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Good to be here. Thanks for having me. Yeah a man of many talents, author, motivational speaker, extreme kinder. You're out there doing the fine kinder, putting your life through danger. What would you call that? Extreme adventurer? How do you, what's the name to it? Yeah I'm still lost as to what to call it but yeah you're right extreme athlete, extreme explorer, adventurer. Yeah any of the above really. Yeah but a man who looks as if he's living his life to the full potential where it's all about. Seen you on the Joe Rogan podcast, seen you in the High Performance podcast. All good guys. Really good guys. Great story Taylor. Yeah cheers. You seem to, I kind of think we all struggle through life but you seem to be pushing it. But again it's life out there for some of your moments and I'm sure we'll touch on through the podcast. But before we get into everything I'd like to go back to the start of my guests. Get a bit of an understanding about you, where you grew up, how it all began. Yeah man, sure yeah. So I grew up in North Wales, just near Clangden, over there you know. Well Old Colwyn was the town. Sleepy place. Nice place though, right next to the coast there. Got the lakes, got the forest. Great for someone like me who likes to get outdoors. But you know I've since now moved to London. But whilst I was growing up in Wales I was again, normal background. You know I went to a standard high school, went on to college and then from college I was sort of in an outdoor education course which was good fun. You know I sort of learned a lot more about myself and especially the fact that I was a kinesthetic learner. You know sort of hands-on practical experience rather than being in the classroom, being lectured up by the teacher. I just didn't learn that way. And I thought to myself you know whilst these students in my college course have got it all sort of figured out, some are going to the military, some are going to university. I was fucking so lost, so lost. I was like what the fuck do I do? But then I realized well if I learn more through experience and you know getting hands-on, making mistakes and sort of learning from those mistakes, trying to never make the same mistake twice, I thought why don't I plan to travel? So I started to work multiple different jobs sort of in a fish and chip shop in lifeguarding and as a waiter I was racking up the money, cycling to and from work all day every day on my bicycle and at age 19 I finally set off for my travels and that just changed everything. From there I went straight to to China and China was good fun. I thought that was as foreign as it gets you know compared to the UK that's that's the most different country that I could go to. What's the difference between China and there's more technology there? Yeah but back then in 2010 it wasn't as well developed as it is now. It developed really fast like it was still developed but I do remember rocking up at the airport in Beijing and there were people on bicycles you know tapping on their bicycle seat offering to give me a bunk to my hotel with my rucksack you know but now yeah you're picked up by intestines. I've seen it as if it's more advanced over in Asia with technology I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing I believe technology can fry your brain where people can get lost in it because it's not living for me. It's not. I can be if I spent over six hours a day on my phone I've had a bad day I know why am I wasting my time on that but it can just suck you right in. Yeah it can and I've seen that Apple have recently launched that they've seen that headset that they've got now that's crazy isn't it. So the advert to it and like the daughter coming up collecting her breakfast looking at her dad and the dad's just wearing this big mask on his face so where's the connection there swiping in pulling in apps it's mental it's mental but now yeah you're right China is very very advanced I remember like four or five years ago they would be purchasing everything on their phone and that was weird to me I was still sort of using cash and like debit card and all of that but they had this one app where everything taxis Uber Eats the lot would was just purchased on the on the phone. Are they microchipped over there? Ah yeah I think probably you mean in the phones. Yeah even with I think they're getting into this again I don't know if it's happening in Sweden but I don't know if China because they're so advanced where they're just paying for things with the rest. I've heard of that that will probably be next and they'll say like it will make it easier and more convenient but it's nice to keep tabs on you of course of course but we've already got tabs on as if you've got social media you're already locked in. If you've got an iPhone right? Yeah you're locked in because I was doing the like the street the now when people walk the streets and they're protesting the protest for like freedom but it was all the other shit that was happening a couple of years ago and people were having the banners up saying free the mind and we're free but for me they were all drunk they were all smoking weed they were videoing on their mobile phones and that's so far from free yeah do you know what I mean what is free what is free to you? What is free? Free I think is you nailed it on the head I think the more technology we develop and start sort of having in our lives the less freedom we'll have people don't see that do they they see it as convenient yeah it's fine but it's not you've got to look to the people at the top they're doing it for a reason I think. So how does a kid from Wales then be breaking free world records now? Yes and then traveling the world and all over social media like what was the mindset to be doing that was that because people always ask you the question like who's the runners as well say oh are you running towards something or you're running away from something? Probably a bit of both but what was the thing in your mind to go right there's something else bigger and better out there? Yeah you know what and it's funny you say that yeah because I'm always sort of asked like there must have been some child called trauma that sort of made you sort of push yourself and you know face death many times but honestly I was a yes I don't come from a financial background but I had love and support and parents a good family but I guess I was very curious about the world you know I'd watch stuff like the David Attenborough show I wouldn't want to watch it from the TV box I'd want to get out there amongst it my granddad lived in Pakistan for over 22 years you know so he would come back and share these wild stories he was a poor man living on someone's roof but he would still come back and he had these sort of experiences for days another uncle from Zimbabwe he would also share these sort of wild stories and I think a lot of this sort of played on my mind over the years but in school it wasn't I wasn't really adventurous I was more athletic I was into the sports and I guess it's where the pursuit of sort of pushing myself and testing my limits and being very physically active meets this sort of wonderlust and curiosity for the world and for travel different cultures different traditions and sort of that brought in these these early adventures and expeditions but right when I set off to be honest I was in China for two weeks I left China realized I hadn't really traveled China just on the coast there along the cities you know China's a big country ventured over to Cambodia it was me and my friend and I remember just pretty much sulking on the Mekong riverbank you know saying we spent all of this money we were on such a shoestring budget it was ridiculous and I said and we're sharing the same photo stories experiences as all of the rest of the travelers we didn't come out here to stay on the tourist route we wanted to mix and mingle with the locals and you know this first adventure I believe was the catalyst to everything to come you know pretty much said let's do an adventure let's purchase the cheapest and most ridiculous bicycles we can find and let's cycle the entire length of Cambodia and Vietnam and my friend sort of giggled at that you know and I remember clearly as if it was yesterday him saying let's do it you know but on what bikes and as he said that there was this noise coming from behind this sort of this screeching bicycle we turned around and there was this frail old skinny lady you know cycling on this fucking awful bicycle but it looked like a bike that we could afford and we literally that day we spent about 10 pounds on a bicycle no pump no puncture repair kit and non waterproof tent which cost a few dollars string on the side of the road that we strapped our rucksack onto the back with no map no technology I wasn't sharing I wasn't on social media so I wasn't sharing I was literally just doing it for the pure passionate love of adventure and travel and off we went you know we cycled over 1,100 miles we were chased by dogs hit by mopeds dodged by lorries in the last day we cycled over 39 hours straight going over 45 hours with no sleep and I think it's that journey where I found my sort of niche and my and my passion I remember cycling through thinking wow can you imagine at the end of my days sort of having the world map on the wall and having these lines across different countries of where I cycled or hiked or done some form of adventure and you know I said it quite flippantly didn't think anything of it but I knew that because I now found my passion I just didn't want to stop so I didn't when do you feel more alive when you're doing stuff like that living just the unknown um yeah I think so I think it's like I love a good routine now because I know it's important you know sleep waking up exercise and having the right food but back then I think it was the lack of routine and waking up to a new sunrise not knowing what's going to happen that day and I think adventure provided me with that with the challenges that I'd have to overcome with the with the people that I'd meet I love me and new people um and I would meet so many along the road and they've all got stories to tell and experiences of their their own you know ain't it mad that there's over eight billion people on the planet raised as far as I'm aware I've never seen eight billion people there could only be 10,000, 20,000 they could bend some fucking simulator that is a Jim Carrey film ah the Truman Show yeah you just don't know so that's why when you go out there because when you think about it I've been traveling the same route for 40 years 39 years on this planet obviously I've been in holidays and stuff but it's the same people in this and I've always thought Vietnam and travel get kids in that now so we kind of it eliminates a lot of things obviously until they're older but I believe there's a world such a big place and you see other cultures when you see other people and other beliefs and I love a good conversation I could talk to anybody if they can hold their conversation but it's just when there's so much house out there you just a question everything even down London last night I'm walking about and I'm thinking what the fuck is that about I genuinely don't know I know I'm doing good and I know I'm doing big things but I'm still winging it yeah there's not really much to what I do I think everyone is right yeah do you feel that when you're just going through the motions like do you feel though like there's a purpose to it there's something bigger and greater than outside of you when you're doing those things yeah I think I would like to think there's you know a bigger purpose a bit I like to think that I've got it sussed out as well you know the plans of the expeditions and what will come after then but you just don't know you can you can sort of plan for the worst hope for the best you know but yeah so see after that say quote where were you sleeping when you're doing the say quote I was sleeping on the side of the road I remember sleeping a couple of nights in a hammock shop so you've got the shelters normally for the for the lorry drivers for the truck drivers and you've got maybe 20 30 hammocks and it's the equivalent of 20 pence to stay one night in the hammock and that's that's how it was really it was an unhealthy cycle I was eating nothing but noodles if we could afford it we would add an egg and a sausage but you're talking silly money you know like really really cheap um and then the non-waterproof tent sometimes we would get in that and you know we found out the hard way that it's the uh you know this is what I didn't really know like it I just purchased a tent and like I thought fuck it but I was