THE CONGO IS MY MOST DANGEROUS CHALLENGE YET | Ash Dykes | Extraordinary Life Stories

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1:12Ash Dykes:Tell me, who is Ash Dykes? Ash Dykes is a mad sort of extreme athlete, explorer, five-time world record holder, always inspired by like James Bond, Tomb Raider, how they would collect certain amount of skills within land, air and sea. But it was just never really on the cards for someone from a small coastal town in North Wales called Old Colwyn. So the desert or the Arctic? Yes. Which one are you drawn to? The desert is the more challenging environment. Therefore, I'm more drawn to that. You will be on your hands and knees, on your fingernails, clawing yourself along the desert floor. At the end of that challenge, what was harder, the physical or the mental side of it?

1:49I would say the mental. You know, I've walked for five days with the deadly strain of malaria. and I think, again, even though my body was dying on me, it's the mindset that is just you have to keep going. There's no one coming to save you. Is there something you just simply would not do, and why?

2:04Ash Dykes:If you asked me that a year ago, I would say the Congo Basin. Is that your next challenge? Funny, that.

2:23Sorry to interrupt. I've never asked this before, but if you can subscribe and follow, that will allow me to keep bringing extraordinary guests onto the show. Now let's get back to it.

2:36Ash Dykes:Ash, welcome. Thanks for having me. Tell me, who is Ash Dykes? Ash Dykes is a mad sort of extreme athlete, explorer, five-time world record holder, but originally from North Wales, very normal upbringing, normal background. No further education in terms of university, no sort of military background, no financial background but this big dream to go off to travel and i did you know i raised funds working in a fish and chip shop as a lifeguard as a waiter for about two three years then age 19 as soon as i finished college traveled the world and i ended up doing a lot of sort of different reckless dangerous often illegal adventures on a shoestring budget you know crossing borders and Thailand to Myanmar, learning how to survive in the jungle with the Burmese Hill Tribe, to fighting in the martial art of Muay Thai, to pay rent in the place that I was living in Thailand, cycling across Australia or hiking the Himalayas.

3:33And so I would say those early adventures and my kind of upbringing ultimately led me to do things that had never been done before.

3:43Ash Dykes:Where did you get inspiration to do this? Who or what kind of put that vision in your head that You want to go and be that advanced? Yeah, I think it was a number of things, you know. I think it was my granddad's a wacky man. He lived, he actually lived in Pakistan for 21 years, overstayed his visa by about 15 years. Didn't know what to do with him. The Pakistan government didn't, so they kicked him next door. So he lives in India now. And I've seen him only three, four times. And he always came back each time with these wild stories of adventure, of true survival. You know, he's quite a survivor himself.

4:19But then I had an uncle from Zimbabwe who used to share, you know, stories of the African bush. But then watching TV, you know, whether it's David Attenborough shows, always inspired by like James Bond, Tomb Raider, how they would collect certain amount of skills within land, air and sea. And as a young boy on the couch with my dad watching these thinking, I want to be able to do that. You know, I want to be able to jump out of a helicopter or breathe underwater or survive in the desert, in the jungle. But it was just never really on the cards for someone from a small coastal town in North Wales called Old Colwyn.

4:53Ash Dykes:Or so you thought. Because there's a mindset thing there, which you said. And that's so interesting because there's a role model piece there. Your granddad, your uncle, David Attenborough. And I can relate to that, you know, the James Bond, you're watching it. And I guess the element of whether it's the British Isles being a small part of a great big world or even smaller being in Wales. And then actually, this is not going to be where I'm confined. I'm going to go and seek adventure and run. But wanting to do it and then actually doing it are two very different things. So where did you start with it?

5:22What was your sort of first adventure? The first, I mean, I had done a lot of early adventures before I actually left for travels, but it's funny, I was probably more sporty and competitive in school. Very competitive, always very physical. And I almost didn't know how to or where to channel that. But then I started to get into a little bit more of the camping in Wales, I would say. I didn't find it too fun, found it a little bit boring. But this idea to then travel the world was quite like, okay, a defining factor, should I say, where I was like, maybe if I travel, not only will I face adversity and learn about the world and different traditions, cultures, but I'll also learn about myself, how I handle certain situations and scenarios, both physically and mentally.

