MARCH 2nd, 2010
HANDSHAKE, EYE CONTACT, PAT ON THE BACK, PUNCH TO THE ARM...
In 5 weeks, it’s farewell, as I depart for Mongolia (as if you didn’t know). I may be out of contact of broadband, mobile phone and even landlines for a tad of the time but that will not prevent me from overloading Molly Brown with cables, solar chargers, memory cards and connectors, however, and I thought I might, by way of valediction, give you an inventory of what I actually have and what I actually require to remain in touch with my M2010X fan club and those that may wish to drop by, out of curiosity, as this particular dork walks across the vast landscape.

First of all, I have a SPOT Satellite Tracker - come - Messenger type orange thingy and should all else go on the blink, at least I can push a button and transmit confirmation of my position and I will make sure that there’s at least one blotch, every 24 hours, on the expedition map.
The expedition finances are limited and the many promises and offers of help to set me up with communication gadgets in one way or another where just a mush of hot air.

Last year I did have one offer of the very latest mobile phone with state of the art applications that could hook me up with Venus if I felt it necessary. There was a handshake, good eye contact, a friendly pat on the back, gentleman’s playful punch to the arm, even a welcome drink, and at a time when I believed words from any individual in the suit and tie brigade, for a well known communications company. I was new to the game, vulnerable and pleased beyond words for the offer. I waited. And waited. And waited. One year later, I still haven’t received the phone and rather disappointedly the person in question forgot about me, the expedition, the promise and the gentleman’s handshake, punch to the upper arm and managed, after a year, to write a short email explaining he couldn’t or wouldn’t help. It took one year for that! And that’s how it’s been. One minute of shaking hands and bruised arms makes for weeks and months and almost – years of waiting.
That’s the promise: a big business bargain I guess. I say it’s better to say nothing than to string someone along.

So where does that leave me now?
I still need support with juicy gadgets but I’m wiser now and too knackered to gripe about it.

I’ll take my low-priced MP3 type player at DKK. 99, with just 30 songs to alleviate a few hours of stillness and painful agony complimented with a shoddy pair of headphones that ting and hiss rather than tweet and woof in my lugholes. There’s no iPod clickwheel and anodised metal finish with new-style accelerometer. No shaking, shuffling through the songs, turning it sideways to watch music and flicking through album covers. It’s just a square thingy with a few black stop and start buttons.
I’ll also take my existing mobile phone. With any luck I may be able to hook up - somewhere on route – and dispatch a few lines to home base. My old Nokia without which, I’m pretty much an empty vessel these days, is still ticking but I will bring along a collection of sim cards and purchase a few Mongolian sim cards, in case there’s a signal in the middle of nowhere.

So…Can you help?

In an ideal world, I’d like a satellite phone with solar panels and a small, lightweight notebook – come – laptop for typing up the journal and updating the blog, website and gallery as well as connect to schools, students, facebook, twitter and the hundreds of other applications.

For photography I shall take my petite Olympus 840. Just one digital camera for the entire expedition as that’s all I have! No video camera as I’m still waiting on a promise but I did find a rather decent tripod in the local second hand store that will do adequately. I would like to take two digital cameras and maybe two video cameras but maybe I’m asking too much? I have the small solar chargers but nothing to charge. Ironic!

Thank you for reading my blog over the past few months. I ask for forgiveness for errors and inconsistencies and typographical errors but I’m too much of a militant to be pure about it. I like to bang away at the keyboard before the thought ebbs away.

Fear not...
Regardless, the expedition is on and if Scott, Shackleton, Slocum, Peary, Nansen and my Mum and Dad got buy without an iPod or satellite phone – then so can I.

By the time I get back, who knows what goodies and innovations will await me but then it will be to late!

FEBRUARY 16th, 2010
SCOLDED!
I know, I know. All this in preparation for a calculated tour d’horizon of the terrain that lies before me, stretching into the bleak dusty distance, somewhere out there is a land that will tremble at the sound of my footsteps.

