A true adventurer at heart, I was super excited to finally talk to him and learn more about his experiences.

First of all, could you tell me a little about how your story began?

I grew up in Windsor in a very middling town, where we had really good access to the outdoors. I wasn’t really outdoorsy in any way, I just really enjoyed being outside.

When I was in sixth form I worked at the local stables in exchange for being taught how to ride horses, and that was a very enjoyable experience that I wanted to do more of. After university, I did three things that I loved – I worked as a ‘jackaroo’ in Australia, I did a season as a ski instructor, and I played rugby in rural communities in New Zealand, which taught me about their cultures and was incredible.

You don’t fit the typical explorer typecast of white skinned ex-army man – would you say that your race or gender hindered or helped you?

I actually recently joined the RAF! But growing up I was told things like ‘I don’t like Asians but you’re alright,’ so I’d always had conflicting feelings about what it meant to be British. There’s a lot of English nationalism, which I think is different to Welsh and Scottish nationalism. 

I didn’t join the army earlier because of the war in Iraq which I thought was an unjust war, but I did decide to be in the reserves as it’s a really great place to learn loads of practical and outdoor skills which are useful. I’m not of that British colonial mindset – I’m Indian, after all – and until recently, it was accepted that the British empire was a benign empire. But then you go to India and you get the real, unpleasant, story.

So, travel to me was not about going to places for physical ardour or for proving how tough I was, to me it was a way of engaging with a local culture with empathy. I went to New Zealand to get an insight into the indigenous Maori, but travel and exploration is all about cultural exploration. I actually don’t like the word ‘explorer’ as really, it’s just a pre-cursor to coloniser, conquest, disposition, conquest, and used to describe people like Burton and Speke, whose explorations led to the dis-placement of the local people.

What would you say is one of the hardest things you’ve faced across all of your journeys across the world?

They are all hard in their own way, but some of the hardest things were from me putting too much pressure on myself and not seeing that the travel is valuable regardless. You get tired, you have to walk long distances, you have to carry heavy things, but no one cares about that stuff and it’s not that interesting. 

You mentioned that you studied philosophy – has this helped you in many situations, such as meeting with the Dalai Lama?

Philosophy teaches you a skill, critical thinking. What I do now is write articles and columns, so this was really useful. Like obligations to war, justice, these are very important things, and the way that different nations approach these ideas distinguish one nation from another, when they believe in one value system to another.

But when it comes to meeting the Dalai Lama, you don’t really ask him a question, he just tells you stuff. He was great, a very charismatic person. He has a remarkable ability to make you feel important, and I’m sure he’s probably met more people of different levels of society than anyone else on earth. I also learnt compassion from him.  He was talking about having to sneak out of Tibet, and he said that he had learnt that from the Chinese communists, who tried their best to culturally cleanse Tibet. For someone to be able to know that a nation and a group had done that to his people and still have the wisdom and compassion was very inspiring.

You’ve written for big publications such as the Telegraph, so I was wondering how you broke into the industry?

I think there are two approaches – nepotism or by writing blogs, with the latter being how I did it. And then I started to do free pieces for magazines and newspapers, and eventually this became paid. I got my first by-line in a paper from CityAM, and I was attending loads of travel shows and watching people I admired.

Nicholas Crane was doing a talk at the Adventure Travel Show and I told him I loved his work and he asked what I wanted to do, and when I told him I was going to take my dad’s ashes to India he said that he loved India and then introduced me to Michael Kerr, the deputy editor of the Telegraph Travel section, so that was being in the right place and asking questions.

Can I ask with all of your filming experience what you would consider to be one of the best documentary cameras?

It depends on what you’re shooting for. For example, I used the Sony Ax53, it’s not flash, it’s the updated version of the one we used on Walking the Nile, and its robust. You don’t want to have to think about your camera in the middle of doing something, you just want your camera to work. You can hear people, you can film stuff, and it is fairly indestructible. If you’re going to have another camera on top, probably go for the Sony Alpha 7S3.

For the Walking Wales Expedition we will be using the Canon Eos 700D, and I don’t know if you’ve used it or recommend it or..?

