The Pursuit Zone Paul Schmid

In August 2019, he began a 780 km trek across Madagascar.  Joined by three team members, the goal was to walk east to west along Madagascar’s longest river, the Mangoky.  The journey was 29 days through jungles and across mountain ranges while avoiding crocodiles and the threat of armed bandits.  Part of the adventure is to raise funds and awareness for the loss of wildlife and wild lands across Africa by working with the African Wildlife Foundation.  You can learn more about Chaz and his adventures at thewildestjourney.com.  Chaz Powell, welcome back to the show.

He is on a mission to use human power to reach the peaks of the seven summits.  After cycling to Nepal and summiting Mt. Everest in 2016, he set out on a new adventure to reach the top of Carstensz Pyramid, the highest peak of Mount Carstensz in the Popua Province of Indonesia.  He began on bicycle from Nepal, crossing India, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and ending 9,000 km later in East Java Indonesia.  From there he continued by rowboat another 4,000 km to Papua Province, but because of local violence, he had to hitch a helicopter ride with a climbing expedition team to cover the final 70 km.  It was 2.5 years of training, preparing, cycling and rowing to reach the summit.  You can learn more about his adventures at his website jelleveyt.be.  Jelle Veyt, welcome back to the show.

They saved their money and quit their jobs to begin traveling the world with the goal of reaching all seven continents.  Their fourth continent, Antarctica, is an expensive place to get to so they applied for jobs at McMurdo station, a US Antarctic research base with a summer population of about 1,200 people.  You can learn more about their 5 months at McMurdo and their other travels at their website peregrination-travel.com as well their YouTube channel Peregrination.  Zach and Leah, welcome to The Pursuit Zone.

His passion is undertaking expeditions through the mountains, thousands of kilometers long, on foot and usually alone.  These journeys provide an opportunity to look within and ponder life’s most profound questions.  For more than 2 decades he has walked over 20,000 km through mountain ranges in Europe and Asia.  In 2004 he did a first ever solo thru-hike of the Carpathian Mountains and in 2014 he hiked through the Zagros mountains in Iran.  Inspired by a summer adventure in Iceland, he returned to Iceland in 2020 to complete an east to west crossing in winter.  You can learn more at his website lukaszsupergan.com. Lukasz Supergan, welcome to The Pursuit Zone.

The North Sea Cycle Route extends along the coastline of eight countries bordering the North Sea.  It’s about 6,000 km long and is also known as EuroVelo 12.  It’s a diverse route covering land below sea level in the Netherlands to cliffs over 1,000 meters high in Norway.  Laura Kennington completed this journey over 70 days in the summer of 2018.  She has also recently authored a book titled Kairos, an ancient Greek word meaning the supreme moment, where she shares the stories and lessons learned from her adventures.  You can learn more at lauraexplorer.com.  Laura Kennington, welcome back to the show.

In February 2018, architects Guylee Simmonds and David Schnabel bought a marine survival lifeboat and spent a year converting it for a four-month, 5000 km voyage to the Arctic.  Along with a dog named Shackleton, they traveled from the UK to Tromsø, the largest city in the Arctic, situated far north in the Norwegian Fjords.  The aim of the expedition was to design a self-sufficient boat capable of taking on the harsh environments, explore the wild and isolated Arctic landscape, and document the adventure through photography and film.  You can learn more at the website arctic-lifeboat.com.  Guylee and David, welcome to The Pursuit Zone.