sponsorships just like sales pretty much in businesses, right person, right time, right moment.

And. You can only be right person, right time, right. Roman, by taking the action to, to, to, to reach out. Sometimes, sometimes you get organic stuff. People could find out about you and Nick. Oh, I’d love to back you. I heard about youth from this, but I, most of the time is when you’re starting a project from scratch.

Like this it’s very much you’re reaching out. And how, in terms of preparing training, was there much done for us or was it more on the sponsorship? Started off a lot heavily on sponsorship because you’re thinking, do I need to get myself physically fit for this? If it’s not going to go ahead. So there’s a lot of that.

But I was very much with the team saying, just be ready. Let’s just, let’s just go with it. So the first [00:37:00] time we tried to do the trip was canceled because we didn’t get the funding in place in time. So then we pushed it. And COVID also at the same time strike where you weren’t allowed to move between counties.

At that point, we had all trained for it and we were all physically fit. And then suddenly we’ve got to wait. Another eight months really happens and you start having those doubts. So what I was just trying to just get the team to do is just keep yourself as fit as you can during this campaign. When we’ve got the money, we’ll do it.

We’ll get it done. And so, yeah, we were training quite hard throughout the weeks doing pretty much long cycles, maybe sometimes six, seven hour cycles on the weekends and then short ones over over the week after and before work and things like this. And then doing gym and rehab rehabilitation. Sort of stretches and stuff at [00:38:00] house, open up your back and kind of improve your posture on the bike and things like this.

So we were doing a lot of that for six, seven months on the lead, up to the sitters getting a sponsorship, but we just didn’t know how long we’d be doing that for, because we just don’t know. We didn’t know until like very much the month before that this was going to go ahead. So it wasn’t like it’s happening in June.

It might happen in June, but the government look everything up and some sponsors might put out because of the government locking everything up. So it was very much like be ready for any movement. So a bit of a complete head. It, yeah, pretty much. It was like, It can happen at any point, let’s just be ready for it.

Nice. And I, cause I watched a trailer and it looks incredible. How was it sort of taken at the first? So Kendall, we had [00:39:00] really good feedback. So Kendall mountain festival it’s focused on outdoor adventures and sustainability and social social films. And w we, we felt that we were kind of. Talking to people who are of our, who are like our tribe.

They do a lot of people do similar things to us trying to highlight environmental awareness campaigns and doing outdoor ventures, but trying to be sustainable at the same time. So that we had, there was a lot of people there who were very much, you know, in our space. And we had some great, great feedback saying was really well done on the tight budget and they enjoyed the film.

It was both informative and entertaining and venturous at the same time. That’s what we wanted and we wanted it to be a bit full provoking. And a lot of people said they were questioning things that they do and questioning things around them. And that, that, that was literally the ambition of the film.

So yeah, I, I think it, it was accepted quite well and we’ve [00:40:00] got a good reception from there and we also have had discussions with distributors about maybe scaling up. So the film itself, when you do watch it, it’s got six interviews. We actually shot 26 interviews, but we only chose six of the 26th because we only had half an hour to show an entire adventurous journey and fit in interviews at the same time.

So we’re looking to do a series out of it an educational series, if we can just need to get financial backing for that. We’ve got the first page and the content so short, it’s just getting it all put together again. Anyone listening, come say hi. Good. And another thing I sort of looked at was on your website, you talk about the power of yes.

Y for people listening. Can you sort of [00:41:00] explain what this message is about? The power of yes. Is quite an, an interesting. Three letter words, cause one, it can get you doing things that you really, really enjoy and Intuit can also take you down the wrong route. So yes can, yes, it can be good and bad at the same time.

But I’ve, I find that when you kind of understand the things that you love. Really do like, and you’re not just doing it for the sake of doing it and you’re not just doing it because it looks cool because someone said, it’s cool when you’re not just doing it because you’re, you’re, you’re not just saying yes to it because you’ve been obliged to say yesterday, you’re actually genuinely thinking this is something I genuinely like to do.

And I really would get a lot out of it. That’s a really powerful. Yes. And that was a yes. That I was probably not really doing much when I was in my younger years. So during, during you know, school and going into university, I was just [00:42:00] saying anything that would fit me in a group or would get me through my education.

And it was kind of like, I’m just saying yes, because I don’t really know what I’m saying. Yes. Why am I saying yes to doing this degree? Why am I saying it was very much like, it’s the done thing. You should get a degree. You should do this to these high levels. And then I realized I really enjoy outdoor sports and green, the green spaces and nature is really good for my mental health.

So I just started aligning my life around yeses, fat, supported that. And it’s just been really great since by wish I need a lot of a long time ago. So yeah yeah, saying yes to some things that may be. On your thing or isn’t something that you really, really would enjoy. And it’s just, you’re doing for aesthetics or you’re involved because someone [00:43:00] told you to do it.