always like that even in my college course um age 17 18 you know climbing Ben Nevis everyone would spend their grant their college grant money on the right equipment and I would end up spending mine on modifying my car you know spraying it full body kit and then I would end up trekking Ben Nevis in nothing but Adidas overalls and football shoes football trainers you know but I was the one smiling all the way up I would be leading the way up to the top of the mountain and I think it's little soul things like that where I got curious not only just about the world and you know how big it is and the different traditions people that you'd meet but also about myself I was curious thinking how are they all moaning and complaining with gortex waterproof trousers and you know the right boots the proper sort of jacket and I was soaked you know cold but I was still sort of leading the way up the snow carving out footprints for them to follow in making it to the summit and um it was definitely a sense of full hardiness it was definitely reckless but I think I needed that you know and even the early adventures that I did some were illegal you know crossing crossing over borders illegally with no permit especially from Thailand to Myanmar via the jungle machete in hand and then we we came across a Burmese hill tribe and we were learning how to survive in the jungle from hunting and gathering to learning how to build rafts or shelters using natural resources they really sort of took us under their wing but they were kind of illegally trying to migrate into Thailand and we just crossed the jungle you know machete in hand all the way through and we were in Myanmar at a time that it was closed down fully that was 2010 I don't think it opened up till 2012 and then the same way Himalayas you know I was told that I needed to purchase some sort of permit and spend money on a permit because you can't track those mountains but again I was like what do you mean you can't track it it's mother nature it's the mountains are open to anyone and I told him I said look I'm not buying your damn permit I'm I'm taking my backpack and I'm going off and then he says well if you're going to go against my word I need to at least show you how to avoid the Pakistan army and I was like what do you mean he was like you're on the border here Srinagar you're in on the border of India and Pakistan he says if you come across the Pakistan military that control the border there he said go down on your knees put your thumbs behind your ears and say I think it was Allah Hrighbi repeatedly which kind of means Lord have mercy on me and it was at that point I was like okay so he's either sort of pushing the buttons to force it into buying a permit or he's he's legitimately serious but again I would still be doing these reckless dangerous sometimes illegal things and I think I needed to go there in order to to get here you know did you feel your life was in danger at any point in your first one you done uh the first expedition yeah I I almost died on the first one um as much as I felt sort of like I had prepared for it logistically mentally physically you know this expedition the Mongolia was so after sort of just bringing it back to the early adventures after all of the early adventures I then settled in Thailand for two years I was a master scuba diving instructor and a Muay Thai fighter um and I'd be fighting effectively to to pay rent and get free Muay Thai lessons and whatnot and that life was exciting I loved it but I started to miss you know the time cycling Vietnam or with the Burmese hill tribe in Himalayas so I came up with a plan to maybe walk a hundred miles or 200 miles across Mongolia until eventually I realized it was a a world first record if I was to become the first person to hike across its entire length solo and unsupported um and that one was that's where things came to a halt a little bit and I stopped doing sort of reckless adventures um I I I was sort of looking into how I can manage it how I can make it not as dangerous as the Vietnam cycle um I then searched vigorously for those people who had done it before because I didn't know it was a world record at the time I then bought more logistics and on board sort of the UK the warrior geographic society on ground locals in Mongolia and then as we did extensive research and we found someone who had attempted this expedition but failed on all three occasions um and I looked into this guy and he was a navy soldier he was a desert explorer um far more experienced you know I was effectively a beach bum Muay Thai fighter living on an island you know and I remember writing the writing this sort of email to him asking him for the dangers and he got back he was a nice guy responded he says there's there's lots of dangers you need to watch out for the drunken nomadic drifters the dry wells the stagnant water the steep revines the wolves the snow blizzards the sandstorms and the list went on and on and it was at that point for the first time in all my adventures that I actually just nipped it in the bud and thought no this is this is too dangerous I tried to get my friend to join me and he was like nah you're on your own but then I realized you know just because no one's found a way to do something doesn't mean it can't be done and I thought with the right preparation if I can move back from Thailand back to the UK I didn't I had I had just over 200 pounds in my account after selling my diving kit so I had to move back in with my mum and dad so I was living with my parents I couldn't afford no gym membership but my uncle sort of is a courier you know a driver so he managed to pick up a tractor tire and a sledgehammer from a farm and dropped it off at my place and all of the training for that world record was done in my back garden flipping the tractor tire beaten it with a sledgehammer sort of using a pole where I could do pull-ups I was doing push-ups you know running up the mountains with a rucksack and whilst I was training physically I was also preparing myself mentally you know because I just remember being shit scared of this expedition all the odds were stacked against me and everyone was saying it's impossible people have tried people have failed it's reckless to do solo and support the locals who've been doing it for thousands of years of course long before we came around they do it as a close-knit community with family members or friends or yaks camels so they're supported and even they were sort of advising me against it so I had a lot of fear and doubt with this one what makes you then kick on to do it is it to prove to yourself prove to others because we hear the whole of stories now at social media there's a motivation on coming from the broken homes and fucked up mentally but they've pushed ourselves through extremes David Goggins never knew what 40 60 or 60 40 whatever he calls it yeah you've come to the good home good background loving family yeah where did you find that something that ingredient where you don't quit you push on yeah never fail it's we all fail but you know what I mean like to kick on was that ingredient you have I think it was a lot of things I think there was definitely again that curiosity there was that stubbornness so I would say my mindset is um pretty dogged when I sat out to do something I'm a man of my word I like I like to get it done and so there was definitely that stubbornness to it being a man of my word but I don't know maybe it's maybe it's genetics as well you know maybe skipped my parents but my granddad he's a wild one he's a he's a he's mental so I'm in Pakistan yeah he got kicked out of Pakistan because he overstated to be so and now he lives in India so he just doesn't like the west he belongs he like belongs over there that's where his so I've only seen him maybe four five times in my life not really enough to have any influence over me so to say but you know potentially genetically because he's always pushed himself he's always been hiking he's got some crazy stories it's a proper survivalist and so maybe there's that too but I do think it was I kind of gathered from an an early age a very young age that this this life is going to go fast you know how do you want to use the days and I remember being I think it was 15 16 and having that sort of quote on my worth I got who it was by but it was like life shouldn't be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving in a well in an attractive and well preserved body but rather to slide in sideways covered in scars thoroughly used up body thoroughly used up screaming you know yeah who what a ride and I remember I kind of had this vision board I didn't know it was a vision board but I had a world map you know to try to help keep me motivated to save up the funds because it was fucking grim working in an efficient chip shop I was making three pound ten an hour you know and then I progressed up and was waiting on and then life garden which was better money but cycling to and from work at four o'clock in the morning ready to be on poolside which is a sleepy job you know so I'd wake up see these quotes see these pictures from around the world see my world map of my plans in hand and I think I always then I think that snapped me into becoming very goal oriented and then I wanted bigger things to plan I think maybe I'd plan to travel the world I'd done that I'd done the cycle in Vietnam the Himalayas all of this and I was just thirsty for more adventure what was the Himalayas like that was amazing yeah absolutely stunning good people there are great people yeah so I was just in India north of India in a place called Srinagar how far is that from Nepal um from Nepal it's probably quite a distance I think you've got what Pakistan in between and then Nepal Everest yeah well yeah it's funny it's also China yeah because you type in or you ask people what's the highest man in China and they'll also say on Everest but I think the easiest access point is from Nepal and that's why people go to Kathmandu in the climate I think it's harder from China not just physically but logistically and I've got a lot of experience to try and work with the government in China it's easy you've done the first one how was that feeling for you this feeling of accomplishment was that a relief it was it was immense it was a huge relief especially because so it was three weeks over the Altai mountains it was five weeks across the Gobi desert and then a further three weeks through the Mongolian steppe and when I say solo and unsupported I legitimately I know some people say this and they've got like a van following like has to be about five miles 10 miles behind them there was none of that my insurance was invalid and I had to pull a trailer behind me carrying all provisions needed to survive but I only had 200 pounds in my count and so I couldn't afford a factory to build me a carbon fiber lightweight trailer so I contacted a family friend who built a mild steel trailer in his back garden so on an empty load that was 40 kilograms and on a full load it was 120 kilograms 260 pounds or 18 stone you know weight of it as a same weight as a heavyweight boxer so I was pulling that because I need that was my life capsule and so 78 days altogether took but in the Gobi desert this is where I almost lost my life because I was slowly becoming dehydrated anyway through the Altai mountains and by the time I got into the Gobi desert just to paint the picture it was 40 plus degrees Celsius the trailer now felt like 500 kilograms because the thin wheels that I had it was going over gravel but often soft sand so the tires kept digging in I was a lot skinnier a lot weaker and I was sort of rationing my water and then eventually I came to a water source which was dry and as much as I sort of planned for confirmed and unconfirmed water sources it's easier said than done to ration the water when you're in those temperatures no natural shade no clouds no breeze constantly having to hide underneath your trailer just away from that sun and then at that point I was at my worst I was completely delirious I was disorientated I was hallucinating I was so dehydrated I could almost feel my organs drying up and at this point I still had four days to walk to the next community which was a confirmed water source and I had people there where I could rest and at this point I'd missed the the point of pickup because my logistics manager would take a good four to six days to get to me if he found being time because right now I'm in the center of the Gobi desert and I just at that point I just didn't believe I would survive six days and so it came fully down to myself whereby I started to feel sorry for myself I started to you know I remember passing camel carcasses that had died of