The main thing is that your kit should not hinder you. The big things that mess people up in filmmaking is ability to use a camera, ability to plan and write a story, and audio. Whether or not you have good film will not depend on your camera.

Who was your inspiration when you grew up? Was there someone you looked up to?

I just watched the new Michael Palin documentary, Travels of a Lifetime, which is currently on BBC iPlayer. Palin’s documentaries were the first time that an audience followed someone through their journey, and when he started, he was the first one to do it. I like him because he’s so curious about everyone that he meets and is just such a nice, authentic, and funny guy. His humour comes from warmth and that ability to connect to people.

The other stuff that really inspired me was Star Trek, I loved the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and I think this tolerance and interest of other cultures and the fact it was all built and framed in a very warm approach again, drew me to it.

Can I ask what your dream project is?

I’m currently working on a couple of ideas in India, but I don’t like the idea of a dream project per-say, as I’ve been lucky enough to go to all of the places I wanted to go to. But I really want to go for a journey in India following the path of my dad’s side of the family and some history that intersects with British history. I’ve walked 3,000 miles with Lev and I’ve done all sorts of things. I think that with the dream project, you’ve got to ask yourself, ‘are you doing it for you or for success?’ Lev said he wanted to walk the Nile to write a book to finally break through into the travel writing world, but I don’t think that he had always dreamed of walking the Nile for nine months.

So I have one last question, and that is, what’s next?

Who knows? With Coronavirus right now it is really hard to plan anything. But I definitely want to spend some time in India, and it is such an interesting, diverse place. You have more diversity in India than you do in Europe, but you tend to think of them as more homogenous. The more likely next one is I want to do some journeys in Britain, I will probably wait till spring and do the east side of Britain, go through the Fens and Yorkshire rather than through Cumbria.

But mainly, I’m doing a podcast called The First Mile with my friend Pip Stewart. What underpinned it was the saying that ‘the hardest part of any journey is the first mile’, so we wanted to really delve into what is the first mile of everybody’s journey. Podcasts don’t really do travel narratives and telling the story in a creative way, so we wanted to do that, framed around the first mile of getting through a journey.

And so, that pretty much sums up the Wandering Everywhere interview with one of the coolest adventurers in the game. Do any of y’all follow Ash on his adventures, or plan on doing so now that you know who exactly he is? Let me know in the comments below!

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The book is full of interesting stories, personal experiences, and horrifying facts, all blended together with Wood’s effortless writing and clear love for the African Elephant. It details just how remarkable these creatures are, and if I’m being honest, it seems as though the only reason that elephants have managed to survive for so long is due to their sheer ability to adapt and overcome. When they are facing incredible heat waves, they can dilate and constrict the blood vessels in their massive ears, cooling the blood by approximately three degrees. When one set of teeth becomes worn down, another of their six sets will move forward to replace it. The only obstacle that elephants cannot get over, it seems, is human interference.

In regards to the ivory industry, it is suggested that 20,000 elephants are killed each year for their tusks, seemingly to the point of no return. If we continue poaching at the current rate, future generations will have no clue as to what an African Elephant even was. Wood tells the story of a filmmaker who spent four years in Tsavo recording an elephant called Satao, who would hide his massive tusks as he walked. Satao travelled by zigzagging between bushes and shoving his head and tusks into each bush as he reached them, suggesting that he was aware of the dangers of owning tusks. Studies have shown that elephants are actually evolving to have smaller tusks, or to be born without any tusks at all – which is actually pretty awful, as elephants use their tusks to dig for water in droughts, lift heavy objects, and pull back the bark from trees to consume (which ultimately creates houses for smaller animals such as lizards, keeping the biodiversity flourishing). It seems as though humans are forcing these elephants into an even tighter rut by being the root cause of this evolution.

Wood talks a lot about the roles that males and females play in elephant society, making it glaringly obvious just how similar to us they are. Matriarchs are everything within the society, being the key to the survival of the rest of the species. They are the ones responsible for making the decisions for the rest of the herd, educating young elephants on how to take care of the young, which males to avoid, and how to entice a mate with a walk called ‘oestrus.’ They pass down knowledge about predators, the best places to get water in a drought, and where to take the young on play dates, so that they grow up to be social, intelligent, well-integrated members of society.