It’s not necessarily always the best. I know you’re in, if you’re in a workplace, you have to say yes sometimes because honestly, you don’t get paid if you’re not going to do it. But there are instances where you can push back and say, no, that’s not my thing. But they are, there is a bit of a yes bug, but you can get from saying yes, and then it can lead to things that you never fought.

You would go down. So when I said yes to doing being’s channel, I would never read it. Have opened up my eyes to a whole new world of living a way of living that just, I was in a, such a state mentally and physically just terrible. And I said, yes. And that just changed my life. And it was, it was a simple, simple act that I could have said no to, because I’m like, why would I do that?

I’ve always found in a pool. That’s where my competition. But that opened doors to things. And then I said yes, to rowing across an ocean. And then from that, [00:44:00] I was able to actually spend 40 days thinking about why she cared about. And then from that, I was able to come up with this and big journey and adventure and highlight climate solutions, which is so important.

And it’s a really good purpose. So there was a, there’s some really powerful yeses that can come. Just from your inner, like this, this is right. And then there’s going to be some yeses, which is stay on the screen again, do this again. Do do the same old, same old again that you don’t enjoy. And you just keep saying yes to it, and then you just get more and more upset about it.

So there’s, there’s two ways. Yeah. There’s this is quite powerful. I think it’s one of the most powerful words in the world. Yeah, I th I think it was so interesting about your story is how something so good came from something so selfish in a sense of you decided to do this, to [00:45:00] benefit yourself, but at the same time, it’s beneficial for so much more, so many more people.

Yeah, it started, it did start off as a selfish. The slight swimming’s channels. Like how do I push myself? How do I get myself out of this mental health state? I mean, I was just thinking, get me out of this head, basically. That’s what I was thinking. I just need something to contain me away. So it was very much like that.

And then realizing that there’s so many other people who are in this boat, same boat, who could do this sort of sought support. It then becomes unselfish because you’re then sharing your learnings, sharing ways, helping people to do it. You know, one of the guys on this trip, he had really bad mental health.

And he’s now on, in a best of state from doing outdoor challenges with myself and others doing this stuff. Yeah. It’s side of selfish and change is just that. How you say how you say that, but it’s I think it, I think it was. [00:46:00] I don’t know if it was lucky that it’s quite something that helps other people, otherwise I would come across as really, really selfish.

But I, yeah, I think, I think if I was just pursuing it for money, it would be a different thing when it, so you know, I’m just doing, doing it just to help, help, help the world in some ways. Are you a lot more discipline now on sort of social media on your phone turning notifications off? Oh, I’ve got no notifications on my phone.

I did that four years ago. So the only time I’ll know if someone’s messaged me is if I go into my phone, go into the apps and stuff like that. I don’t get the buzzers anymore, which I used to cause I used to be working, doing something hiking is that buzz distracts everything. So now it’s on my own accord.

And with social media, one of the [00:47:00] devils of it is it’s one of the fastest ways to interact with people. So if you do want to get a message out there, which. To help people in some way, some of the quickest ways you can do that is using social media. So I use it differently to how I used to use it. And I use it as a way to spread message like a, like a purpose and a message to get people involved and connected with the causes and stuff like that.

So yeah, I use it in that way more than anything else at the minute. Nice. Well, I think it’s been such a pleasure listening to your stories. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks to you. For having me on the, on the show. I hope people get connected and want to want to find out more about how they can get involved in, in, in this world.

Well, absolutely. There’s a part of the show where we ask the same five questions to each guest each week with the first being. What’s the sort of one gadget that you always take on these trips with you? The one gadget I always take [00:48:00] on trips and outdoor trips. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So probably.

Some sort of warm, claves like some sort of warm thing, because I find that when I’m outdoors all the time, swimming, hiking, I’m always, I always will get colds. It sounds. Th things, keep me warm, like a warm jumper or something like that. Because even in the summer you go for, I go for a run and you get the cold sweats afterwards sometimes, and that’s not good.

So yeah, something like that. That’s not very exciting. I always want to be like, oh, lucky duck or something. I’m not sure. A high-tech jumpers. Gotcha. I suppose. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Maybe something like this. Yeah. Okay. What about your favorite adventure or traveling? Favorite adventure travel book. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I’m terrible at reading. I have dyslexia. So it takes me about a million years. I found that when I was very young [00:49:00] reading, Harry Potter took me way too long. But yeah, I do. I do. I read sort of audio books more so like audio, audio things, and the best, the best book fat. I think I was, I was reading, I was given a long time ago was born survivor from bear.

