Round-the-world adventurer reaches Singapore
John Aglionby in Singapore
Friday November 18, 2005
The Guardian
A Dorset adventurer seeking to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe solely under human power yesterday completed the latest leg of his adventure when he paddled into Singapore in a sea kayak.
Jason Lewis, 38, from Askerswell, arrived 24 hours later than intended after Indonesian immigration authorities delayed him so much he missed Wednesday's tide and ended up stranded overnight on a tiny island in a storm, with no supplies apart from a can of beer. "I found it in the back of the boat and it was my best friend last night as I stood under a bush getting very wet," he told the Guardian.
But the holdup is unlikely to have an impact since Lewis is already almost a decade behind his original schedule of 2½ years for the whole adventure, which is called Expedition 360. "Sometimes I think I'm completely deluding myself as I see my friends in the UK with their 'normal' lives," he said. "But I'm determined to see it through now."
"It" has been cycling, walking and inline skating across land, pedalling a specially designed boat across the Atlantic and Pacific, and kayaking through the Indonesian archipelago. He is now more than two-thirds of the way round the world.
After surviving a crocodile attack in Australia, the former musician said the hardest part of the Indonesian leg was neither being mugged in Sumatra nor navigating red tape, but coping with a lack of privacy. "Wherever we went there must have 50 to 60 people there and you realise privacy is a privilege. Even when you were trying to have a crap under a bush there would be five or six people going 'hello mister'. I did find it very wearing."
Keeping him motivated after 11 years of travelling is the educational aspect of the trip. This involves some 1,200 schools around the world, 10% of which are in the UK. "We're targeting nine- to 13-year-olds because that's the age where they're most excited about expeditions," he said of the programme, which includes video lessons and promoting cultural exchanges.
But for the next six months, the monsoon season and a lack of money have halted his progress. "I'm basically skint so I've got to do some work to get the money together for the next leg," he said, referring to his plan to cycle India. Sponsorship means he has £4,000 saved but he reckons he needs 10 times that to fund the return to Britain.
http://travel.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,7445,1645377,00.html