dehydration remember thinking if I if I pass here will I just be a carcass that people will just you know roam past on horseback maybe have a look in my in my trailer take take the belongings what not you know all of these vivid things that went on in my in my mind but again you know I've been I've kind of always been a big believer in visualization you know the law of attraction and what not and remember thinking although I can't visualize four days because I'm in too much agony the pain was unreal I could I could visualize a hundred meters you know I could see a hundred meters so I decided to walk a hundred meters and then hide under my trailer for no more than five minutes because sometimes I'd be under there for over an hour and then by doing this a hundred meter walk five minutes under my trailer I eventually was very slow and painful but I was making progress and made it to the next community and it was scary because it was at that point if I I thought to myself if I don't keep getting up and pushing on I'm going to die out here in the Gobi Desert my insurance was invalid as well because I didn't have they don't they don't ensure people who are unsupported in the country of Mongolia but I made it and I just about made it I remember just collapsing in the community took me a good eight days to recover my urine was pretty much black um but I recovered I pushed on and you know after 78 days 1500 miles I I crossed the finish line and yeah you're right it was fucking such a relief such a relief a motion yeah there was lots of emotion as well and I remember the last couple of days just really taking it in because I was now in the step for three weeks after the Gobi Desert stint but the step was more grassland you've got your eagles you'll gazelle you have got your snakes and your storms which you watch out for but where the storms there's water you know there's that bit of safety net um where I could gather the water but yeah just remember the last couple of days thinking you know take this in absorb this because you know it's probably it may never happen again in a population of eight billion as we were talking about I went over eight days without seeing a single human over eight days not exactly not it was bizarre it was it was scary in a way that I felt do you question like vulnerable like you could be not alone die alone but this way there's more pressure on that if anything happens you're fucked oh 100% and that was the biggest fear that I had in the desert when I was slowly dying I was like if I don't keep getting up and pushing on I am fucked and I am just going to be a caucus 100% and I remember in the in the desert I spoke to my logistics manager my local logistics manager before I set off and I remember telling him you know can you imagine how silent it's going to be there's going to be no light pollution no noise pollution probably no insects or animals in certain sections of the desert and he says there's uh he laughed at me and said there's no such thing as silence I remember saying you know what do you mean there's no such thing as silence and he says I'm not going to tell you if you're at the point of the desert you'll figure it out yourself and I said okay and I forgot we had that conversation and when I was in the desert it was super quiet there was just there was no insects no noise no cars in the distance no people whatsoever it'd been a number of days since I saw the last person no breeze there was no shifting sand noises you know from sand dunes because they were I wasn't in that section yet I could hear this humming noise this high pitch sort of humming noise and I remember thinking what the fuck is that I'm thinking maybe it's air or something leaking from my water container so I left my trailer I walked a few hundred meters away from it and yeah I was still hearing this noise never heard it before and it was at that point I realized that's what he meant there's no such thing as silence because when you're at the point of silence that's when you can hear your own body ticking over and as long as you're living and alive you'll always hear a noise I was like fucking hell I got back and I told him he was like yeah people have heard it people go mad sometimes in the desert because they just hear this hear this noise just humming and it's your body taking over so see when you completed that how long did the high last for was it a few minutes a few days and it's straight back on I need to do this again or were you content with it then um you're always craving more I was I was craving more I was content I was I was happy there was lots of sort of interviews around that I was retelling the stories reliving it but from you know a place of being comfortable and access to water but I remember when I was on Mongolia I was already planning the next expedition whilst I was hiking Mongolia and it wasn't in a in a cocky or confident way it was in a way that I used to try to motivate myself thinking well if I can't complete this you know don't even think about the next and the next was was Madagascar but I remember Madagascar was in a way really spurring me on to finish this current mission that I was on what was Madagascar like fucking wild out of the out of the 155 days that it took to hike across Madagascar I swear to god I do not believe there was one day that was just a simple days hike it was challenge after challenge um I was held up at gunpoint by the military I had to avoid the jungle because the bandits were in the jungle hiding from the military I had to cross crocodile infested rivers I contracted the deadliest strain of malaria and managed to make it to safety a few hours before slipping into a coma I was sort of hunting I was gathering there was machete in hand hacking through the jungle some days it would take 16 hours to cover just 1.5 to two miles I had spider bites that infected I had leeches that I was playing off me it was just relentless and that that was very physical it was only 100 miles extra than Mongolia but almost doubled the duration because it was just constant with the challenges broke me in many ways see me again through stuff like that what do you think the most about yourself I think one of the biggest ones that I've learned especially sort of before I did Mongolia all of that fear I was scared I had so many nightmares and people experienced people in Mongolia as well telling me that it's just not possible and the same with Madagascar because we took the hardest route sort of walking south to north via the interior coming across tribes I hadn't seen a white person before while summiting the eight highest mountains and I believe that I was just so much more capable than I gave myself credit for and that's all of us in general right I'm sure you've experienced that yourself where you're being like fucking hell you know you had lots of doubt but you went on you did it anyway and you realize that you've got so much more capabilities and you're so much more capable than you anticipate and that's one thing that I learned another thing that I learned as well which I applied to everyday life now is when I was in the jungle hacking through bleeding everywhere you know hungry thirsty angry blisters on my hand from hacking using the machete hated the jungle wanted wanted out after a few weeks I was sick of it um but there was no other option you know it was no one was going to come and rescue me no one was there was an evacuation plan necessarily it was all really low budget reckless world firsts that I was doing but it was at that point I realized that we can't always be more evaded but we can't be disciplined and I never knew that until Madagascar in 2015 uh and now even when I'm sort of back in civilization I I use that a lot and it's just it rings true all the time but I learned that in the harshest and most real way out in the jungles why did you need to carry was that a check-in yeah yeah so in order to summit the highest mountain in Madagascar called Maramacocho uh it's tradition it's it's cultural that you must take yourself a a white cockerel and you must protect it you must feed it you must give it water and in turn that protects you from the bad spirits and witches of the rainforest the Malagasy are very superstitious they really believe in witches and and spirits and so I wasn't just summiting the highest mountain I was summiting a number of mountains before I got to the highest but there would have been nowhere else for me to collect a chicken and so Gertrude the name that I gave this chicken I always sort of give sort of names to different things that have joined me on different stages of expeditions the most ridiculous names too Gertrude was with me for two and a half weeks he was perched in my backpack he became fully domesticated I didn't need to tie him up when I when I let him out to sleep he would sleep on top of my tent shit either side of my tent he would be sort of chirping um in in my backpack there was like a little compartment whereas if it was raining it was good because he'd always tuck himself in and he would make no no noises but if it was sunny he'd be out chirping away or constantly in my ear whilst I've got a machete in hand hacking through the jungle frustrated angry flies landing everywhere you know and it's just I was hungry and I had this damn chicken and chicken's my favorite food but uh yeah you know what can I do I pushed on and you you release him at the top of the mountain do they really do they give eggs anything every few weeks no no they're normally um well he would yeah he was a cockerel yeah no so he was yeah he was a white cockerel so no no eggs as such but um and yeah we only found out I think about a weekend that it was a cockerel because people kept saying his chicken you'll have eggs other people saying like it's a cockerel and he just looked like he looked like in between you know how was it letting them go you said yeah I was actually yeah I think after two and a half weeks despite the frustration he caused he was a he was a he was a warrior he was a solid team member there was four of us up to that point but um I was kind of hoping he would follow us back down because my guide that I was with was saying like it's taboo you cannot bring him back down I was like come on he was like no you'll be bringing the the bad spirits into into the community I'm like oh my god okay but I you know I had to respect yeah because when you talk about witches and black magic over there they proper believe in that because they're not a witch or something at the 10 and the the guy who was like with who's seen it and chased it this is this is one that you know I'm not superstitious I'm very I have to be with my experts you know very logical very you know um thinking in that way that it's got to be something but I don't know there was those three stories that I didn't have any answers to so I put out a YouTube video um and one of them was you know in the evening we we were strolling upon um in the jungle deep within the jungle in the center of the island and we had the maps and we came across a community that wasn't on the map so we were like wow okay this must be a new community that's arrived in this section but it looked like they'd been settled for a while and they they offered us in I remember it being full moon that night as well you know clear sky they offered us in they gave us like a wooden shack to sleep in there was four of us there was me lever max and susan and Gertrude um and my take was I woke up in the middle of the night after having a bad nightmare and I see max coming in the into the hut out of breath with a machete in hand and I asked him if he's all right and he was like yeah yeah and then he went back to sleep I went back to sleep his take on it he said he woke up in the middle of the night looked to his right me lever and susan were all convolting in our sleep um he looked to the door and the door was kind of like a wooden plank so there were slits in between and he said he saw a silhouette of someone stood outside and he wasn't too sure who it was he stood up he saw that we were still convolting and he shouted like hey oh he in malagasy and this thing outside of the door gave a little giggle started to walk away he grabbed his machete this is what he's translating to me uh walked out and then sprinted after this what he says is a witch sprints after and he's a fit guy he's a strong fit and fast guy sprinted after her and as soon as she entered the the jungle she just disappeared she just banished and he was searching for a shout in her and then he came back and said that you had all stopped convolting then and that's when you woke up ash and asked if I was okay I was like what come on that and I was like well why weren't you convolting then and he said