A dramatic starting sentence but I think it fits like a spandex glove on a swollen hand.

An anonymous individual, who said it is impossible to get a 90-day visa for Mongolia as they only dish out 30 day ones, scolded me abruptly. I could get a 60-day visa if I was lucky. A cold letter from a person, that didn’t give his full name or actual email address.
I politely thanked him for his input and accidentally, on purpose deleted his mail and got on with my life without further thought.

I enjoy to challenge the impossible and as I do not possess antlers, horns or tusks, display fans of feather or manes of fur, the best I can do is show my sweaty bald head, tired eyes and evident wrinkles around edges and express my right to try, to struggle, to strive through the choices, right or wrong, I make in my life: and no life, here in the early part of the twenty-first century, speaks quite so loudly as the plans to make a choice and follow it through.

When I entertained the thoughts of applying for the VISA I would need for a 90-day stint in the dirt and sand, I crackled like a sexually heated adolescent whose thigh had accidentally touched in the backseat of the school bus.

My visa is approved for 90 days and is on it’s way here as I speak, I am thinking about the past expeditions that I have done and how on earth I managed to navigate my way through the endless maze of red tape, gobble-de-gook, thingy-ma-jigs and what-nots.

If the gentleman, I am assuming he is a he, is reading this, I would like to say that nothing is impossible. I believe that everything is possible!

FEBRUARY 9th, 2010
COMMITTED
"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth that ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."

JANUARY 19th, 2010
MOTIVATION
“Men wanted for Hazardous Journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success."

That was Ernest Shackleton’s advertisement, which was placed in a London newspaper in 1913, ahead of his Antarctic expedition aboard the Endurance.

Now, I know this expedition will demand my best effort and I entertain no illusions. There will be countless days rubbing shoulders with the cold, with pain, loneliness and despair that will test my commitment to succeed.
During these times, I believe my motivation will keep me going. That internal condition that activates behavior and gives direction; and energizes and directs goal-oriented behaviour.

DECEMBER 19th, 2009
How difficult it is to know where to begin. Anyone who has had the time or disposition to plan an expedition worthy of the finest effort will be aware of a number of issues that need addressing. It’s a complex roller coaster with more downward moments than upward ones.

Remember as kids we were all explorers and adventurers? We didn’t need anything except our imagination, a few cheese and pickle sandwiches (essential survival food), a Mars bar and a packet of the finest salt and vinegar crisps backed up with a tin of pop. Dressed in your wellies, green parker and blue jeans you explored the very depths of your local woodland and stayed hunkered in the darkness until your old man shouted, “dinners ready!”
It was simple and required no planning unless you were out of cheese and pickle.

I stumbled into 2009 with a thud and the expedition clock was displaying hundreds of days until the metal would meet the meat. The website was launched, and the first sponsor – Visit Mongolia – was confirmed. I was elated and slowly the plan moved forward.

I can dream. Premature I know but I imagined being assembled together in the very lecture theatre where Henry Morton Stanley once enlightened a flabbergasted world of his historic meeting with Dr. Livingstone. Charles Darwin was a member and gave a chat or two, maybe over tea and chocolate biscuits, in this same hall. Shackleton and Hillary maybe flaunted their intimate frostbite scars to a spellbound RGS audience. Explorers, adventurers and navigators have been doing their bit for the best part of 180 years to tell of their discoveries.

If only at school, my geography teacher, surely the strangest, smelliest and rather eccentric and poorly dressed middle aged woman with a beard, if only she had concentrated less on rift valleys, trig points and the major exports of Indonesia and more on the fact that Geography could promise a classy royal society with the sexiest lecture theatre in the land – if only she had done that, then maybe a future pubescent young lad with a slight hair problem would be less routinely scornful of geography teachers as a class and geography itself as a discipline, which is one I rather unfashionably enjoyed when I was young.
Don’t ask me why. Actually, now that I think of it, one reason for me to be fond of the subject was the circumstance that in my school geography room there were piles and piles of shiny yellow National Geographic Magazines available for skimming through. The walls were covered in maps and the bookshelf, right over by the window, displayed books about Robert Falcon Scott, Joshua Slocum, Ernest Shackleton, the odd Jack London and the great Charles Darwin. I kneel before them all.