6:09So as soon as I I grasped down and realized that I would be traveling and ultimately I'd be turning myself from a boy to a man. I became fascinated. I was just like, where can I go? What can I do? And what kind of skill sets can I learn to enable myself to find work abroad so that I can obviously fund my way to travel? And I would say the first true catalyst was me and my friend. We were actually traveling across China. We ended up leaving China after two weeks. We were on the the Mekong riverbank of Cambodia we were sulking because we literally went out there on a shoestring budget and we were eating into it fast like in a drastic way so I was like look we share the same photos as all the rest of the tourists the same stories the same experiences what can we do to make our experience unique and then I randomly threw it out there you know I was probably drinking a Dr Pepper something like that on the riverbank saying why don't we just purchase the cheapest and nastiest bicycles we could find because we're on a low budget and we just cycled like the Cambodia and Vietnam stop taking these touristic buses where you draw the blinds through the night watching fast and furious whilst you're out in the Vietnamese wilderness and we actually just cycle it and my friend kind of laughed he was like look sounds great but on what bikes and I heard this sort of screeching noise behind me you know we both turned around it's this skinny frail old lady cycling the most ridiculous bicycles but it looked like one we could afford meant to be at that time yeah and we did that same day ten dollars on a bicycle no pump no puncture repair kit we found string on the side of the road that we used to strap the rucksack onto the back of the bike with and that's it we went 14 days 1130 miles cycled the entire length of cambodia and vietnam age 19 and i was like this is it that was your calling yeah and you found i guess at that point you've also you you've you've embraced the fact you know you love a challenge yeah and you're competitive yeah they do it on a on an all-functioning mountain bike it's easy now i'm going to take something that's going to break on me at any time 17 times yeah and then i guess there's the the physical challenge but also i guess this is where you're really learning about how important the mental side of this is a massive part of what we're talking about and what makes you

8:17Ash Dykes:you did that trip prove that to you was like i need more of this this is good for me it did and I think it proved it when I saw how much my friend was suffering and I almost enjoyed the suffer. And I was just like, oof, there's something here. You know, I'm not pushed to the limits, you know, even when it's throwing it down. I mean, and I'm on a road, I'm safe. You know, where there's a road, there's people, there's people, there's food, there's water, but there was still that element of the bikes breaking 17 times, you know, going up a hill because there was no gears, there was no suspension.

8:48So you're pedaling up this hill and the pedals would literally just snap. So when I'm walking them up the hill and calling or finding a local at 2 o 'clock in the morning, they always seemed to be awake, the locals. You know, they would fix us up. You woke them. Yeah, they were almost never asleep. We just see a community in the distance and we're like, amazing, here we go. And then I started to see Matt, my friend who was traveling with me, starting to struggle. And I remember thinking, this isn't a struggle yet. But I had faced sleep deprivation. We cycled 45 hours straight with no sleep. I had faced dehydration as well.

9:27I wouldn't say starvation at that point, but I had been pushed to many limits and I found that it was all right. I can keep going. What's next? And I was planning the next while cycling. But I was just going to say your brain, I can tell you, probably even now and in context of now in this moment in time, what can I do next? What's interesting is you did that challenge with a mate. You worked out that you were actually probably more in competition with yourself. Not that you were competing with a mate, but actually, yeah. And so, so much of what you've done since is alone, right? Yeah. And so, but you're clearly a very sociable person.

10:01Yeah. And you've built a social media following, a community that I'm now part of where you're sort of, you're enjoying seeing the content coming out. So I just wanted to sort of go through that journey with you, where you sort of realized that actually I need to keep pushing myself. Yeah. Because that's the only way I'm going to keep pushing those boundaries, that level. And then how and when you chose to bring people on the journey with you?

10:22Ash Dykes:Yeah, well, actually, I always wanted people on the journey with me, funnily enough. But with Mongolia, that was what. So I cycled Australia not so long after Vietnam. And it was also with Matt. And we were both suffering with dehydration, like pretty bad at that point. and then fast forward two years when we were living in Thailand as scuba diving instructor Muay Thai fighter I became very restless I was like I've done all of these really cool adventures across Southeast Asia India Australia and now I'm settled and it felt like I was almost pigeonholed as you mentioned at the beginning you know categorize what can I do to break out of this and then I came up with lots of various ideas but one of them was let's walk across Mongolia by when I say let's, I mean, me and Matt, you know, let's do that together.