because Gertrude was sleeping right next to me and witches and spirits are scared of chickens and so it sounded all bizarre and then anyway breakfast that morning the whole community gather and Lever and Max start sharing the story that happened last night and straight away the community of people start then sharing their own witch stories and they were acting as if it's fully normal they were acting as if it's a pesky wolf that comes by every now and then and I was just like looking at Suzanne because she's like half Belgian half Brazilian and we were just like oh my it was like blown but she was super scared she never stayed in the tent alone again after that because sometimes we'd stay in wooden shacks but if there was no locals we'd stay in the tent and she'd have her own tent she just she didn't that like really scared her and we didn't know what to think of that whether it was something which I you know I still don't I still don't believe obviously but it's a case of you know why have they got this tradition and it's been going on for thousands and thousands of years apparently I'm just like fuck knows so that's one story that I'm just like that's up to the audience I don't know what to think of it I don't know what he ran after that day I would shake myself as well don't yeah and we were in the that that that village wasn't supposed to be there it wasn't on the map it wasn't on GPS we were like what the fuck and we were in the middle the center of the island no one goes it's a big island fourth largest in the world two and a half times the size of the UK you know an 80 percent of plant life and wildlife found on the island is found nowhere else in the world which means it's one of the most unique countries in the world stunning and so diverse forever changing and it's scary that there's not very high percentage of people don't even leave the UK there's people don't even leave their own country their own street they're born in they're so institutionalized with their life around them and that's okay if people are happy but yeah when you see how big the world is in only a very small percentage it is explored what is the world's at 80 percent water yes yeah 75 80 percent yeah yeah and we know more about space than we do all under water yeah because Antarctica in that I'm thrilled I kind of always ask the questions you watch the videos unless I see it with more eyes then everything is a conspiracy like who do we believe how do we know if you read something and I read something how do we know you could take something totally different from what I take yeah this is what the world's all about I believe exploring when I do my whole walks in my cold water that's when I feel more alive my energy levels are higher and my creativity becomes more more clear more clear yeah the last few months I've just been eating shit feeling not feeling sorry for myself but just working hard and spending more time with family you kind of forget the important thing a leaf and yeah after yourself is pushing the boundaries and raising a bar yeah seem you completed Madagascar what was that feeling again immense yeah major I remember sort of getting to the finish line and you know there was no it was the cyclone season and so there was no pickup so we crossed the finish line we like whoo for the photos took a quick selfie we had to walk two days back on ourselves even after finishing 150 days so it was 157 really but but once I had you know sort of made it back and it was always a struggle because I always wanted to turn this into a career but I always struggled financially constantly and even Madagascar you know I don't mind talking about it now because I'm past that stage but I think even after Madagascar whilst I was doing it for the love and passion I was trying to turn it into a business into a career and I was remember filming for you know a UK channel or Nat Geo for Mongolia but failed and I failed to get a book out and then Madagascar again failed with that didn't get TV didn't get a book and so it was really hard so I was still living with my parents then at the age of 26 27 still trying to grind away and still staying dogged as well because I really really wanted it so I knew that the next move had to be big had to change everything and I was planning two journeys one was the Congo River which I do think I didn't do the Congo but I do think whoever does the Congo River walks it as a legitimate world first I think it will be the greatest expedition the past century the past hundred years what was that one how long the Congo River it's not as big as the Yangtze River that I did hike but it's it's suicidal you know right through the heart of the Congo central Africa it must be under just under 4 000 miles but you've got new diseases coming out there you've got the hippos all kinds of snakes and spiders cannibals still you know very remote tribal communities that'll fuck you up if they find you you would need security for that 100% maybe I'll do it one day I but I don't know I've got a girlfriend now as well it's been two and a half years things get different don't they where you don't want to risk your life as much then when the kids come as well bro then it's yeah that's it right and that's got to be the fuel as well to kick on and show and and and make them proud yeah that we're all going to fucking die like you says Ella look why go in straight and clean cut go in full of fucking scars maybe losing a round with a cannibal and being bitten by a hippo how good would they still be you're thrilled by your grand dad's stories it's sleeping on a howl a roof and pack a stand imagine you've got fucking three fingers left by getting bit by a hippo you're a legend right four thousand miles how does that them what is that is that a year to you what is that that was I thought they'd be over a year surely you mean for the Congo yeah if you were to plan that I think you would I think you would hope it would be a year but it would probably be two two to two and a half I think that's why legends are made though yeah that's why it's like somebody climbing Mount Everest for the first time it gets done every day now exactly people go out in an adventure and go let's climb Mount Everest it's not yeah with all the paths and all the training and what is it to climb Everest it's a 40 grand 50 grand what to oh yeah to climb it I think it probably is yeah and the rest probably yeah yeah and so that's never um I don't know that's never interested me because of that yeah because it's not unique no and yes it's still it's still hardcore and you still need the mindset and the physical sort of attributes but it's almost you can pay your way up there and I prefer doing the sort of things that haven't been done you know the things I like the guy is it nymphs yeah yeah would he do 14 peaks he did 14 peaks yeah this is the extraordinary things the Congo and that's when you stand alone yeah and become the best and the biggest in the world to do things that nobody else can exactly the same as the guy who done there was at the the one mile under four minutes nobody could complete it they said your heart would explode the guy done it and we found six weeks some day else done it and the people do it set the trend then don't you yeah it's mad that I know how something gets done one time it just then it's the belief system yeah as soon as you can believe it and there's cheeses and fucking it is now you can achieve it it's so fucking cringe now when I say that shit but but it's so true and so important for people to understand anything is possible yeah and I kind of hope that that's why Mongolia and Madagascar you really stood out and that's why they were so difficult because especially to plan because I couldn't find those people who had done it before and what I hope in the future is that people are doing speed records there you know I know that people do marathons like all over the world I know that there's a guy you know doing a marathon across Africa I hope that one day someone does you know runs that route or hikes that route and aims to do it quicker and that's the beauty you're getting at first you'll always like Edmund Hillary you can be you can climb Mount Everest and be the fastest but they'll never be first like he was you know so I kind of hope that I've sort of carved that path with these specific countries and then the future I see that people are actually saying speed records and so I was pretty much deciding out of the Congo and the Yangtze both brutes both very difficult to plan I think logistically China is more difficult I think physically Congo is more difficult and so when it came to the finance and how I was still stuck in the rush back now there's two world firsts no TV and I'm really struggling to yeah and it wasn't about that at the beginning you know because I wasn't on social media but it became about that because I realized that if I don't manage to make it here it'll either be back to lifeguarding or back to scuba diving in Thailand where I'd have to count the pennies to make sure I could get the boat to the next island to have a night out or a good time or whatnot you know and I just really needed really needed to make it within this career and it's very fucking difficult and you know you have got competition as much of a legend that he is Bear Grylls occupies all of the channels and so anything you pitch to any channel they're saying yeah but we've got Bear Grylls and can you imagine that's almost like a boxer trying to make it and then being like oh yeah but we've got you know Anthony Joshua it's like yeah but you've got Titan you've got Wilder you've got music you've got all of these other fighters you've given them a chance but it seems that with Bear it's just Bear and no one no one else is allowed to do any adventures or travels around the world for TV because we've got Bear and it was really frustrating so I thought this one has to be groundbreaking this has to be this sort of legacy and then out of those two the Congo and the Yangtze the Yangtze made more business and financial sense not only was I attracted by it because I went there at 19 you know I'd explored it and I realized fucking I've barely seen China after spending two weeks and scurrying along the coast because it's such a huge country I realized that there's a there's a river the Yangtze River the longest river in the world to run through a single country and the third biggest in the world it's there's like a hundred miles difference between I want to say a hundred like three four days hike difference between the Yangtze the Nile and the Amazon effectively and so I thought well the Amazon's been done the Nile was pretty much done the Yangtze hasn't been done yet so I partnered with Guinness Guinness Book of Records uh partnered with WWF we produced a documentary for National Geographic you know we were now on to big things um and then I set off but that was difficult two years in the making to plan that it's mad though because like we can say it's not about the money or the fame that is an illusion but when I first started doing the podcast it was three years deep we weren't making anything we're fucking scraping and scraping just to get shit done just to travel sometimes sleeping in the car we'd go to a place and it'd have to be maybe two free podcasts squeezed in a day so we've got more expenses and then you start reaping the rewards and start understanding okay because I love what I do and yeah but it's mentally draining of trying to survive feed the kids but when you've got a vision if you've got a dream then it's always worth it if you just keep pushing through and it's 99% of people quit 99% of people keep going I think it was if you work on your craft 18 minutes a day for a year you're 95% ahead of everybody else who's doing it wow did you feel that when you started okay I'm getting a bit of recognition does it ease sometimes I feel as if it takes the fun away from it though yeah when you start doing well when you start making money you start getting attention everything you think because that's not what it's not what it's about obviously we need to survive we needed to get to those things but I look back at the journey of the traveling driving tenors to get a guest and this will be a guest this will be the breaking one but it's never been a breaking one it's just all been the consistency of 400 guests to get to a certain level and look at you now and there's a bit of freedom towards it but you kind of forget that the journey of because when once you lose that then it just becomes not a habit but I don't yeah well it does fucking become a habit but there's something a little thing missing because when you start doing it it doesn't have that element of what if it doesn't work yeah