I want to point you in the general direction of Shackleton. With a clean finger of course. His words and epic story of survival, unquestionable leadership and top-notch seamanship kept me quiet throughout many episodes of Knight rider, Dallas and Baywatch and blustery winter nights, with the whisky bottle.

The precise, calculated maze of planning and survival in all its magnificence was a great influence on me, for where others had rock and roll music, Cadbury’s cream eggs, fluffy white slippers and toilet seats lined with cheap fleece material; I had Shackleton, complimented with grandpa’s old cough syrup called Johnnie Walker or anything over 40% proof.

Enough of the idle chitchat. Get on with it lad. I merely wanted to warn you of an impending expedition that will inspire youth and even those well past the pubescent stages - tenfold.
As we drop and tumble into 2010 we are within spitting distance of the pending Mongolia 2010 Expedition.
I am excited more than you know. My physical and mental conditions are primed and now I intend to finely tune them even more.

NOVEMBER 27th, 2009
I, Ripley Davenport – who by chance came through an 82 day walk, within an inch of my life in The Namib Desert after my epic solo traverse – is realizing another dream, as my next expedition to Mongolia draws ever closer.

During my 12 special weeks as I walk solo across this vast landscape, I will be engaging in what I call an “grueling, invigorating and frustrating” journey. One worthy of the finest effort.

I admit, I entertain no illusions. It’s going to be a tough nut to crack. I’m looking forward to the icy cold weather, sand storms, isolation, drastic temperature fluctuations, spine breaking winds, the wilds of a country that will test my physical and mental abilities to it’s limits. I will spend so much of the time walking, hauling, sleeping and eating complimented with puffing, panting, screaming, sweating and straining. But it’s a sacrifice I’m prepared to share some incredible moments – stirring, almost unbearable, excitement, sheer, unadulterated agony. One of the great challenges of my life. At least up to now. It’s not going to get any easier.

"The greater the suffering, the greater the pleasure. That is nature’s payback to riders for the homage they pay her by suffering. Velvet pillows, safari parks, sunglasses; people have become woolly mice. They still have bodies that can walk for five days and four nights through a desert of snow, without food, but they accept praise for having taken a one-hour bicycle ride. ‘Good for you’. Instead of expressing their gratitude for the rain by getting wet, people walk around with umbrellas. Nature is an old lady with few friends these days, and those who wish to make use of her charms, she rewards passionately.” - Tim Krabbé, 1978.

I am honoured to have the cheer of people, some that I have never met, which are supportive and remain passionate about my expedition and the cause. I am also delighted that within 12 hours of launching a Mongolia 2010 Expedition facebook group, 58 people joined. It means a lot to me.

I have less than 5 months to go.

OCTOBER 29th, 2009
With less than six months to go until the first steps are taken my concentration has shifted towards the custom made trailer. Understandably there have been repetitive troubles concerning the design and fabrication of such a contraption. Trailer? It’s not as straightforward as it appears.

By consulting and drinking endless coffee with several engineers, welders and other adventurers that have designed and fabricated trailers for expedition use I have managed to select a depiction and design for the trailer commendable enough of supporting my complete life for up to 3 months. The picture has been in my head for months but the lack of technical knowledge has limited my ability to scribble it on paper. But finally, the trailer has a blueprint and she is being moulded into solid reality and beginning to take her form.

Using an established, respected age-old custom from the Royal Navy the trailer is a “She”.
She will be refined, robust, loyal and above all – a source of security. I’ll fit her with the finest wheels, tires, aluminium and other top quality components and made sound and true.

