The Call to Adventure Podcast

Ben Turner is a real-life man of the mountains. Since starting his outdoor career as a Physical Training Instructor in the Army, Ben’s been passionate about physical fitness and exploring the world’s extreme mountain environments. As well as winning international military competitions, he has led mountaineering expeditions in remote and dangerous places including South Africa and the Himalayas. Ben has also completed a series of impressive endurance challenges including a 3373-kilometer solo bikepacking trip around Iceland and 16 marathons in 16 days in all 16 National Parks in the UK. During his travels, he developed a keen interest in exploring the limits of what the human body can do. The most important lesson Ben learned is that exercise should be a celebration of what the body can do, and he set out to learn how to adapt the body to not only become adventure-ready and expedition fit but fit for life. Now a Level 4 Personal Trainer and MNU Certified Evidence-Based Nutritionist, Ben is on a mission to change the way fitness and nutrition are taught. We dig into the juicy deets and how you can transform your own fitness, prepare for adventure and get fit for life, just by starting from where you are. Be prepared to be inspired to up your game!

Dan Yates has been passionate about white-water kayaking for over 30 years. He’s travelled to some of the wildest and remotest landscapes on earth and has had some incredible adventures, including being lost on the Tibetan Plateau with no food or water! He has a boatload of first white-water descents under his belt and kayaking has taken him to some seriously epic places where no human has ever been before. During the last decade, he has become more focused on the environment and the need to protect these beautiful landscapes. A plan to dam and divert the Fairy Glen Gorge in Snowdonia led to him co-founding Save Our Rivers in protest, and after a three-year campaign, the plans were dropped. Since then, Save Our Rivers has successfully campaigned against plans for dams in protected areas and fought changes to legislation that would remove protections of our most beautiful landscapes. Listen in as we dig into Dan’s kayaking adventures, his work with Save Our Rivers and the need to protect our wild rivers and National Parks for future generations to enjoy.

Laura describes herself as a wild swimmer, ‘waterlogger’, adventurer, environmentalist, company director, artist and a mum – sounds like an awesome job description to us! She wasn’t always a passionate advocate of wild swimming though. In her previous life, she worked in a senior position in teacher training in Llandudno. It was a very busy and stressful career that eventually led to burn-out and Laura becoming extremely unwell with fibromyalgia, even needing a full blood transfusion at one point. To help relieve her stiff joints a doctor suggested taking cold baths, which didn’t really appeal to Laura. She took her treatment into her own hands by swimming in the nearby sea and noticed it had a positive effect on her symptoms. Laura soon became hooked on wild swimming, loving the sense of freedom and the beauty of her surroundings. Eager to help others experience this, she founded We Swim Wild, a not-for-profit that promotes open water swimming coupled with environmentalism. Laura has taken part in various environmental research projects and is currently partnering with Bangor University, collecting water samples from the UK’s National Parks for testing for the presence of microplastics. Listen in as she discusses burnout, her recent ADHD diagnosis and the importance of protecting what you love.

From instructing, teaching, Search and Rescue to family liaison with a smattering of street entertaining along the way, Action Man Moose Mutlow has definitely been there and done that! Born in Birmingham, Moose spent some years living in Australia, South Africa and Europe before settling in the United States. Like many future adventurers most of his childhood was spent outdoors in nature exploring and building dens, but it was a trip to Scotland to take part in a survival course that changed the course of his life. Watching the instructors at work was a lightbulb moment as he realised he could actually make the outdoors his career. Since then he’s directed Outward Bound training courses in Appalachia and been a deputy Headmaster in the Kalahari Desert, taking middle school students on expeditions through the Australian rain forests and beyond. He’s also worked as a ski instructor and has recently returned from teaching a canoe program to Veterans in the Gulf of Mexico. Moose has been a senior trainer for Search and Rescue at Yosemite National Park for more than a decade. And if that’s not enough he’s also Lead Trainer for Family Liaison Officers for the National Park teaching services – phew! Amongst that little lot he’s also found the time to write a couple of books based on Search and Rescue and his work as a Family Liaison Officer. Listen in to hear more about Moose’s amazing and diverse career.

Wavemaker’ Nick Hounsfield was introduced to surfing by his father in the 1970s and soon developed a passion for it. He started to see surfing as a tool for having conversations around wellbeing, which led to him founding The Wave – an inland surfing destination for people of all abilities and backgrounds. Nick’s idea was to create a space where people could connect with each other, themselves, and with nature. He champions ‘blue health’ – the physical and mental health benefits of being in and around water. The Wave opened in Bristol in 2019 using ground-breaking technology, and Nick is planning on expanding the concept across the UK. Nick has been involved with supporting and growing the para-surfing community, and The Wave hosted the English Adaptive Surf Championships in 2020 and 2021. Nick experienced first-hand the role surfing can play in overcoming health issues when he suffered a series of strokes in February 2020. Luckily he has made a good recovery but recognises that things could have been so much worse. The experience has made him more determined than ever to create a safe, sustainable space to promote health in body and mind. Listen as we get into the details of how Nick was inspired to create The Wave and the lessons he’s learned from his own health challenges.

