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Charlie Walker had no budget, no maps, no training, and a bicycle worth just over a hundred pounds from eBay. What he did have was four and a half years, a burning curiosity about the world, and a willingness to roll with absolutely anything. Forty-three thousand miles and sixty countries later, he'd cycled to the ends of Europe, Africa and Asia — survived Tibetan blizzards
in Wellington boots, crossed the Gobi Desert on foot dragging a shopping bag, been locked up in Russia on fabricated charges, and paddled through the heart of the Congo.

This is one of those conversations that keeps surprising you. Charlie is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and one of Britain's finest adventure writers — his book Through Sand and Snow is a masterclass in unvarnished storytelling. But what stands out most in this episode is the quality of his mind: the way he talks about culture, about fear, about the humanity you find in the most unexpected places, and about why the struggle of getting somewhere under your own
steam changes everything about how you're received.

From a Tibetan family who saved his life in a blizzard to being arrested in Russia and spending weeks in detention, from a West African refugee camp that haunts him still to buying a horse in Mongolia that turned out to be the wrong horse entirely — Charlie's stories are rare, funny,
moving and deeply honest.

Chapters

00:00 Hippos at night and a Tibetan blizzard — teaser from the road
00:06 Welcome: who is Charlie Walker?
02:18 A village in the south-west, Duke of Edinburgh, and getting thrown off the programme
04:32 The idea: a Siberian vodka night and a hundred-pound eBay bicycle
07:45 What do you pack for a four-year cycling expedition?
09:15 Why human-powered travel changes how the world receives you
11:40 Belgium, Luke, and the complexity of occupied history
14:02 Turkey and Iran — the friendliest country Charlie has ever visited
18:45 Three months in Tehran: police interrogations that ended in tea
25:43 Tibet in January: Wellington boots, minus 30°C, and a Tibetan family who saved his life
28:10 The blizzard — visibility to 10 metres and slowly losing the will to carry on
32:43 Altitude, rations and losing 23 kilograms in illegal Tibet
34:57 Gobi Desert crossing on foot, and the logistics of water and food
39:45 Mongolia: buying a horse that turned out to be a stallion
43:30 West Africa at 19: a Sierra Leonean refugee camp in the forests of Guinea
50:59 Wildlife: hippos, crocodiles, Tibetan Mastiffs and a fox after the passport
54:10 Four and a half years later — did it meet expectations?
01:00:30 Russia, the Siberian arrest, and solidarity with Ukraine
01:03:20 The most joyous memory: solitude, a good meal, and an empty valley
01:05:23 What's next, and what happened to old Jeff
01:07:39 Call to Adventure: read broadly and talk to strangers
01:11:00 Pay It Forward: Médecins Sans Frontières


What You'll Learn:
• Why cycling to the ends of three continents with no plan, no maps and a hundred-pound eBay
  bike is actually a remarkably sensible way to begin a four-year expedition
• What it actually feels like to stumble through a minus-30°C Tibetan blizzard in Wellington  boots with no tent and no visibility — and who saves you when you're convinced you're dying
• Why Iran remains the friendliest country Charlie has ever visited, and how three months living among ordinary Iranians completely rewired his understanding of that place
• The Sierra Leonean refugee camp in the forests of Guinea that left him with a lifelong sense of shame — and what he tried and failed to do about it when he returned home aged 19
• How buying a horse in Mongolia led to two months walking a stallion he couldn't ride — and what the dzud climate catastrophe is doing to Mongolian nomads right now
• Why arriving somewhere exhausted, under your own steam, in a tatty old bicycle, changes everything about how people receive you — from Kenya to Kazakhstan

CHARLIE WALKER | British Explorer, Author & Keynote Speaker
Website: cwexplore.com
Instagram: @cwexplore
Books: Through Sand and Snow | On Roads That Echo
Pay It Forward: MSF — Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)

ABOUT CHARLIE WALKER
Charlie Walker is a British explorer, writer and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society who has covered over 60,000 miles across six continents by bicycle, foot, horse, ski, kayak and dugout canoe. His debut book Through Sand and Snow is the account of his 43,000-mile, four-year bicycle journey from Britain to the ends of Europe, Asia and Africa — undertaken with no budget,
no training and a hundred-pound secondhand bike. He has since returned to Siberia, Papua New Guinea and, most recently, West Africa. His second book, On Roads That Echo, is also an Amazon Top 10 bestseller. He has appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience and has written for The Times, The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, Wanderlust and Geographical.

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The Adventure Diaries Podcast also covers a broad spectrum OF topics withIN the fields of Adventure, Exploration, Micro-adventure, Survival, Mental Resilience, Conservation, Scotland, Hiking, Solo Travel, Cycling, Nature, Storytelling, Mountaineering