Her Hubs are Custom made, specialized cassette, 36 hole, and anodised sealed cartridge bearings with a solid 14mm axle. Her spokes are14-gauge stainless steel rods with brass nipples - yes - I said nipples.
Her rims are black, 36H high-grade aluminium and I spared no expense. Strength was paramount. Her tires are specialized Greentyre puncture proof 20’ 20 X 2.2125, 700g Blizzard style in green, non carcinogenic, CFC free and they release no harmful toxins to the atmosphere.

She’s a beauty. Worthy of a good man!

OCTOBER 13th, 2009
Firstly. A big thank you to all of you for your kind words that accompanied the posting of the last blog - my blog, or blogicus as I quite horribly prefer to describe it. I thank you all for your comments. It seems you enjoy reading my words and they dribble from my mind.

This blogicus, while entirely different in other respects, as I don’t allow user comments, is also strangely and unforgivably long-winded. Sorry about that, I don’t seem to be able to keep things brief. So my suggestion is that you read it in bits. Or print it out and save it for a rainy day or moment when a natural bodily motion is due.

I am trying but rather unsuccessfully to churn out a more accepted ‘dear diary’ approach down to the nitty-gritty if that’s what you would prefer, but I advise you to be on your guard, perched high on your toes and expect an assortment of the long, the short, the terribly wobbly.
To many blogs and stories seem to blend into a dollop of words.

I have been preoccupied with searching for a title sponsor. This business of searching for sponsors, I should explain, is a very time consuming duty. Sponsorship is sponsorship and really something that we all like in order to live our dreams and awe-inspiring ideas.
There’s a down side about searching for sponsors. It’s no rocket science but I’ll enlighten you with my philosophy.

Waiting. I have become a waiting professional. I have a Wait-ology. Can I use the term Waiter? When you do find out that “You have mail”, it’s more than likely nothing at all to do with sponsors but more of a letter to inform you that you have inherited a seven figured number from a long lost cousin that worked for a large Nigerian bank who died in an fateful air crash involving a flock of birds, some assorted roasted peanuts and a rabbit somewhere over the Congo.

The word “sponsorship” opened my eyes and now the very word is so firmly branded on my memory that I have no need to look up what it actually means. When I was beginning this torrid affair with Mongolia, practically three years ago, I was incapable of delivering those emails with explosive opening lines without giggling.

I remember having sat, hunkered, over a laptop well into the silly stupid hours trying to figure out a way through this endless maze of letter writing.
It’s a chemical thing, like a kind of (mostly) benign allergy, impossible to explain or predict. There’s no exact right way and from what I can conclude there is an abundance of wrong ways. So much so that the opening words are a kind of chant or oath, to draw attention away from the dawning question, which for me sometimes disappears into oblivion.

For the duration of much of what follows it might be a good idea if you cast yourself as a person with a solitary function of selecting a person/s worthy enough of sponsorship. Much of the sponsorship successes in life come from writing to a human being that is extremely talented and overloaded with vision to be able to step into someone else’s shoes.

Whatever the profession of the letter writer or sponsor searcher: a dictator, a burger-flipper, a sausage expert (that’s right they have them in Denmark), a toilet consultant, a road kill collector, regardless of degree, status or esteem, it’s all down to the person at the other end reading your sponsorship letter and his or her imagination.

You need to penetrate the consciousness and their experience of selecting people best suited to their brand and image. It’s perhaps the crucial attribute of the adventurer, sportsman, explorer, or burger-flipper.
So, rather than look at sponsorship from the outside, which we can all do (nobody is born with a North Face logo sewn on their baby blanket) I try to look at the following task, to look for sponsorship, from the inside.

I’m not suggesting this because I think bizarre people like adventurers, explorers and athletes, labeled as fruitcakes that entertain ideas that are simply bonkers need exceptional understanding or sympathy, it’s just that we suspect much of what’s written in the sponsorship letters will be disregarded.
So, I’ll press on…
Title sponsorship anybody? I’m good for it…

OCTOBER 3rd, 2009
I’m knackered.
Just for a day, I received an invitation. I accepted and found myself the guest of a local health and fitness centre. Something I avoided on many counts normally due to the extortionate membership rates they demand. For what?