11:08And it took a while before he was like, I'm not, I'm not interested in that after what I had faced in Australia.

11:16Ash Dykes:He knew his limits. Yeah. He was like, I never want to face that, that kind of dehydration ever again. But that didn't stop you? No, I was a little bit more fascinated with how far could I go? Could I do it? And then as the months went by and the team started to get bigger now because I knew that with what I do, it's not a case of winning or losing. It's a case of living or dying. And so I have to put in the right preparation. And so I started to generate teams in Mongolia, in the USA, in the World Geographic Society, find those people who had single-handedly walked across Mongolia solo and unsupported.

11:53And this is where things started to get interesting. That's when I realized a Navy soldier had attempted to walk across the country solo and unsupported on three different occasions, failed on all three accounts. So I was like, what can I do to learn from him, study where and why he wasn't able to push on and understand how maybe I can do what he couldn't do to achieve what he hadn't done. And that's where the competitive angle came in. So I would say almost that potential world first record being up for grabs motivated me even more so i was like okay with even without my friend matt i think i'm just gonna have to find a way to do it and now that the record is so low and unsupported because the nomads have crossed the land for thousands of years had to be alone no camels no horse no yak and self-sufficient you know i'd have to pull a trail away 18 stone and similar weight to tyson fury on a trailer for 78 days across the country altai mountains gobi desert mongolian step so then i was a little bit more like okay let's uh let's see if we can do something like this still waiting in line again that's time you'll never get back save time and money with stamps.com over four million businesses have skipped the line with stamps.com join them to save up to 90 off carrier rates from your computer or phone right now print postage for certified mail, registered mail, and packages in seconds.

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13:55New customer offer for initial plan term only greater than 50 gigabytes may slow when network is busy. See terms. I had a separate question I was going to ask you. I don't want to lose this train of thought. Yeah. At the end of that challenge, what was harder, the physical or the mental side of it?

14:10Great question. When you drop that bag and you... Yeah. you know where physically or mentally what was what was dominating i would say the mental and i would say the mental because after i studied the previous guy who was evacuated all three accounts from reading his journal it seems that it was affecting him more mentally physically i still believe he had what it took to push on even in the face of heat stroke which is usually fatal and when I was when I recall being under the trailer when I was slowly dying so I missed a water point there was a water point that it was dry but I was kind of relying on that water point and now that it was dry I had the last remaining dribbles of water so that I could survive the next four days to the next water source but before I reached that dry water source I was already two weeks deep into dehydration.

15:07So at this point I was hallucinating. I could almost feel my sort of organs drying up. I was delirious and I would continue to hide underneath the trailer because that's the only way that I could escape the heat of the sun. It was about 40 plus degrees Celsius. It was now a mix of gravel and soft sand, which meant the thin tires of the trailer was sinking in the soft sand. So it was kind of like pulling 500 kilograms at this point. was weaker, I was skinnier, I lost about 10 kilograms. And it was underneath that trailer that I realized if I continue to stay under the trailer without pushing on, I will die out here in the Gobi Desert.

15:43I hadn't gotten insurance. There was no insurance company that can cover someone who's alone in the country of Mongolia. And evacuation was non-exempt, impossible for evacuation other than overland transport. And then at that point, overland transport would taken about six days and i realized i don't think i can survive six days so i would say at that point in time it was the mentality that got me from out of the trailer and allowed me to push on rather than the the the physical ability i think the mind is always the one that has final say and the body can be pushed through an awful lot you know i've walked for five days with the the deadliest strain of malaria.

16:27And I think, again, even though my body was dying on me, it's the mindset that is just, you have to keep going. There's no one coming to save you. I can honestly say I've met some resilient, formidable people that just you described, and where you went then as well, part of your eyes went into that sort of back to under the trailer and then coming out again. And I appreciate you doing that. How far further can you push yourself? When you can feel your physical organs drying out, You're so present in the tumour body at that time. And you've gone through that. You've experienced that. How much further can you push yourself?