because it's working yeah exactly so you kind of take it for granted eventually I guess don't you see when you start to get the recognition was it a bit easier for you to go okay those are open it's been worthwhile because you're putting your life through risk obviously you love what you're doing you're being proud of what you do your family will be proud obviously you'll put them through a lot of fucking torment yeah with the shit that you do but when you start doing it and it starts opening doors then you go okay it's working was there a realization that it was working when you done the third one yeah there was I think even that it was a lot easier to bring sponsors on board and it was a lot easier to be taken more serious because I've got two world records under my belt and despite people saying how impossible the Yankee was and even the locals sort of going against it and even the government saying it's just not it's simply not doable and they would point out reasons as to why I think now I had Mongolia and Madagascar and it was a case of like look this is what these people said about Mongolia and Madagascar I went on I achieved that it's down in the history books it's world first you can believe that I'm going to do this because I'm going to prepare for I'm going to train for I've got the track habits I've built up the experience and so it was easier to convince sponsors but it was still you know I think up to this point definitely it's in the thousands of rejections you know from TV from sponsors from magazines from all of that for sure but I think that also feeds the the hunger right it fuels the fight and I just remember just going at it fully and that geo didn't actually come on board till once I had finished the expedition and Guinness Book of Records didn't come on board until afterwards they were they were recording it they were documenting it I had to take like a vegan system and that would send off like a ping to the satellite every five minutes so it was five minutes 24 seven for 352 days that's how long it took me to to hike the Yangtze it was a year and so it took them about two and a half three months to to go through it and make sure it was legitimate make sure I didn't jump on the back end of a bicycle make sure I didn't use the flow of the the stream because that would be classed as cheating disqualified and if I did I'd have to walk back which I did sometimes to then you know walk back upstream to then walk to to to balance the distance out and so a lot didn't come on board until after the Yangtze and I remember it even being a struggle to to bring to get the expedition the green light everything was in place like I knew sort of the logistics the production team in Beijing all of that but they weren't working and I was like fuck how do I how do I get them to work and they kind of said yeah you know maybe plan it for next year that'll be safer that'll be easier so I actually took a big risk and I think you will need to do this in business and I'm sure you would have done something similar many times but I took a press release to the press I organized a big event in Canary Wharf invited all all sort of press members and I launched the expedition but at that point I didn't have the finances I didn't have the visa I didn't have the permits to get to the source of the Yangtze but I attached the different brands and the different names and the different logistics and the production team to that press release that now went viral was now with the BBC World News BBC channel 4 channel 5 news all of that and that it was a big risk my family and friends advised me against it they were like look don't don't do this and I was like look it's going to work it's going to work and they their brand name was now attached to it so they're like fuck okay right well and then they started to pick up then and we managed to get the green light but ah fuck it was it was difficult it was difficult I was given an honorary doctorate you know where I was made doctor for one year specifically so that I could get an ambassadorship role for the three sources national park in which I would have then been ambassador for the green development foundation which I needed to be to access the next national park in which I had to be all of those in order for the government to take me serious and the government provide sort of protection from the authorities and eventually the list went on and on but I had to carry I think it was 14 16 signed and stamped documents legal documents to say why I've got the satellites the satellite systems and the beacons with me and the satellite phone why I'm here on the border of Tibet why I'm here in this national park it was very sensitive when it came to China case to spy yeah yeah and I was being I was being watched for sure and I was taken in and interrogated five different occasions by the authorities up on the Tibetan plateau because you're now in Qinghai province but when the police see you there and they don't see any westerner there really um they will then drag you over to the border into Tibet and start questioning why you're in Tibet and you're like I'm not into that I'm in Qinghai and then I know the source of the Yangtze is into there and I'm like it's not the source of the Yangtze is in Qinghai but they've got different paperwork I've got different paperwork but luckily I've got the government to back me up and so because of the good planning and the good team and the amount that China really did have my back they were forced to to drop me back where they picked me up which was a rarity and wish me good luck on my journey you know and they were probably hating that but I really had myself covered what was it like when you completed the fud one massive mammoth that was um it towards the end we had over a hundred different people joining you know for the last few kilometers family friends family friends we had the brish consulate um joining we had the WWF um Nat Geo members and then just members of public in China because it was a lot bigger in China the reason it took 352 days is because I was also stopping at cities along the way because my book has been translated into Mandarin so I was doing book signings in different cities you know presentations marketing and running events where people could join and so it was yeah it was big in in China like all sorts of wacky stuff start I remember being called in by GQ and Adidas to launch you know Jetli to launch his um new co-branded clothing range with Adidas and Jackie Huang who's like a big star in in China so it really sort of blew up it went crazy for me out in out in China was that a sense of okay I'm doing it I'm not completed it but everything I put myself through the encomas the bites away from loved ones trying to succeed trying to make something of your life was that a moment we okay it's working yeah it was it was after it was definitely after the Yangtze because more opportunities opened up then and it was the one show it was all of this good stuff that would bring in more opportunities which would make it easier to obtain sponsors to continue to pursue my my passion and yeah it's mad though innit because if you never got if you've got sponsors the first time you may not have got as far as you were yeah because it's good to get the 2000 rejections and keep going people fear after the first rejection and never do it again it's true you learn a lot about yourself through through rejection and I'm all about that and I think that's partially one of the reasons why I wanted to travel in the first place was to face adversities to face difficulties to face scenarios to put myself in situations which might be embarrassing or dangerous but by doing that I'll be learning and I love learning that way rather than the typical sort of educational system which I think fails a lot of people and I think failed me I had to grow and develop myself through travels through adversity through facing rejection through learning through mistakes and trying never to make the same mistake twice never been dehydrated after the Gobi desert and I've never caught malaria again so that was the third one you've done three world rakers you had that book out at that point as well as actually yeah that was after Madagascar had a book um called mission possible how was it been an offer yeah it was uh it was good it was great to you know it's difficult for me to sit down with an editor and like I can get these stories out but I'm glad I did it because there's something there now but I wish I not I wish I would have held back but I kind of want to flesh it out because I feel that I skimmed over a lot of a lot of stories you know there was lots that happened in Mongolia even I was offered a wife in the middle of the Altai mountains there was just story after story that hey was she good looking was she unfortunately not be fucking shocked a couple of chickens couple of chicks so how did you end up getting offered a wife I was just in the middle of the Altai mountains I think I was two weeks in and I came across a sort of concrete hut this was big Altai mountain range in the distance and you know where there was locals they were always very hospitable um but in ways that they would provide you with food you know hot hot water and this was a Kazakh family and they invited me inside sipping on some Kazakh chai for work at 45 minutes you know eating some snacks it was cold it was windy outside and I remember thinking fuck okay it's been 45 minutes I need to crack on and as I went to tell the guy of the hut I just caught him looking at me very weirdly you know very strange and looking at his wife who was sat on the bed breastfeeding his child um and then looking back at me looking at his wife and I fucking right there right then in hand gestures he pointed at me he pointed his wife and he links us up and pointed the bed offering me his wife I was just like awkward for a few seconds I remember looking at him I didn't want to offend him by just like laughing and no show hey looking at him looking at her we're all just sort of awkwardly exchanging exchanging looks for a few moments and then I put on a fake laugh and you know he he didn't laugh straight away and then and then he laughed and I made a fucking swift exit she continued breastfeeding the child uh and I just remember walking thinking fucking how was that I'm really in this day and age was that wife offering right there out then or are they taking the piss out of me now I'm walking in the outside of my life I'm not that either we were serious who knows who knows oh so that was bizarre so I've got so many stories like this that um I want to revisit that book flesh it out and uh just do a new one or do a new one yeah because there hasn't been one on the angsty and that the angsty was wild stalked by by a pack of wolves for two days actively followed by a pack um would they wait for for you to die they were so it's funny because we came across locals who I had my videographer with me as well and they were stressing concerns who was they were trying to tell us something my friend was fluent in Mandarin but these spoke to that so we hadn't he didn't have a clue what they were saying but they kept pointing down the mountain they were doing wolf actions and stuff but we were like oh okay you know thank you bye but he filmed that and then anyway for the next two days we were followed by a pack of wolves we hid them howling there must have been four or five of them and they were in close proximity to us for two whole days they normally cover much much great distance then humans but they were just following close and we gathered that I think they're looking to see if we're limping looking for any weaknesses any signs of injury but we would eat away from the tent you know sometimes we would set up a fire to keep them at bay and then eventually they just drifted because there was two of us too um but then fast forward five six months and my Beijing team who went together the documentary got hold of the footage and one of them spoke to better within the production team and they called me up and they're like you had no fucking idea what he was saying I know obviously not and he was like he was saying write down that valley where you're about to walk there was a lady killed only yesterday by a pack of fucking wolves I was like no way whether it was the same pack or not I don't know but that's what they were trying to advise us against don't go down there so the wolves won't really it was a bit of a risk for them to to attack people but they do if they're hungry um but there were two of us we were probably bigger with the rucksacks as well and there was no signs of weakness seeing you go through these expeditions do you have to plan what sort of animals