Apart from earsplitting music and bulky flat screen TV’s showing all manner of unrelated fitness programs, they have unfamiliar machines. One styles itself The Adductor, which sounds rather like a film. The Adductor is a dominatrix creature that aggressively whips one into shape once it gets one into its slender coils. I have been stretched, strangled and constricted and pulled, pinched and trapped like a medieval criminal. The strange, the obscene, the perverted and the peculiar thing about it all is that I seem to enjoy it. Normal?

However, in the light of this, I will continue my habitual form of punishment, which I’ve also come to relish. The pulling, hauling, yanking or dragging of three or four car tires while wearing a twenty-kilogram backpack. It’s a brutal but magnificent work out that disciplines and beasts the body into submission. The other thing I’d like to mention is – it’s free.

SEPTEMBER 21st, 2009
Preparation, preparation, preparation, preparation. In the end it all comes down to preparation. I decided to write on this issue as a way of relaxing while my daughter, bless her, sleeps peacefully with a speckled body and blood shot eyes. That’s right, Stella has the Chicken Pox and if I could trade places with her, I would without hesitation. Where was I? Preparation. Well, it’s a subject worth thinking about at any time and because fewer things appeal to me quite so much. Well, almost…

There are so many questions and issues banging, rolling and colliding in my mind that I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head, let alone list them. Time has flown by.
Did you know that one year ago today the very idea of walking through Mongolia solo and unassisted was born?

Mongolia 2010 is being salted, spiced, pickled, seasoned, braised and served up to you bearing all the delights of endless hours of preparation, planning, blood, sweat and tears mixed with buckets of frustration and excitement.
Mongolia 2010 entertains every minute. I can dress it up or I could dress it down into something raw. Bitter. Bare. Simple. For me it’s hard to dress it down into something ragged and feeble.
Mongolia is my Mongolia and it is a piece of who I am, perhaps even the defining piece. In my case it is in part a classical masterpiece and inherited stones of past thoughts and ideas.
Mongolia is a pleasure. A physical and mental pleasure. The very words Mongolia 2010 are silken words and pure words and drenched words and saturated words and crackling words that quiver and wobble like jelly. Mongolia 2010, to me, sounds like a rapid firecracker that oozes like a lake of lava. Mongolia and the expedition are my birthright. All the power of it was in me from the moment the idea began.

So if you’ve got an idea, a dream or plan, do it. Don’t be afraid of it, don’t believe it belongs to anyone else, don’t let anyone intimidate you into believing that there are a set of laws and secrets of expeditions that you are not entitled to. Don’t be humiliated by dinosaurs, with silly bow ties and round glasses into thinking yourself inferior because you can’t spell broccoli or moccasins or utter a slight incorrect sentence.

Just let the dreams fly from your mind. Give them rhythm and depth and height and silliness. Give them filth and form and noble splendor. Dreams are free, light and frothy, firm and sculpted as they may be, bear the history of their passage from lip to lip over weeks, months and years. How our dreams feel to us now tells us whole stories about who we really are.
When you are asked if you have a dream. Less of the silly responses. Reply - Of course I have. Then put the wheels in motion and do it!

SEPTEMBER 3rd, 2009
It is factual that I have a great admiration for the inspiration and brilliance that have emerged from certain individuals in the world of adventure and exploration.

These individuals shake the very ground I walk on. This might be looked on by some as a tragic confession. I mean, I am not talking about ballet, opera, modern literature, theatre or global politics.
These remarkable individuals offer realistic information assembled on a foundation of experience and good judgment. Their inspiration can be the difference between a good day, bad day or an entirely catastrophic day.