17:02Ash Dykes:I think if that community, which had the water, wasn't there, I think I would have died in the desert. There's an alternate universe where I just did not make it over there, which is a scary thought. Humbling as well. Very humbling. Because there's a part of you that's still got the twinkle in your eye for that sense of adventure. you know i i this this must be so painful for you sitting in a chair and having a chat you're like where's my next mountain and make it difficult on the way but you also have that perspective that you've come through probably one of many times that you could have died yeah i always say that it's not it's not about being a survivor with what i do it's about how well you're willing to adapt and that's happened time and time again on every expedition because i try to do different different environments whether that's mountains jungle desert polar region and then whether it's land air sea you know breathing underwater jumping out of planes but then coming back and actually sitting and having a conversation having a podcast and you know being back to the sort of obligations of media and press and I kind of find I'm able to tell those people within my industry who enjoy it who doesn't enjoy it.

18:15For me, I just, yeah, I love it. I love it because I do know that eventually I will suffer again. And it's actually the little stuff like this that stands out when I'm out there. But this is also where you have the chance to ultimately get the learnings. Yeah, it's true. Selfishly, I'm enjoying it right now and anyone else that gets to listen and watch is learning from someone that's gone through and will go through again. Something that I actually haven't put myself through and haven't chosen to or want to, which is a compliment to you. Yeah. Because that's where the learnings come from. I wonder what it'd be like.

18:43I wonder how far you could go. Well, speak to Ash. Where I wanted to go earlier was this Navy soldier that failed three times to do something that you did. There's a couple of things there for me. I wanted to bring up the fact that a few people in the kind of build-up to me talking to you related you to Bear Grylls. So he's the next Bear Grylls. Oh, okay. And the reason why I brought that up is not to draw any parallels, just to make the point that Bear has and had military training, which you never had. No. So this guy that failed a challenge, you then completed. Yeah. Failed it three times with all the training that goes with the military and the discipline and someone on them.

19:21So how have you taught yourself? Because I feel like you're probably one of the most practical people. He's talking about fixing the bikes. And so, yeah, massive compliment to you. But it's real, right? I can't imagine you having a problem you can't solve because you've had to solve so many problems to complete challenges. Yeah. And come up with the whole thing in the first place. Yeah. I mean, yeah, to be honest, it's a difficult one. It's a great one because that guy did almost put me off. Ripley Davenport, his name was. And when I looked into him, I mean, he looked like Jason Staten. You know, he was a hardcore guy.

19:55He had single-handedly crossed the Sahara Desert. So there was a point in time, probably the best part of two months that I was living in Thailand, that I actually brought the world map back out. And I was like, okay, maybe Italy would be nice to walk across. Let's do a place where there's people, where there's food, where there's water. But then I realized just because no one's found a way to do something doesn't mean it can't be done. And if I can do it, that will change my whole trajectory. That will enable me to stop fighting in Muay Thai for money. I mean, Muay Thai is brutal as it is, let alone in Thailand.

20:27To stop working as a scuba diving instructor, whilst it was fun, you get paid pennies again, especially in Thailand. And then not to come back to Wales, you know with so many people sort of tapping me on my back you know you tried your best to make it work but now off you go back to the fish and chip shop so I think almost what allowed me to keep going even though I had the lack of training and lack of experience was that inner motivation of the fact that if I complete this that will change my life as I know it that's a manifesting thing so you were putting yourself at the finishing line yeah and not only that even in the training so i flew back from thailand to make it happen originally i was like let's cycle from thailand to mongolia and walk across it i would have died trying for sure so i sold my dive kit booked a flight moved back to wales but i had to move back in with my parents because i had 200 pounds in my account i managed to find a grant of 5 000 pounds so mongolia world first record cost me 5k and i couldn't afford gym membership either so i had my uncle he was a lorry driver and he drops off a lot of different sort of items at different farms collect a tractor tire so all of the training for mongolia for a world first was done in my mom and dad's back garden you know sledgehammer flipping the tractor tire and what i was doing there is i wasn't necessarily visualizing the finish line i was visualizing every possible worst case scenario to the point of as you say i was trying to manifest it you know i'm a slight believer in like the law of attraction visualization to the point that if there's going to be wolves, expect to be attacked.