Meet Charlie and Dale of Nohma , currently travelling Europe and living full time in their self-built camper van. Fed up with living for evenings and weekends, Charlie and Dale gave up their secure 9-5 office jobs for a life on the road – working remotely from wherever their fancy takes them and waking up to gorgeous mountain views. They started building Ringo, their bright yellow Sprinter van, in January 2019, fully intending to go exploring when they were done. Ringo was finished in March 2020 – just before the first UK lockdown! Undeterred, Charlie and Dale turned their hands to helping others with their van conversions, becoming Instagram stars in the process. They used their backgrounds in science and engineering to write the Van Conversion Bible , which fast became the bestselling van conversion book of all time. They've also launched their electric design service for campervans When they’re not chilling and working in their van, they’re out climbing. Join us as we dig into all things van conversion, nomadic living and their passion for climbing.

Long-term adventurer and explorer Ness Knight has not always called her West Yorkshire farm home. Ness has pioneered some of the world's toughest and most intriguing expeditions, such as her trip to the Essequibo River with the Wai Wai tribe and her adventure partners Pip Stewart and Laura Bingham. A quest which led them to discover much more than the previously unknown source of the river. Ness has also crossed the Namib Desert region solo, swum the length of the Thames and made a world-first descent of the third largest river in South America. It isn't merely firsts and records Ness is interested in however. Meeting local tribes and indigenous peoples, connecting with their way of life and understanding the way they exist in their home landscapes has led Ness to lay some roots of her own at home by starting up a regenerative farm in Yorkshire. Ness is passionate about regenerative agriculture and biodiversity and we dig deep into what this could mean for the future of the planet. Join us for this adventure and sustainability belter, Ness really knows what she's talking about.

Join Isaac, Lukas and Alex as we discuss the biking adventure that took them from the Orkney Islands in Scotland down to the Isles of Scilly, fitting as many National Parks as they could in between and navigating the water crossings by water bikes. An adventure taken on by this bunch of eco-adventurers, and it must be said eco-optimists, who hoped to spend their trip shining a light on the issues currently facing the UK’s green spaces and what we can do to protect them for the sake of the planet and our own wellbeing. The team dig into the people they interviewed en route, the most exciting bits of their adventure, their epic film documentary and what they have planned next. Tune in!

Pete McNeil has been riding bikes for as long as he can remember. At the age of 12 he started really upping his game, racing and riding wherever he could and always setting the bar a bit higher. Since his childhood riding days Pete has become an accomplished bike guide, racer and adventure leader, whose endeavours have taken him on a 2 year ride to New Zealand with his wife Alice, the infamous Silk Road Mountain Race and most recently the Highland 550. We chat to Pete about ways to get started as a mountain bike guide, the myth of needing the newest gear before you set off for an adventure, and the strange quiet that comes after a big adventure. Tune in!

Libby Bowles had a pretty great life back in the early 2010’s, working as a conservationist and animal behaviour expert in coastal Mozambique, spending her days working on ground-breaking research and living in her beach shack, surfing the evenings away. Eventually, a resurfacing feeling that she had to do something more led her to walking away from paradise and back to rainy Britain to educate, inspire, empower people to do more to combat ocean pollution. Formerly a school teacher, Libby Bowles recognises a unique power in young children. Full of clout, an untainted feeling that they can change the world (spoiler alert: they can) and quite frankly, cuteness, kids are perfect at getting the message across to the adults in their lives and at creating a more hopeful future for themselves and the planet. We chat about cycling adventures, building bamboo bikes and the joys of stand up paddle boarding. But predominantly, we dig deep with Libby about just why single use plastic is so bad, what we can do about it on a basic level and why finding our unique superpower, be that implementing policy, creating art, speaking or funding, is the answer to a better future.

Charlie Head circumnavigated the country to get people talking about mental health Charlie Head is no stranger to adventure. His stand up paddle board has taken him across the Arctic, through the Nile and along the Amazon, meeting and living with tribespeople and locals along the way to discuss education, community and the environment. His most recent achievement was his circumnavigation of the UK, which he pursued as an opportunity to spread the word about mental health and encourage conversation up and down the nation. We discuss Charlie’s motivation for campaigning for mental health, the hardest bits of his journey and the incredible individuals he met along the way. Tune in folks, this one’s a belter.

Harrison Ward, or ’Fell Foodie’ on Instagram wasn’t always running up and down the Cumbrian fells with a stove and the ingredients for a hilltop curry in his rucksack. Though it’s how he spends most of his days now, it was a tough journey to get there. Harrison tells his story of overcoming years of depression and alcoholism and how eventually, it was the fells that saved him. Harrison talks about pulling himself out of the depths of darkness and making that first physical and metaphorical step towards recovery. It’s been a good few years since that first Hellvellyn summit and Harrison is passionate about spreading his message and getting more people outdoors. We discuss the power of hillwalking, being outdoors and the joy of cooking in the hills. Tune in to find out more.