There are many adventurers and explorers that make me smile, and keep smiling. Tough skinned, hard as nails, raw yet polished, these individuals scratch the surface that is yet to form.
They can find the time to compose a few words, maybe a draft a comprehensive letter to a beginner and offer hope, encouragement and guidance. They work brutally to acknowledge those in situations that most disregard or pretend don’t exist. They call out of the blue and position your efforts and dreams on a higher pedestal.

It's not the record we remember but the individual/s and the steps they took to accomplish their goal.

AUGUST 25th, 2009
"To measure yourself at least once. To find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions. Facing the blind death stone alone, with nothing to help you but your hands and your own head."
Christopher McCandless A.K.A Alexander Supertramp - February 12, 1968 - August 18, 1992.

AUGUST 23th, 2009
I was possibly the last person in Denmark to see the sun yesterday. There’s a proud boast. I had just finished my daily dose of hauling car tires across the sand, broken shell and rounded pebbles on the beach at Wedellsborg Hoved on Fyn. Gawking out across the water at a beautiful, picturesque sunset, dripping with sweat and panting like a cheetah in the African heat, the sun dipped its head and there was a memorable silence.
I like to think Wedellsborg styles itself the westernmost point in Denmark. I know it’s not but I can dream. There didn’t seem to be anyone else around so I allowed myself to believe that I was indeed in the Gobi Desert.

I really take pleasure in training for this expedition. Fearsome hard work, punishing the body, brewing pain but still, it’s deeply satisfying. I collapsed on my car tires, veins bulging, heart racing and feet stinging thinking of Mongolia and how I will feel after each day as I stare at the sunset across it’s barren landscape.
One thing I do know is there’s time to think. I will summon my long lost memories from the cobwebs and dark corners of my mysterious mind and replay forgotten moments.
I know that there is more to discover in a land over there, far from the eyes of the west and rush hour traffic of the cities. Mongolia will change me, move me and test me and keep me on my toes!

I know I’ll feel insignificant and a minuscule spot on the surface of the Earth. I can’t wait.

AUGUST 10th, 2009
Every once in a while I get a letter, typically anonymously from someone not brave enough to add a name to a criticism, that can only be depicted as a Close encounter with a rhinoceros with a headache. A comment with streaks of bitchiness, remorseless logic and an opinion that I have recklessly made idle promises.
I like letters, no matter the content. No sin in that. We grow wise by ventilating our views, and asking the right type of questions.
There are so many questions and issues jostling, tumbling and colliding in my mind that I can barely list them or sit still. I try to answer as best I can, even if they are direct responses.

It is an unbelievably time-consuming but a satisfying duty. Plans and preparations consume a vast amount of resources and, let me tell you, it is no fairy tale picnic or two-week vacation in some plastic holiday resort raped by western standards, lager louts and fish and chips.

I cannot tell you how touched and thrilled I am to have so many loyally following the Mongolia 2010 Expedition, at least the plans and preparations, for now. It won’t need much imagination on your part to appreciate that it is possible. It will succeed with or without the blessing of the few.
My sources say interest comes in from all parts of the world at a steady trickle. I have belief that most humans are kind, curious, knowledgeable, tolerant and funny. Unfortunately, I live close to people that are opposite. Some of them, I thought, were friends. On second thoughts, perhaps they never deserved such a title.

This is an adventure to perfection more possible of completion than that of straddling the highest summit of the world, stepping on the surface of the moon, to descending to the dark depths of the uncharted oceans. Mongolia 2010 is about the ultimate journey of both inner and outer discovery.

AUGUST 5th, 2009
I apologise about the long interval of time between my last blog and this but I have been very busy with the preparations and the never ending search for a title sponsor, with assorted other duties to be done that … well, a fully plump blog isn’t something I can come up with daily, even week in and week out.
The word ‘sporadic’ is beating its wings overhead … for the moment at least. Mind you, just wait till the time is appropriate to tell you about the other news I have, one that takes to another part of the world … but that can linger for the moment.