22:02If there's going to be sandstorms or snow blizzards, expect them to be the biggest and baddest. Not because I wanted them to be the biggest, of course I didn't. But if I was visualizing worst case scenario, and then I kept telling myself if worst case unfortunately was bound to happen when I was actually on the ground in Mongolia, it wouldn't happen as a sort of surprise, almost like a shock of capture it would happen as something that this is a shame that it's happened but I knew that this was a possibility you know I visualized this so best off just tackling and pushing on through and I realized in Mongolia before I did Mongolia everyone was there saying how are you mentally preparing for Mongolia and my answer was there is no way to mentally prepare and I corrected that belief or in Mongolia when actually I had mentally prepared I just didn't know I was doing it at the time but that was every bad outcome that hit i was kind of telling myself this isn't actually as bad as what i had in my in my mind when i was training in the back garden i mean at times it was with the dehydration but that was one of those that i kind of stopped thinking about all of that it was i felt sorry for myself then i was thinking about family and friends whilst i was underneath the trailer very human very nice yeah very human very natural uh but then it got to a point where i was just like if i continue to to dwell and feel sorry for myself when i voluntarily put myself into this situation then i'm a fool i can only focus on the one option that i have which is to get up from out of the trailer look at 100 meters in front of me again the the visualization walk that 100 meters rest under the trailer for five minutes i remember looking at my little watch five minutes was up get up from the trailer and if i can keep doing 100 meters you're breaking it into steps

23:42Ash Dykes:rather than one long time. That's invaluable to share. Yeah, yeah. And I use that with everything, everything that I do. What have you been most caught out by? So there's all these things you can try and visualize and plan, but all the things you've done, what's one thing that's, dare I say, scared you? Trading at Schwab is now powered by Ameritrade, giving you even more specialized support than ever before. Like access to the Trade Desk, our team of passionate traders ready to tackle anything from the most complex trading questions to a simple strategy gut check. Need assistance? No problem. Get 24-7 professional answers and live help and access support by phone, email, and in-platform chat.

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25:01The human aspect, people. animals and storms you can sort of weather the storm and prepare for it animals can be predictable there's certain methods to avoid or not to provoke attacks but the human element is is scary because it almost depends on so many variables did they have their coffee in the morning and if they did that will stop them from pulling the trigger for the barrel of the gun that they've currently got pointed at my face, like in the south of Madagascar. And then the south of Madagascar, again, I was kind of utilizing the jungle to stay hidden from the bandits. But then we realized that the bandits are utilizing the jungle to stay hidden from the military.

25:43But then we're being warned that the military are extremely corrupt and you don't want to face either. So pick your poison. So we exited the jungle only to be met by a drunken officer who just simply growled at me. Didn't even speak words, just growled at me. And the strap to the gun of his AK-47 continued to slip off his shoulder and he was catching the gun by the trigger with a barrel pointing at me and my guide. And we're just like, what do we do? How do we not get shot right now? And then there's a crowd that forms around us. And then there's two other drunken civilians trying to break through to physically fight me because they think I'm French and there's a dark history there with the French in Madagascar.

26:22So you've got all of this going on, a barrel of an AK of a drunken officer pointing at you. This guy and that guy both trying to break through to fight us. Luckily, the crowd are like keeping them back. And I just, there was something about that situation that was just very nerving, very out of your control. You know, I've had malaria. I've crossed crocodile infested rivers. I've been followed by a pack of wolves for two days. I've had to physically hide from bears in the west of China, slowly dying of heat stroke in the Gobi Desert, each and every one of them, I feel that the power's in my hands with malaria, keep going, with the wolves set up a fire, with the bears, local knowledge and stay hidden.

27:07But I mean, with the human aspect, if he makes a mistake, if he doesn't like you, if you say something wrong, if he didn't have his coffee that morning, if he's been in a mood, if he's just lost someone. You can't legislate for a drunken guy holding a gun, right? Yeah. And you're probably there thinking, I've got so far, there's so much I want to achieve. And I've got this guy that could just slip and end it.