Elephant calves spend around 22 months in the womb, and go through very long periods of childhood simply because they have so much to learn. A young elephant is brought up with so much love and support from its family members – mothers and sisters adjusting the vegetation around or the sleeping position of a youngster to make them more comfortable, and protecting them with their lives against predators and threats – that it’s hard to see them as anything but the caring, intelligent, empathetic creatures they are. When eating around young elephants, older elephants are known to eat from higher branches so that they can still get enough food, often prioritising the health of the children and the vulnerable over themselves. Wood mentions one experience he had when he was watching two males play fighting in Kenya, noticing that one of the bulls was crippled. In response, the other bull had gotten down on his knees to play, staying like that for the duration of the game – literally to level the field. 

This care and awareness doesn’t just affect other elephants. Wood talks about the story of a man called Lawrence, who had slowly built a relationship with an elephant called Nana. This elephant trusted and respected him so much that when she bore a child she took it to him so he could see it. In turn, when he had a child, he took it to her family, and they responded by trumpeting in joyous unison and throwing their trunks in the air to smell the scent. It seems that they understand and feel a lot more than humans could ever fully understand.

Elephants are known for being very intelligent – they have great cognitive skills, and can recognise different groups of people just by their scent and sound. Wood talks about one particular experiment where the Amboseli elephants were presented with red coloured cloths worn either by a Maasai warrior (who occasionally spear elephants) and a local Kamba man, and they could determine the difference between the two people by their smell, rapidly fleeing the area and heading to an area of greater cover when presented with cloths from the Maasai. Similarly, they can recognise people by sound, and when recordings of these two groups of people speaking in their native language were played around the elephants, their response was heightened when listening to Maasai men speaking in their native languages. This reaction was specific to the age and sex of the warrior, with far less fear shown towards woman and boys than adult men.

The main reasons that elephants are dying out so rapidly are heavy poaching for ivory, loss of habitats and conflict with people over land use, and manipulation of populations by humans. As the world’s human population has doubled in the last fifty years, and more than trebled in Africa, one of the biggest threats to habitat is the encroachment of human societies. Africa’s population will double again in the next thirty years, and it will soar to 4.4. billion people by the end of the century. By contrast, the population of African Elephants has fallen by more than 90% in a little over one century.

The Last Giants: The Rise and Fall of the African Elephant is the sort of book that leaves you feeling haunted, vividly aware of the goings on in the world around you, and yet still shocked that we could have allowed this to happen. Honestly, it’s a pretty horrifying read, pointing out how undeniable it is that humans are to blame for their mass demise. Elephants are such intelligent, beautiful, and complex creatures, and it’s very disappointing that we’ve allowed this to happen. Luckily, there are some things we can do.

Starting with charities such as Tusk, we can make sure that these organisations that are prioritising the preservation of these creatures are being promoted and supported as much as possible. We can avoid zoos and boycott circuses that use live elephants in their performances, and steer clear of the purchasing of ivory. But the most important thing is to educate ourselves and others around us – as with awareness comes action. One of the best places to start is by reading The Last Giants: The Rise and Fall of the African Elephant. This review really is just the tip of the iceberg.

Chris Bonington:

 

“Sounds a fantastic wonderful project and I am very happy to put out my support. The very best of good fortune and have a wonderful time.”

Starting from the 1st May, we will trek over mountains, clamber through caves, and wild swim in freezing waters, staying in any accommodation we can find. We plan on covering an average of 90 miles a week, resting at lighthouses, underground bunkers, caving huts, monk-run communes (yes they have them in Wales!), pig barns, gypsy caravans, stranger’s houses, and good ol’ fashioned cabins in the woods. We will record our journey across Wales with the production of a documentary – with Inés as our camera woman with chronic back pain (inconvenient when you hold a camera for 5+ hours a day), Trianna being our travel-sick crew member, and myself being the host. Along with Cragen, of course.

We have already planned the first three months of the journey, and let me tell you, I absolutely did not think that there would be this much work involved. When Levison Wood went on his expedition to walk the Nile, I assumed that he spent about a week looking at maps and then set off in the general direction of the river. Oh, how I was wrong. This expedition has taken us nearly three years of talking about it, finalising details, and planning every single day – and we still have a lot more to go. It’s exhausting, but it will be worth it.