When I think about it, it makes me tingle. Give or take, there’s about eight months left until the big push and the expedition begins. I love summer. The mornings are crisp and warm, but still I find it difficult to leap out of bed and spring into the training gear. My wife never budges from her deep and peaceful sleep and I won’t hear anything from her until the kids stir. Then all hell breaks loose.
My mind is drowsy and ugly thoughts occasionally creep into my head. Would it make a difference to miss one day’s training? What difference would it make? It’s just one day. It's easy to make excuses and I can always find enough to chew over. Time never ceases and before I know it, it will be time to make some tracks…
I can overcome these demons in my head, and by the time I have splashed cold water on my face and knocked back a glass or two of icy water, I am awake and delighted to be alive and ready to beast my weary body. The sounds my body makes as it comes to life is a siren song.
I know that every session I do, no matter how little, will help me walk across Mongolia. Let’s face it; it’s not exactly a tiny country. Fitness is a measured process. Little by little the body develops but I never see it. I swear, the fitness routine is having little or no effect. Standing in front of the mirror every night, flexing the muscles and gazing at the body’s reflection and contours. Is it working for me?

I’m only human. Sometimes, I could not care and this entire expedition should be buried and I should scramble back into bed like everyone else and do nothing.
What keeps me going? I have a guilty conscience. I know that I will hate myself and regret it in the end, and when I give myself a mission, I carry it out. I’m committed and won’t let myself down.
Lately, something dawned on me. Every time I make the effort, no matter how little, I am moving forward and it increases my likelihood of a success. Every time I whinge and bitch, cut corners, make excuses and avoid the tempo; I am reducing my chances of completing something positive and rightly respectable.

My potential and my dreams are strangely entangled. And it seems that, even if I’m willing to let myself down, I’m not willing to let down all the sponsors and charities and people that really care and see the significance in what I can accomplish. So, it’s out of bed and time to work for those that believe in my plans and work hard to not let myself down.

JULY 18th, 2009
‘With no quarter of the earth now left entirely unexplored, it seemed to me important to rekindle interest among students in our planet and to show by example that high adventure was still at hand, that quite ordinary people without advanced skills can realise the most astonishing and ambitious of goals if they set their minds to it.
For only with the vision and courage of the old-time explorers are we going to solve the enormous geographical problems that threaten our well-being in the century to come.’ - Robert Swan, Icewalk

JULY 9th, 2009
I get asked abundant questions, the most familiar being "Why..?"
This question remains the most conventional. It's a reasonable enquiry and one I am never ready for so I should have a polished long-winded response by now. Well, I am pleased to say that I do and after some long thought, today I came up with this...

Being self-powered means no emissions and the opportunity for much genuine connections with the landscape, people and wildlife. I understand it’s the slower alternative but that in itself presents an enormous advantage, for it allows the senses to be stimulated fully, and it gives the mind an opportunity to reflect, in real time, on the relationships between traveller and landscape.

I feel privileged to have witnessed the vast landscapes, wildlife, solitude, cultures and ancient traditions that were previously outside my knowledge and, in some cases, beyond my imagination. I have come to appreciate that the only qualification I'll ever need for such adventures is the motivation to walk beyond my comfort zone.

JULY 3rd, 2009
A letter from Desert Explorer, Carla Perrotti
I have been inspired by some wonderful individuals in my life and recently I have been totally immersed by a woman who has explored some of most savage and unexplored places in the world, from the Amazon to Borneo, to Papua New Guinea and numerous deserts across the globe.
Her History of desert travel is distinguished and, in my opinion, Carla is one of the greatest explorers of today.

You can imagine my joy when I discovered a letter, from Carla, in my inbox today.

"I wish you the best of luck in your next challenge in Mongolia. I will follow you along your journey into this spectacular land. I hope that you are not faced with many difficult challenges along your trek, but more importantly, that whatever challenges do present themselves, you are able to overcome and in the process learn about yourself and your internal resources.
In bocca al lupo, as we say for good luck in Italy. I am excited to hear how this experience affects you and about the beautiful scenery in which you will be immersed."