Elise Downing was sat in her London grad job office, miserable with the corporate grind, when the idea of running around the UK first came to her. In 2015 the spent 10 months running a lap of the UK, gradually building up her mileage to running 30-40 miles a day and for the most part staying with friends or strangers. It was a trip that would teach her the power and presence of kindness in the UK, the joy of long distance adventures and that the hardest step is simply committing to it in the first place. Elise’s book, Coasting, is a touching, witty and inspiring account of her travels and why every person, however ordinary they think they are, is capable of adventure. Elise’s book is available to buy from Waterstones , Amazon , Blackwell's and most other book retailers.

Alex Staniforth has battled anxiety, disordered eating, depression, bullying and even avalanches to get to where he is, a trailblazer for achieving mental wellbeing through being outdoors. At just 26, he is already a record-breaking adventurer and ultra-endurance athlete, with a fair few achievements under his belt. Having endured both the 2014 avalanche in Nepal and the earthquake in 2015 whilst attempting an Everest summit, completed the National 3 Peaks by foot in just 9 days and taken on countless other runs, summits and adventures, Alex is a force of nature. It is the force of actual nature however, that has taken him to where he is now, founder of Mind Over Mountain. Mind Over Mountains is a charity that helps restore people’s mental wellbeing through the outdoors, mindfulness and “walking and talking.” We dig in to Alex’s mental and physical highs and lows over the last few years and how the “Natural Health Service” came to be his knight in shining armour. If you want to join a Mind Over Mountains event, find out more or learn how you can support them, you can visit their website here - https://mindovermountains.org.uk

We are releasing this podcast a few days after Alex's passing on Mera Peak in Nepal, where he was training to become to first person with Parkinson's to summit Everest. His family commented that "he went out exactly how he would have wanted to, off the high of having completed another adventure on top of the world about to step into a helicopter ready to take on the next challenge." We hope this episode does such justice to such a trailblazer of a man, and that it goes on to inspire you to live your fullest life, whatever hurdles are thrown your way. Alex Flynn has always had a high threshold for pain. But when diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at 36, his whole life changed. Determined not to let it define or restrict him, Alex has dedicated his life to raising funds for Parkinson’s research, and aims to inspire others with disabilities to live full, joyous and stretching lives. We discuss how Alex has become the master of his own life and just how he managed to complete 10 million meters of running, walking and crawling around the globe. Tune in to find out more!

Jarvis Smith is the co-founder of My Green Pod, the UK's leading ethical lifestyle store and media company, on a mission to help people live more sustainable lifestyles and purchase ethical alternatives to mainstream products. They hope to encourage businesses to change their models and practises, and for individuals to lead the charge. In this episode, Jarvis shares with us the moment he vowed to dedicate his life to inspiring people to live more conscious lifestyles, on camera in front of millions of viewers. Guided through life by shamanic teaching and principles, Jarvis offers us the chance to look closely at nature, listen to it, to give back what we take from it. From easy tips to becoming a more ethical shopper, to deeper conversations about what is really need to tackle the climate crisis, this is an episode you won’t forget.

Wild swimming is like a secret society these days. With those 'on the inside' having access to a whole new type of outdoor euphoria, connection with nature and mind-body experience. The good news is, this is no exclusive club. Wild swimming is for everyone. And Wild Swimming Brothers Jack, Calum and Robbie are here to get your psyched and ready. For those that are curious, seeing people jump ecstatically into cold lakes and hammer through ice with nothing but a swimming costume on can be simultaneously mesmerising and horrifying. If you're wondering how you can get a slice of the magic but have no idea how to start, this episode is for you. To find out how to get started, what to wear, how to find your first spot and other tips, tune in! Plus, there's a wild swimming quiz at the end and really, who doesn't love a quiz?

We all know that we need to take drastic action to avoid the imminent climate emergency. Rewilding will play a pivotal role in adapting to the unprecedented challenges to come. Everyone seems to be talking about rewilding, but what exactly is it, and how does it play into climate change? Rebecca Wrigley spills the beans. As one of the founders and now Chief Executive of Rewilding Britain, she really knows her stuff. Buckle up and take a listen.

Jenny Tough embodies adventure through and through. She's competed in ultra bikepacking races around the world including the Atlas Mountain Race, Silk Road Mountain Race No1, the TransatlanticWayRace, and the TransScotland to name a few. Jenny’s also on a mission to run solo and unsupported across a mountain range on every continent, some of which were world firsts, like her run across the Andes. She's currently on 5 of 6 and raring to go once things open up after covid subsides. Jenny is also the editor of the book Tough Women. Get listening for all the inspiration you need to get out on your own adventure.

This week we've gone for a completely different approach. Instead of delving into the life of an adventurer or activist I've teamed up with a co-host, Adam Hugill, to give you our best cycle touring and bikepacking tips. There's something for everyone in here from absolute beginners to more experienced bike rats. Our top tips range from the bigger overarching tidbits of advice, right down to specific bits of kit. Adam's bike toured in Europe, South East Asia, Japan, and North America. He has an awesome YouTube channel too which you'll find in the show notes. I share my stories bikepacking from our 18 month trip from Alaska to Panama seeking out the best long-distance off-road tracks and trails. Get listening and get planning your next trip.