will be there if you get bitten if there's wolves there if there's fucking hippos snakes spiders do you need to know what bites are what what animals are what do you need to be on above and beyond the what what's coming up yeah 100 no you've got to and that's the that's a great thing I think a lot of people see these expeditions and see it sort of like foolhardy or dare devilish but the planning and the the sort of meticulous planning and attention to detail is is crazy so it took two years to plan the yangsi because not only logistics but because I I really needed to study the hurdles and the challenges and make sure I fully understood how I can navigate and how I can make it and it was the same with mongolia known and a soldier had failed three times and me not having any any military background whatsoever what can I do differently and so I don't think I would have done any of these expeditions if I wasn't somewhat 100 sure I could overcome all of the hurdles and obstacles so it takes a lot and I remember so with mongolia for example I remember so many people saying it's impossible and then I remember does that annoy you it didn't annoy me it didn't annoy me it scared me you know because I was I started to believe them and I started to think that I was you know sort of arrogant and naive flying into mongolia for the first time never even been to this country and I'm there planning to become the first person to walk solo and support across it I did feel that that it was almost ignorance to it but what I did I partnered with my logistics manager who was in London we went straight to the Royal Geographic Society we got the best maps we could find and I had to really break it down I was like look it's really getting to me which one of these days is impossible you know everyone's talking about it's going to be impossible but people have done much bigger better things obviously which day if I was to break it down into daily sections which is the day that I fail and it was so interesting because it's the first time I really sort of broke it down like that and we looked at every single day as much as we could like 20 kilometre days marathon days pretty much sometimes as well and we realized that every day was possible you know as long as I had water access to water and food yes there's going to be wolves which I'm prepared for I know what to do yes there's going to be blizzards which I've got you know the right kit yes I'm going to be fater minus 20 in the outside which I will prepare for that temperature and then 40 plus degrees in the desert which I will prepare for that all of the different sort of hurdles and obstacles other than invalid insurance and a pretty dodgy evacuation plan because like a budget we realize that every day is possible and I think people just need to do that I think that goes to anything that you're working towards your your your career your job university you know if you just break it down and manage your expectations so that you're not overwhelmed by the huge mass of it and that's what I had to do with the Yangtze 352 days and I remember trying to attempt to get to the source of the Yangtze river and I at this point it wasn't even day one it was four days to get to the start and we lost four members of the team due to altitude sickness um so they abandoned the trip or fear of wildlife or just the temperature four members and then I took my Tibetan guide who was there with me because right now we're at over 5100 meters which is over 15 000 feet similar height to Mount Everest Base Camp and so he was there to get me off the mountains in case I suffered with altitude sickness but he suffered with altitude sickness and that brought me off the mountains to make sure he was safe and so the first attempt at the Yangtze was a failed attempt and that does a crazy amount to your mindset realizing that you've not even made it to the source yet you've lost four members you've had to abandon the trip the first attempt was a failed attempt to get to day one and then I remember after 10 days of walking along the Yangtze once we finally got to the source we faced snow blizzards we had close encounters with bears bears scared the shit out of me out there there were wolves it was closing into winter season I had my UK team and my China team saying look abandon the trip and start again next year we've left it too long it's late in the season the locals are contacting the production team and just abandon it start again next year and now we had already lost another few members of the team and it was at that point I listened to my own experience you know like if it was Mongolian Madagascar would have probably listened to them and thought oh okay but I just knew we could make it through previous experience like yes we were pulled in at this point five times by the police yes we had sort of altitude sickness and all of this craziness happened to us but I needed to push on and I did I believed I could get off the mountains um before true winter season kicks in which was about minus 40 and I think the big issue there was the fact that the bears were now coming off the mountain peaks looking for calories before they go into Taupo which is their version of hibernation and there were attacks on the locals they were now going into communities and you know that was something that I feared a lot but I kind of made sure that I would be staying with the locals where I could send fires blowing whistles making myself aware to the bears that I'm dying nearby and I and I pushed on and if I stopped if I'd listened to them well the next year it was COVID so Mission Yangtze wouldn't have happened anyway you know it was still trying yeah I would yeah it would still be a plan and I would still be clawing it back now four years behind yeah yeah how much weight do you lose doing these things oh I think with the mongolia one for example because I was pulling the 18 stone trailer I lost must have been about 10 kilograms so you because you're already lean anyway yeah do you feel that there's just strain for anything go yeah it does majorly yeah I just remember just you know it would be it's like pulling two more almost two of me back then when I was at my skinniest on the trailer behind and just I remember like just bones so even the straps were rubbing in and digging in and like spots and rashes and grays are digging into my skin from pulling this trailer I had to get walking poles to help me because I'd lost the strength of my legs I mean I was dehydrated my lips were completely chapped I remember waking up in the morning and having to rip my lips apart because they had scabbed up and when I would drink or eat sort of ration packs that I had with me put hot water in there I drink from the the ration pack and as I put it down there'd be a slurp of pus and blood like a trail into the ration pack and I just faced a beating by the time I'd finished I looked especially halfway through I looked dead you know what's the one thing it's the hardest when you're doing one of these big expeditions and try to break a world record what's the hardest thing I think remembering why you started is the hardest that sort of goes in the face of different challenges that are life-threatening you know I remember I remember just suffering slowly slowly with with a disease that I contracted in Madagascar I had eaten eel that was pretty rotten but I was in a community that suffered from the bubonic plague which is crazy such an ancient disease and they gave me eel um and I remember eating that and then my anti-malarial pills were going in one way and out the other so I didn't really have much protection whatsoever and eventually I just started deteriorating deteriorating and I was only one month into a five month expedition um eventually it got so bad I realized I was walking four five days with a deadliest strain of malaria called falsiparum but I managed to just about make it to a community that had overland transport that took me to a nearby city um and then a doctor came out I just remember collapsing on the bed dizzy seeing people above me they were just spinning she took my blood and she came back and she said you've got falsiparum she says that if you were three hours later in getting here you would have slipped into a coma and potentially died and I remember she was helping to recover and I I like to use you know positive and negative the negative is I caught the deadliest strain which usually kills you within 24 hours um but with that it's the only strain that you can completely eradicate from out of your system the three lower strains can remain dormant in your system and anyway I recovered I lost again 10 kilograms so all of that training that I was doing back at home for this trip making sure I'm you know put a bit more muscle muscle it just went and I still had four months of the hardest section of Madagascar and that that did a lot that's when I really needed to to dig deep and remember my my why my reasons why I'm doing this I started to hate on everything I think the the medication turned me a little bit toxic there was at that point I just had this almost dark cloud above me I started hating on the locals hating on the country um it only lasted like for a few days it was whilst I was trying to recover um and that was a very dark sort of insidious phase that I went through uh but I did get over that eventually by you know by remaining dogged remembering why I set off to do this and you know I'm a man of my word I would have hated to have gone back and you know the the sort of thought of people tapping you on your back no you know you tried your best fuck that I am gonna get up I'm gonna finish this and I remember doing push-ups in my room still got malaria at this point but doing push-ups trying to eat as much as I could sit-ups everything in the hotel room because I couldn't go to hospital because I was infectious mosquito bites me and bites someone else they've got malaria too and so I could not leave the room again for eight days doing everything there with malaria to train to prepare myself and then I left and you know I was able to to crack on so completing that expedition and facing that that was that was up there with the Gobi desert stint where I really believed you know I was potentially going to die and had all of my parent my family and my friends on that on the phone saying what are you doing this isn't a cold it's not flu you know it's malaria get yourself back home and then try again you know when you're 100% but I knew that I was in the country where unfortunately they they deal with malaria all the time so the doctors there are very well prepared so I knew I was in safe hands and I really was so you've completed the third one you've broken other world records are getting the recognition you deserve what happens then so after that that kind of blew up it's um world news the world news bbc world news the one show Good Morning Britain I was then invited on to the Joe Rogan podcast the biggest platform on the planet yeah which was major and then I flew back home after that and literally a week later I not even a week I think it was the day or two days after I arrived back in the UK I received an email from a guy who said that he manages like Colby Bryant, LeBron James, Dwayne Johnson, Ronda Rousey, Kevin Costner and would like to manage me too I was like what what and so he flew me back out and it was all like very bizarre for me I was just like Jesus didn't expect this at all um and he becomes my manager for the next five six months partners me up with Propagate who film all of all of Bear Grylls' shows and we come up with a new concept and we film in Mammoth we're then pitching online to the president of National Geographic the vice president of Discovery Channel things were just going crazy I was like this is it it's set but um COVID hit and then Black Lives Matter hit and Nat Geo said look we love you we love the the take but you know you're white and we need that diversity mix um so that hit me after a good seven eight years working hard for that and then obviously that came which I obviously I get but it was it was it was so painful for me after three world records it was almost racist against myself you know so it's just like it it is what it is we managed to put things back up again after COVID and um I literally what January I just this year I just finished filming probably the biggest step of my adventuring career which was a six-time one-hour TV show following the entire length of the Great Wall of China which will air internationally on TV this year how long did that take to make four and a half months and we filmed 600 hours for six hours documentary which is crazy right and this was a different ballgame this wasn't it wasn't a mission