Kindest regards,
Carla Perrotti

I would highly recommend visiting her website: Carla Perrotti's Official website

JUNE 12th, 2009
The search continues...

A while back, I was sent a pair of walking boots from a small company in Poland with a small note. "Please test these for your expedition".
I was elated and like a child on Christmas day, put them on and bounced around for a while.
They seemed good enough at first but the training and stress has seen to it that these boots need to retire at a rather early age.
Shame really. I actually liked them but I need boots that will carry me over 2700km and come out on the other side wanting more. Good boots = success.

The search continues...

JUNE 3rd, 2009
I think it's high time that I did something new to the expedition website.
Over the coming weeks, I plan to move a few things around and add some exciting interactive tools.

MAY 7th, 2009
PAIN MANAGEMENT by Dr. Craig McLean
Dr Craig McLean, is a London-based Chiropractor with 15 years experience. He helps athletes/adventurers to enhance their performance by using specialist techniques that improve spinal function, strength and flexibility.

As someone who deals with many different presentations of pain, I am amazed whenever I think of the super human abilities of athletes and adventurers to be able to deal with levels of pain and discomfort that only you or I can imagine.

Over the years the human body has been studied at length to explore our ability to deal with pain and how chemically we have defenses to enable us to tolerate high levels of pain. We all react to pain differently and our physiological make up plays a huge role. We all possess neurotransmitters called endorphins that essentially block the transmission of pain to our brain. Commonly responsible for the high after exercise, endorphins are released when the body is experiencing pain or stress.

MAY 4th, 2009
Today, I was overwhelmed to find the following letter in my inbox...

"Follow your dream, never stop, has been my motto for many years. By taking action and rising up to the challenge, I believe man can achieve a lot but someone has to go first and be that inspiration others need.
I think Ripley will be a great inspiration for others to follow their own dreams and quests in life.
I wish him the best of luck across Mongolia 2010."
Børge Ousland, Polar Explorer

APRIL 27th, 2009
Stress and decision taking in extreme environments has always captured my interest so I am going to perform some cognitive tests before, during and after the Mongolia 2010 expedition. This will assess my mental aptitude during the expedition and hopefully iron out a few creases and pinpoint when I could take bad decisions. The result, as interesting as it sounds, will be compared to other similar tests with a view of determining risk factors.
I did have a few tests done before my departure to Namibia.

It's an interesting subject. I hope to explore more about my abilities and body.

APRIL 15th, 2009
With my solo expedition, now one year away, the preparation stages and the work involved is still ongoing and immense, especially as I have been extremely busy, with work, throughout its evolution.

I will continue to endeavour to gain sponsorship and convince those in doubt and hide away in silence that in this day and age a journey such as this, the first of three solo expeditions, is still worthwhile for every reason you can think of.

This time next year, I will be at the very doorstep of commencing this long walk with a vast country in front of me and a purpose to move forward. Although for some, one year is to far away to consider. Time never stops and each day crossed of the calendar, is a day closer to fulfilling a series of dreams.
There is no turning back. I have committed wholeheartedly to this challenge and given a solemn promise to the many that have offered support and given donations.

MARCH 8th, 2009
And so we start the first of, no doubt, many blogs.
I have toyed with the idea of a "Blog" for some time but couldn't get my head around the idea. However, here it is...
A year from now, all being well, I will be at the very doorstep of the expedition. Months, days and hours will have slipped through my fingers and hopefully, all the endless creases will have been ironed out smoothly without a hitch but we'll see.

I will now grapple and begin the physical training aspect and slowly condition my body ready for the battering it will receive in Mongolia.
My diet will also change, and is as I write this. One thing I have learnt is a good diet is 75% of the battle to be fit, trim and healthy.
Yoga is another part of my on-going training which will create balance in my body and develop both strength and flexibility. However, my body is far from what it use to be but it will remember with a little TLC.