Reza Pakravan:

 

“This is an epic adventure around one of the most incredible parts of the world. The girls are super brave and ambitious and I am giving them my full support.”

I will be interviewing locals, getting hands-on with activities such as beekeeping, bushcraft, and metalwork, and experiencing the best and worst things that Wales has to offer. I will enter the bog snorkelling championship, attend my first ever L Fest, and try my hand at taxidermy. It’s going to be one heck of a journey, but it’s absolutely going to be worth it. 

We will walk north to meet self-proclaimed wizards, druids, former satanist priests, blacksmiths, mushroom farmers, rugby players, and millionaires – just to name a few. The more research we have conducted, the more we have become convinced that Wales is absolutely one of the wackiest places around. It’s very exciting. We might try fishing such as the adventures offered by Fishing Trips PNG and will truly throw ourselves in the deep end with different challenges and activities.

Some of you may now be asking, why us? After all, we are untrained, a little naive, and can’t even navigate with Google Maps. Heck, we’ve never spent more than a week camping combined. But regardless of all of this, we are passionate, impulsive, and ready to get more than a little messy. Inés comes from the Celtic nation of Galicia, Trianna is a weeb for Welsh culture, and I myself am Welsh through-and-through (Swansea Abertawe boiiiis) – and we all want to dig deep into the heart of the country.

Our all-woman team is going to face unsurmountable highs and lows, and spending every hour of every day with one another is going to be the ultimate test of our friendship. Plus, we are going to see a lot of each other – and as someone with Crohn’s Disease who knows that she’s going to have to sh*t in the woods, it’s not going to be pretty. But what better way to spend the summer than sleeping on mountains infamous for making you awaken either a madman or a poet? Kicking back on islands where all of the inhabitants are convicts? Meeting the people loitering around abandoned insane asylums? It’s an expedition where really, nothing could go wrong.

Crohn’s Disease is something that I have talked about before on the blog, but have never really delved into the details of. It is an immobilising, merciless disease that no one actually wants to talk about. It seems that the general public still knows nothing about Crohn’s (and even a lot of gastroenterologists are clueless about how to treat it), and so I’m hoping that by undertaking this journey, I can bring light to a subject that is commonly avoided.

Ed Stafford:

 

“[These girls] are embarking on a fantastic adventure to capture Wales in all its gritty glory. I wish them well and give my full support to the project.”

 

I know that over the course of the journey, I will face the same stomach pain, weak joints, scarred skin, and malnutrition that I face on a daily basis at home – but man, I want to be an explorer, so it’s just something that I’m going to have to suck up. By the end of it all, you guys are going to be fluent in Crohn’s-related vocab, and the stereotypes relating to auto-immune diseases will be thoroughly challenged. It’s going to be a wild ride.

I will try to update you all on our expedition as it progresses – but the fact that we will spend days even without food means that I can’t guarantee a stable internet connection. I’m hoping that we will be able to find some sort of local accommodation most nights on the road when we haven’t planned anything, but understand that a goat will stop us from a lot of people letting us stay in their houses. But hear me out: to undertake this walk with a weird-looking dog in tow would be funny, and thus, worth it.

We have already received support from numerous explorers and celebrities, such as Ash Bhardwaj, Ed Stafford, Darius Arya, Chris Bonington, Benedict Allen, Reza Pakravan, Hayley Long, and Bill Bryson – all people I have spent my life looking up to. It’s as exciting as it is scary – but knowing that we have so much support from not only the people mentioned above, but radio stations, magazines, and local businesses, makes us feel as though this is a journey that really means something to people. And if they have faith in us after knowing how hopeless a team we are, well, I guess we have to do it.

To follow our journey, why not stalk our Twitter and Instagram?

If you would like to donate, please visit our gofundme.

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Wood was the first person to walk the length of the Nile – a journey which took nine months to complete. He has also undertaken similarly challenging expeditions, such as walking the Himalayas, walking the Yucatan Peninsula, and trekking across the mighty Caucasus mountains. His most recent, and arguably most dangerous trip, was a full 5,000 mile circumnavigation of the Arabian Peninsula, travelling from Syria all the way though to Lebanon. Throughout the course of the trip, he came under fire from ISIS fighters and witnessed the liberation of Sharqat – engendering great friendships as he does so.