it wasn't a world record but it was big and it was like lots of different it rather than hiking and surviving it was going back onto my roots you know which is sort of air activities sea activities so we were in helicopter we were scuba diving the Great Wall which I didn't know was a thing we were wrestling in a Mongolian wrestling in in a Mongolia um I was at the Shaolin temple as well training with the monks there it was just it was immense you know find out the history of the war as well as you know getting the local story on the war so a lot of people don't really know what I was doing on on the Great Wall not fully because I hadn't really been able to talk about it because you're still young how old is your 27 32 32 because you're not you started over I said young age 18 19 did you know yeah yeah 19 I started I sat down young as well you look fucking fresh I appreciate that yeah I can't believe you never got a job because you're white that was says against any other race in the world it'd be fucking massive yeah it would be it would be it but again I don't sort of shout about these things I guess I just have now still bad as well like it is no it's painful that was says against any other race it would be fucking shouting from the rooftops 100% it honestly it broke me I was just so angry especially because all the hard work and effort and now I was finally getting my time to speak with the big boys you know the president of Nat Geo vice president of discovery this was my time eight years in the making three world records have I done it have I broken through and they're like sorry you're straight you're you're white and mental yeah painful and I couldn't shout about it either because people will take it the wrong way you would end up being a racist I would be yeah and that's an environment where I mean we can't say what we feel without people getting upset and now we've got to just put up shut up yeah onto the next record but if we talk about yeah so after all that covid is over you're making waves again yes you're everywhere again yes on the james english podcast yeah exactly we can't get any bigger love it so what happens now then you're just waiting for the next one to come on tv yeah so it will take them a good we are almost there I do the voiceovers this month to the show where it will finally be sort of done they've they've gone through released this year released this year or early next year maybe you know how long these things yeah yeah it could be while I hope this year but you're right it could be early next year too um and you know so yeah is this your first tv show ever I did have the yang see on national geographic that was a two hour two part one hour documentary but that was only aired in what it was aired across Asia Africa and the Middle I never UK don't know because they're fucking from the UK no it's it's it's crazy because I've had such and again it's it's not like I deserve support because I know I don't you know it takes hard work you've got to earn that respect and whatnot but it's just frustrating how America and China have got my back so much and China really invited me wanted me to front this great wall documentary they could have picked anyone um and the UK it's just it's such a struggle I'm struggling with agencies with management in the UK no one wants anything to do with it right now but I do think if we secure a UK channel with this great wall it will then all change yeah so everything's happening big tv show first time in the UK yeah we hope we've not secured UK channel yet but we are pretty confident there was a there was a UK channel that came on board and they're a UK channel that I was working hard towards for years and years and they finally came on board we popped the champagne ball but then I think it was Liz trust who came in as prime minister and something had changed whereby they couldn't um work directly with government funded projects in China and that that dropped but I'm hoping they will come back on board again because they can't post at it they just can't get involved beforehand bear gross he's retired by was he not he's he's still going and you know we've had shows that we've pitched to amazon and whatnot but they're like no he's a golden boy aren't he yeah he's major yeah he's done it really right I respect to him yeah of course of course but that's the level you want to get to that's the guy you want to not even be but better than yeah he's killed it he's made these millions I thought I read something he was he was moving away and retiring oh maybe a couple of weeks ago he was just giving it all up could be I read it wrong I could be just totally talking bullshit but I did see somewhere it was fucking off and coming off the radar oh that would help me yeah because so as this mate you've got a misses in that now you want to provide you want to do a nice thing you want to eat good yeah you want to be fucking with those dying with malaria no exactly yeah I want to stop risking I still want them to be extreme and ambitious but I want the team that I want the evacuation plan I want the valid insurance you know a big fucking camera cruising yeah and it's not like what I do it's not a man and his mission you know with with mongolia I raised a certain amount of funds for the Red Cross and I was raising awareness for climate change and the effects it has on the nomadic way of life and then with um Madagascar I became because I promoted so well the island of Madagascar the minister invited me back and made me ambassador of tourism for the for the island of Madagascar and I was also partnered with the Lima network conservation and shining all the immense work that they do to help protect and preserve all the unique biodiversity of the island they got 60 on-ground teams working to help and then again with China I partnered with the WWF I was again I was providing water filtration bottles to communities that can't have fresh drinking water so I was providing presentations thousands upon thousands of bottles which allows them to drink fresh with a built-in filter providing work with the WWF with who is UNICEF as well along the way and so it's never I never like to look at it as one man and his adventures where I've done an adventure I'm always trying to give back whether that's um monetary value in raising funds or raising awareness because it's crazy when I learn what's going on and it is close to my heartstrings after seeing the world and traveling since 19 I've gone back to places that are now worse off than what they were plastic everywhere and being a scuba diver I see it all in the ocean and so you know that's something that I also portion and promote and try to help where I can do you see a lot of poverty in these third world countries I do a lot of pain a lot of suffering a lot of living a life it's one of those where there's two we can be too spoiled here yeah we've seen we've got everything we've got food we've got water we've got literally fucking food and water boys and whatever we can go down that route but yeah yeah I don't know so yeah it's just what I do know actually but that's for another story but you don't do you think we're too spoiled to them you're looking at the other countries they actually live in their lives just doing the normal thing providing for their family making meals working just to survive or is there a lot of struggle there a lot of unhappiness well it's funny it depends on the country that you're in but with Mongolia for example I remember once they had fed me up you know let me stay in there in their white felt tent their goo or their yurt I would offer them money at the end of it and they would almost look at me in disrespect like we don't need your your money you know look look around you we're rich in terms of life in terms of close knit community in terms of family I was just like wow that's so interesting how they just looked at the cash and just for a while we don't we we're the rich ones here you know because they're rich not in monetary value but in having like this land that they've got they've got all the freedom in the world to do what they want to go where they want they could go and horseback and ride a thousand miles still be in their own country see all the world wilderness the nature see the neighbors along the way you know and so it was interesting how people that I assume don't have much feel like they have it all and they're doing life the right way and they're happier than people over here who seem to have it all and seem to have it figured out but then south of Madagascar that's when this is where I saw so you've got like sort of a well on the beach which is slightly filtered salt water and the locals are just set up a um a shelter using natural resources so bamboo you know banana leaves all of that and that's their home and they've got like five kids there's a wife a husband and at 3 a.m. he wakes up he goes out fishing at 3 a.m. every morning he then walks like 10 15 miles to trade the fish that he call half of the fish for rice and then walks 10 to 15 miles back and feeds his family and that's it every day slightly filtered salt water not making money fishing trading on that barter level for rice and then coming back feed and day in day out yet they were again you can see their suffering you can see their teeth are falling out and you know they're probably in pain but they're smiling and they didn't really want much from you I don't know I don't know what that says but then you come back here and many people are happy but many people are also not happy you know is that down to the fact we have too many opportunities now is it down to the fact that we're told from a young age that you can do and be anything you want but then we're not guided on how to achieve it you know what is that what is that down to it's almost like too many options we've got so whereas they have one option they just wake up they need food and they need water and as long as their family's there that's it food and water sleep food and water sleep food and water you know but he is too many options and then we get bogged down and then we don't have the goal that we need to settle down and I think that sets a lot of people into into depression and you know I think Tyson Fury said it said it well didn't he is like once he achieved you know he was on top of the world heavyweight champion but then you know he wasn't training training for what he didn't have a goal what goals can he pursue now and he just went down that slippery slope didn't he you've got to have a lot of confusion here yeah you can go right back to the school and you can right back to as soon as you're born you're labeled you're given a name religion yeah and I've been saying this frequently we're given women are given buff wrong they're doing it lining up back under artificial light some kids are coming out drugged up with all the medication women are getting I don't know like you're you're from a young age it's all conditioned program yeah you break away from it and question it you think what is schooling about you're not going to talk about self love you're not going to talk about confidence you're not going to talk about money management you're not going to talk about grieving because we lose people sometimes people can lose a loved one and they go off the rails for for the eternity yeah forever lose a mother father brother they go they go they don't know how to handle grief no pain is the thing that makes the world go around just as much as love bad things going to happen it's how you do it it's how you kick on it's how you fucking go do you know what your prime example you've used the pain is fuel not wanting to quit I don't need to go home I've got malaria but you know what I'll push through that belief system people get cancer I'm dead I'm sure as fuck they'll die some people believe I want to fight that nothing happens in that internal belief system whether that's the brain the conditioning the neural pathways whatever it is you tell yourself sometimes people actually listen to a doctor and he says people get cancer and they don't even know but because they're keep active that it just goes away itself whoa eh Jody Spencer who always touch on car crash broke his spine Laney's bed for six weeks straight kept visualizing his spine getting fixed all clicked back together guys I'm motivational speaker so with the mindset mind power the power of the mind and it will only use what eight percent ten percent the same we're so done down with the pine yield gland in the middle of the brain and how we can activate that to fucking feel different things and there's a lot of shit you can get into it I'm not I'm not a hundred percent sure on everything I just know how to push through the pain and when you