Grylls is a bit of a. And I don’t know if it is actually the book that is inspired me or just him, but I just, I just really like his ethos about doing these adventures and things he does to promote gang young people outdoors, and I I’m pushing boundaries and things like this. I just, I just think it’s such a how do I describe it?

It’s something as needed. People like him just getting people inspired to get outdoors like that in, in his way it touches people. I think it resonates with people and yeah, he does it quite well, [00:50:00] especially our scale. And that that’s pretty impressive. Cool. And why are adventures important to you? We sort of covered that over the podcast, but, but for the sake of the five questions.

Yeah, adventure is important for physical, mental health mainly and get gang that sort of, that benefit where I can’t get it from anywhere else. That flow that state of flow, that feeling of mindfulness, that feeling of in your own head, just enjoying the moment, hearing the birds, just being there.

That’s why I do it. Nice. Favorite Quate I’ve got a new one. Go on then go on then. So that Kendall man’s festival what’s that 14 peaks. Yup. Yup. I love, he says giving up is not in the blood man. I just [00:51:00] love that. Cause I’ve been in so many instances where you just feel like you’re so done. I’ve pushed myself so hard or.

Oh, I’ve been working so late on some projects and I’m just like, nah, can’t give up, let’s get this done. It’s not in the blood. So yeah, that was from NIMS. But actually I think a, another really great quote, if I’m allowed to do two, I took a walk in the woods and I came out to live in the trees. That was a really big one for me.

That quote, that quote was I think his name is Justin, Justin trio or something like this. I, if you type in, I took a walk in the woods and I came out to all of them. Trees you’ll find out who write that one, Justin Trudeau or Justin chiro. I think my true, I, if I can see if I can get out of. As in the Canadian prime minister?

No, I don’t think it was him. It was someone before [00:52:00] I’ll try and get off. Now it’s a, something that I’m not very good at is remembering the names. It’s never been my thing, but yeah, that, that, that was really, really important for me because that came here we go. I’ve got it completely wrong. Henry David farro Pharaoh.

All right. Yeah, that was true. I sure. I thought it was fairy. And that, that quote was really important because that was where I started escaping from screen time at university. And I was taking those short breaks in the walk. And that, that, that resonates with me so much. Just breaking up my life a bit with some nature.

Okay. And people listening to always keen to travel and go on these grand adventures. What’s the one thing that you would recommend to people wanting to get started? Oh, okay. Get started in traveling and, [00:53:00] well, it could be. An adventure or travel can be anywhere in my, in my view, it could be just outside where you live or it could be really far-flung get flight, go, go for a jungle and stuff.

My desk I would always recommend using your assets to get the best sales, your travel trip. So sometimes it’s really nice to just go blatantly to places. And then sometimes it’s quite nice to have sort of vague idea where you want. And what you want to do. And so I try to advise people, if you have the options, research, these areas, please do.

You could go blindly down, down the wrong street, or you could go blindly somewhere. That could be dangerous. If you had research, you would have avoided. So yeah. Always research where you’re going and that you’d be actually really pleasantly surprised what you can research, just where you live.

Interesting [00:54:00] historical facts, history, places, interesting walkways that you’ve never fought. You go to some bits of nature that you couldn’t find before. Yeah. So yeah, that’s how I advise it. Just if you can do bit research before you go. Perfect. And finally, what are you doing now? And how can people follow you in your future adventures?

Great. So I’ve just started a community interest. We call net climate explorers. And so basically it’s just great. It’s growing the, the campaign, the impact campaign pedals of parks, but we did the adventure for the cycle and the sys climate solutions. We’re looking to scale it up and do a bit more speaking and create other forms of content, other documentaries series and things like this.

So that that’s what we’re working on now, right now, the, the website is pedal for parks.co dot. But it’s going to change your prime explorers. Look, Crudo your care at some point in the near future, but I can’t put a time frame on it [00:55:00] when it be some point in December. But yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s where you can find out about.

But in the meantime, I have a website that has links to all of this too. Isaac kenyan.com. And you can find that more about the adventures I’ve been on. Some, some blogging materials and things like this videos and content in a strain and a bit more back from explorers. But yeah, that’s what I’m doing.

Amazing. Well, I think it’s been such a pleasure and we’ll leave a link in the description for Isaac’s website and Instagram handle and everything. Thank you very much, John. Yeah, they’re really great questions as well. I really enjoyed them. Well, thank you so much for coming on and I think hopefully everyone’s enjoyed listening to your story.

And I’m sure we look forward to seeing you on your next big adventure, wherever that may be. Cool. Well, thanks. So thanks [00:56:00] Isaac. Take care. Well, that is it for today. Thank you so much for listening and I hope you got something out of it. If you did hit that like button and subscribe, if you haven’t already and die, we’ll see you in the next.