I, like many others, admire Wood for his bravery and passion for exploration. When the chance to interview him came along, I wanted nothing more than to pick his brain and try to figure out what makes him tick – and he did not disappoint.

To begin with, how did you manage to turn your love of travel into a viable career?

Hard work and determination. I always knew I wanted to travel the world, but I never really thought about making a career out of it. I did know that I wanted to be an author. It was Ernest Hemingway who taught me to write about what I know… and I know how to travel, so once I’d left the army, I knew I had to do something remarkable in the travelling world in order to write about it. So I walked the Nile, and that kickstarted this insane career! I truly believe that if you are passionate about something and serious about making it your livelihood, then it can be done.

Is there one memorable experience from your expeditions which stands out amongst the rest?

It’s impossible to pick just one memory, it’s a bit like asking me to name my favourite country, which I can’t answer either. Wherever I go I’m overwhelmed by the warmth of the people I meet, and their hospitality. On my journey walking the length of the Nile, I was most surprised by Sudan. In every settlement we passed through, the locals invited us in for tea, dinner, and a place to stay. It got to the point where we were having to avoid villages because it was slowing us down. But this didn’t stop them. One man decided that if we weren’t going to stay in his house, he would bring his home to us, and turned up in the desert with a mattress on his head – imagine that!

Is this where you thought you would be 20 years ago?

At 17 I hadn’t yet thought about what the future would hold. Like most boys that age, I was living in the moment, excited about my gap year and my time at university. I knew I was going to go into the army, but I hadn’t thought much beyond that. If I hadn’t broken my leg in 2004, I could still well be in the army full time!

Is there any other career you could have seen yourself going into?

I’ve always loved writing, and spend a lot of my time writing books and articles for various publications, so I may well have ended up a journalist. My parents were both teachers so I could have gone down that route…

When walking for months on end over long stretches of land, how were you able to keep yourself entertained?

I tried to concentrate on appreciating the environment I was in, taking it all in with my eyes, ears, and nose. But at times I would need some distraction, be that music or an audiobook.

Which experience have you learnt the most from?

Probably when I nearly died in the car accident in Nepal whilst walking the Himalayas. It’s the closest I’ve ever been to death, and I feel very fortunate that I (in fact all five of us) survived. Ever since then, I’ve learnt not to take things for granted, to savour experiences and special moments with friends and family. I still believe in risk-taking, but some risks are just ignorant.

What would your answer be to people who say everywhere has already been explored?

Technically that’s not true. We’ve only just begun to explore the deepest oceans, and we haven’t even touched outer space; there’s still a lot more to explore.

Do you think that it would be possible for a woman to do what you do, or would it be too difficult to travel freely between certain countries?

I do believe it would be possible for anyone to do what I do, given they have the right attitude and approach to travelling. It didn’t really matter that I was a man, it was my training in the army and my work for Secret Compass that equipped me with the necessary skills for my journeys. A woman can get that same training, and with the right guide should be able to move as freely as they want, within reason. The important thing for anyone is that they’re aware of the risks involved in this sort of travelling.

I read that you have travelled to over 90 countries, right? Have you ever been to Wales?

Over 100 now! And yes, I’ve been to Wales many times. As a child, we used to spend our summer holidays in Pembrokeshire. Some of my happiest childhood memories are from there.

Now that Arabia is being aired and you’ve wrapped up another adventure, what’s next?

I have a few projects in the pipeline. I’m currently away filming for something that will be aired early 2020, and I’m working on a couple of books…

Finally, is there any advice you’d give to wannabe explorers and travel writers?

Like I said at the outset, if you really want something, you’re passionate and serious about it, then the only thing stopping you is yourself! So if you want to explore the world and write about it, then go get it!

Levison Wood is hands down one of the coolest people that I have ever spoken to, and after interviewing him I’m only further convinced that he’s a pretty decent guy to have influence your ambitions.

What do you guys think? Do you guys have any questions for him? Let me know in the comments below!

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