push through those dark clouds the daylight does come the sunrise does appear and and that's the beautiful thing yeah everything that you've achieved everything you've done you've got a tv show coming out when are you're happiest um when am I at my happiest I think in general I'm I'm quite a happy guy anyway you know I I'm one of those where I enjoy the extremes as much as I enjoy the luxury you know I think when people think of what I do they probably think that I'm sort of always extreme but no you know I like the luxury I like my comforts as well um I like going out I like being in the city as much as I like being in the wild I think for me it's having the balance and that's when I'm at my happiest I think if I have too much of one thing it starts getting to me and if I'm too in the city for too long or I haven't you know pushed myself or tested myself or I'm not training as well I'll start getting a little bit ratty a bit on edge a bit fidgety a bit like right I need to plan the next thing you know I need to escape and like go out into the wilderness and you know and I don't need to do a big expedition for that it could be just a getaway it could just be a hike or it could be something fun and an adrenaline thing or like a fight or training to fight or whatnot you know did you used to fight before you went to Thailand I was a boxer in Wales so I was boxing in Wales um and then in Thailand that's when I got into into Muay Thai and just realised it was totally different they just kept jacking up my legs Muay Thai is a different breed other than Muay Thai and Glasgow in the grip house yeah did you a guy called Sean right on absolute beastie wasn't it I think it was the contender back then okay yeah Muay Thai fighters but he broke his shin but what a fighter this kid is and he he went to Thailand opened his own gym the thing about the grip house you would never see think of these guys as fighters right you would see them in the pub of the street and think I could fucking take him yeah these guys are killers yeah proper fucking killers they are and they're training everything the extreme shit it's like a fucking mental thing you've got to be mental disturbed to be a fighter I don't have to fuck with anybody they say there's got to be a screw loose getting fighting getting spar there's got to be because I remember training for my fighting this bar and I was scared I still get scared sparring but there's an element of excitement as well yeah and after that you feel like a man yeah there's something to say I'm not made a glass I can't get hit I can't throw a punch and I believe everybody should do some sort of combat I think so especially boys because a lot of men are becoming sensitive and weak and fucking soft now and I believe there's got to be an element of combat and learning it you don't need to go about fighting everybody but there's something in that training and pushing yourself because we're warriors we're we're fucking animals yeah we're forgetting that yeah we're all becoming so fucking sensitive and soft and you can't say certain things at many stages I don't give a fuck yeah it's the most primal form isn't it I think one-on-one sort of combat and you're right I think we all need to I'm actually putting a video out this week on self-defense and how learning it has saved me and others and certain scenarios have been attacked many times as you could probably guess you know my my adventures in fact not even on my adventures just a guy in Amsterdam this year how he he went to attack me and my girlfriend and he had a pen tried stabbing and I just again reenacted chokehold against the pole and all the kids and and adults got to escape that carriage until people then dragged him off and kicked him out why he I remember I was just walking with my girlfriend onto the platform and he was a bit of a lunatic I don't know if he had mental health issues or if he was drunk or on drugs but I just remember him walking towards me saying I'm gonna fucking punch you in the face I was just like whoa and so of course you know I stood my ground then we just back and forth and then I anyway we left it I realized oh my god I can smell whiskey or something I got on the train and as I got onto the train I saw him enter the same train in which that point I should have just like got off the train because I should have known what was going to come next but I didn't I got on the train I sat down and I'm in the carriage there's a there's a guy there's you know a husband and wife with their kids I'm sat down and next thing I look up and there's this guy breathing heavily looking at me watering his eyes eyes wide open and with a pen in his hand and he's just like grip tight and then I just act it straight away you know grab his hand um disarmed him of the of the pen I shouted he's got a knife so that people will clear the carriage gave him a few kidney digs put him up against the the the center pole in the middle of the the train um and I just remember holding him there thinking I've just even got to choke him out now or just hold him here until the next train stop um and you know if I I do think that if it wasn't for the previous training or knowing how to act you know sometimes once once you've fought or sparked quite a lot eventually adrenaline doesn't kick in as much as it used to kick in more karma yeah so I was able to act you know calm I was cool I was collected you know it was just steps that I did um to hold him in place making sure he wasn't harming me my girlfriend anyone else on the on the train and eventually you know no one was was harmed because of it but it's happened time and time again I'm mad you threw fucking all the expeditions you've done malaria fucking yeah nearly dying comas and then you go to Amsterdam for a weekend with your missus to enjoy life and then your life's more at risk yeah crazy and that was my that was my second day in Amsterdam I'd make you question it then I think you're doing the right thing by getting away with the madness because you never know who you come across and you know life's too short yeah there's mad bastards everywhere male and female yeah especially in cities everybody's like I said they're everybody's confused why people are just full of anger and hate it's not that they're bad people it's because they don't know what's making them feel like that yeah because they're stuck in a little fucking mouse wheel just round and round and round and not achieving fuck yeah restless not not not sure what to do with life you know yeah it's uh and yeah you're right it's it's crazy I remember coming back home when I was 20 after traveling came back home temporarily went out on a night out and one of my friends was just attacked um by this guy and I broke it up you know settled in and then walked this guy off we were all drunk next minute this guy hides around the bush and then he runs up from behind me boom just clean knockout smash my head against the pavement it's uh and I just traveled then I'd done the boomies hill tribe I had done all sorts across Southeast Asia broke down in the outback bushes of Australia you know where I had to hitch hike for a number of days you know crazy things and then that happens in my hometown in Klang Didno at the local nightclub I'm just like fucking hell when people say oh it's dangerous when you travel for dangerous wherever you go there's dangerous people everywhere there's psychopaths everywhere and the same happened in in Madagascar where I was attacked by two Malagasy locals but I remember it threw me back to the night out where I turned my back now I never turn my back and I handled myself against two Malagasy I'm sorted them out and then security God came out when I say secure he was secure for the hotel because in Antananarivo the capital of Madagascar is pretty dangerous and this was over money for a taxi they wouldn't let me out so I got out I threw the 50 no on the on the taxi seat which is what they had agreed but now they changed it to 500 because there was two of them and but I knew more tie-by then so it was like a straight right and the other one received a roundhouse kick right to the you know it connected well um and but the security came out and he told me he said take a walk around the block by the time you come back they'll be gone just like well okay so I took a walk around the block and and they were gone and I was thinking who owned that hotel must have been mafia must have been there and that secure God had to have said something like you're fucking at the wrong part of town here this hotel belongs to blah blah and they were gone because I was worried maybe they'll try to come back because now they know where I'm staying but they didn't so I was like you know you don't know who owns that hotel you know but again it goes back to what you were saying I think it's vital to learn self-defense to know how to handle yourself why wouldn't you want to know how to handle yourself either you know I think more and more younger lads need to do it if I had it my way I would at the age of 16 17 schools they should have an initiation test where they're dropped in the middle of the desert or the jungle they're going to be safe they're going to be fine you know they're supported but I I just think it broadens your horizon it opens your mind and then they'll come back and they won't complain to the fact they have to walk one mile to school or the fact that their mom didn't do the washing today and they're doing it tomorrow instead you know because when they're out there and they're left to their own devices they're effectively self-sufficient and then they come back to civilization they realize just how good and comfortable we've got it and we complain over the little things that are super convenient yet we still find a way to shout and moan about it absolutely what about plans for the future Ash which the where do you take things um I think as soon as this great war show goes live I want to take different ideas I've got some great ideas a couple of them are world first others are just great tv format concepts that I think we'll do you know very well globally and I want to sit down with a few different channels a few different commissioners and and run these ideas past them because you know I'm not I'm not done yet I feel like I'm still getting started are you back in your prime yeah you understand that you understand the preparation you understand how to survive you understand what it takes to break records you understand that you understand the patterns everything's patterns everything moves yeah chess game so it's true it's just about doing that fucking what is it the one you wanted to do the Congo yeah I guess if discovery will not geocame and they were like look here's you budget to do that maybe I would uh yeah maybe I would yeah I believe you would you've got to be high you've got to keep leaving a legacy but people go fucking hell he's done it I want to be the bear girl she's done it listen to smash that yeah it's time for new fucking blood to come through and show we can be done bro yes right would you think looking back at your short lived life so far mate that you've fucking everything you've achieved yeah it's it's pretty crazy you're lucky to be alive you know lucky to have survived that's a lot of near deaths um but I've learned from every every one of them and I you know maybe some of it's luck but I do thank the preparation as well the preparation is key mentally physically just understanding um but yeah it is it is crazy sometimes the stories that I tell it's just like it didn't like it happened to someone else you know mm-hmm so your social media is working people buy your book yeah social media I'm on all of all of the platforms and it's just ash dykes um and then my book mission possible is on amazon listen mate for coming on today and telling your story for as you enjoyed that you've got a great story teller appreciate that massive things make proud of you and I look forward to seeing what you do for the future mate appreciate that James thanks for having me to finish up on anything um just I hope people enjoy the podcast and you know all of these stories that I tell um I if they can find a way to relate that to their everyday life that's that's my main aim is that they can take little nuggets from what I've learned in the extremes and apply it to to their everyday life for anybody that's maybe watching us it's maybe an a struggle in life right now what advice would you have for them I would say keep going you know I always use this method when I'm on an expedition I always tell myself that the storm hasn't come to stay it's come to pass and that you must be stronger than the storm and you'll see better days appreciate that James thanks for having me