Step Green

Recently I went to London to look at a mountaineer photographers work from about a 100 years ago. His name was Vittorio Sella. Just to give you an idea of his character he attempted to climb down the Matterhorn at the age of 76, the trip was only abandoned because one of the guides broke his leg.

His work was beautiful but the collection on view at the Estorick gallery was limited. I would have been disappointed if I had spent more on my travel arrangements for the day. His finest photograph in my opinion is the Matterhorn. It is almost symbolic, a dark looming object of unimaginable proportions. At seeing this picture I decided I will travel there one day.

I found although I had a good time and it was a good learning experience, I would personally prefer to be the person out there taking the pictures looking upon these beautiful landscapes with my own two eyes.

As my visit to the gallery was shorter than expected I used the opportunity to look for some photographic shops. Although unsuccessful in finding an open shop I found an outdoors shop. I now own a brilliant pair of hiking trousers suitable for my longer expeditions.

In this spare time I visited the natural history museum. History being the ideal work for it as everything was dead in there. There were many bones from endangered and extinct animals. Upon seeing several stuffed big cats and the bones of several whales my heart started to feel saddened. These animals were probably killed for the sheer entertainment of screaming children and adults alike. I decided to leave at that point before I became even more disheartened.

Soon after this I left London on the bus, after waiting around for an hour for the driver to fix a flat battery. Thanks to a lovely Lithuanian girl the time seemed to fly by. She taught me some Lithuanian in that short time as well.

Viso Gero for now my friend…

Recently I emailed Jason Lewis regarding my expedition with some questions and he was kind enough to take the time to reply to my questions.  Here is what I asked him.

What kept you motivated whilst you were traveling such extreme distances?
When there was very little change in surroundings, like on the Atlantic ocean leg, we set little mini-targets in the tangible future to motivate ourselves towards. These ‘psychological carrot’s, as we called them, might be a cup of tea and a chocolate at the end of a two hour pedal shift, or a nip of Scotch every five degree line of longitude we crossed, and helped to break up the massive distance to Miami. A target 4,000 miles away, where not much changes in between, is a hard one to stay focused on.

What is the most useful piece of kit you had when you were traveling?
Probably a small bottle of iodine, for purifying water in developing countries. And a head torch.

What should I bear in mind when walking long distances?
I never walked very far with Expedition 360 - nothing like what you’re taking on. But assuming the principle for any human powered locomotion is the same (slow and monotonous), I’d have thought that breaking the journey down into smaller chunks, or stages, will be important, so as not to get disillusioned by the seeming lack of progress on a day to day basis. And the key to success will be connected to how adaptable you are to unforeseen circumstances; how ready you are to change plans and go in a completely different direction (metaphorically speaking) if need be. Preconceptions can be dangerous.

How are you earning a living now you are back from your traveling?
Being creative. Trying to write a book living as cheaply as possible.

What is it like to settle back down after traveling for so long?
Very hard. One of the problems about removing oneself for so many years from any one cultural base is the concept of ‘home’ becomes blurry. I don’t know where home is anymore. I have friends all over, but not in one physical location. I think everyone has a need for an anchor line to local community, and although family still live in the UK, I can’t really say that the UK feels local anymore. So I’m still working on that one.

I for one am looking forward to what he releases when he has finished writing it.   I hope you will check him out as well.  His website is www.expedition360.com

Whilst on the theme of inspirational figures I would like to share with you Jason Lewis.  In 2007 he completed the first ever human powered circumnavigation of the earth, he used bicycles, in-line skates, kayaks, swimming, rowing, walking and a pedal boat to travel over 45,000 miles.  This is truly an astonishing feat.  I hope that I can have the pleasure of meeting him some day.

If you want to find out more about his project then you can visit:

www.expedition360.com

This guy has to be a real idol to me.  He is currently trekking along the Amazon river, from source to mouth.  Which I cannot describe to you how impossibly hard it must be.  Its truly incredible! If you haven’t heard of it then go on his website and support him anyway you can!

www.walkingtheamazon.com

I must try and meet him when he gets back and personally thank him for lighting a fire under my arse to get me started on my longer distance walking project.

This is the brand new Step Green website, here you can keep track of all of the projects the team are working on at the moment.  Specifically on the Step Green walking project which is being worked on by myself (Tim Earl).