After over 690 days Filipe Masetti Leite is reaching the end of his incredible journey. The youth has ridden a horse from Calgary, Canada back home to Brazil, covering a distance of approximately 8700 miles. Although he has reached the Brazilian border, he still has over 1200 miles to go to get to his home town in São Paulo. He is momentarily at a standstill whilst his three horses pass through quarantine.
Tom Allen has managed to pull off his #freeLEJOG challenge without spending a penny. The British Adventurer added an edge to the iconic Land’s End to John O’Groat’s route, by leaving his wallet at home, relying solely on exchanging manual labour for food. Despite the nerves and excitement from being out of his comfort zone, and experiencing many highs and lows, he succeeded in this self-set challenge.
Adventurer Anne Quéméré is in the throes of an attempt to cross the Northwest Passage in the Arctic Ocean by kayak. The French adventurer departed from Inuvik, Canada late June and will travel 1864 miles to the Beaufort Sea. Climate change has opened up the Northwest Passage to explorers. But the clock is ticking for Quéméré as the passage will freeze over by the end of the summer.
Another expedition that is about to kick off in the coming months is Head over Heels 2014. It will see Emma Timmis run 4000km across Africa from Namibia to Mozambique beginning in August 2014. A team of two will support Timmis as she runs from the east coast of Africa to the west coast, about a marathon a day for several months.
Explorer Ann Bancroft has recently launched a huge new expedition; seven women, one from each continent, and seven expeditions, one on each continent. There is no better person to succeed in such a large scale endeavour than Bancroft – the first woman to trek to the Arctic and Antarctic. The first of the expeditions will see the team depart to India for a two-month journey to travel the length of the Ganges River. Their aim is to get people thinking about the importance of water.
In other news, National Geographic are offering up $50K for your expedition idea. This is your chance to make that elusive dream a reality with the launch of Expedition Granted. Record a video, telling everyone about your idea and why you should be chosen, upload it, share it on all your social media sites and voila, job done. The winner will be announced on September 30th.
There are officially no more excuses to remain an armchair adventurer. Alastair Humphreys has made it easy for you to explore with his latest book Microadventures: Local Discoveries, Great Escapes. And we have made it even easier for you: we have five copies to give away! Just fill in your name and email address to enter the competition.
And finally congratulations to this year’s Adventure Fund winners who are back home after completing their expedition to the Pika Glacier, Alaska. More news on this to follow!
Written by Orla O’Muiri | Image by Tom Allen