The Rockall Solo Expedition

The Rockall Solo Expedition Rockall Solo is a unique endurance expedition to be undertaken by Nick Hancock in order to raise funds for Help for Heroes.

Since the first recorded landing in 1811, only four people have spent more than one night on Rockall. Rockall is a very small rocky island lying approximately 300 km (186 miles) west of St Kilda, which itself is 41 miles west of the Outer Hebrides. The outcrop measures just 25 metres (82ft) on its north-south axis by 22 metres (72ft) on its east-west axis. The summit is now just 18 metres (59ft) above sea level, having been officially 19.2 metres (63ft) ASL prior to the top being removed by the Royal Engineers for a navigation light in 1971. The only flattish area of Rockall, named in 1955 as Halls Ledge after the first recorded person to land there, is just 3.5 metres by 1.3 metres (11 foot by 4 foot). There are no plants on Rockall, and the only animals are resting birds. Greenpeace placed a solar powered beacon over the frame of the original navigation aid in 1997, and returned to upgrade the light in 1998. This was the only permanent mark of human occupation on Rockall until it too succumbed to the ravages of an Atlantic storm two years later.

The earliest recorded landing on Rockall was in 1811, by a Royal Navy officer called Basil Hall from the HMS Endymion. Hall observed that, the smallest point of a pencil could scarcely give it a place on any map which should not exaggerate its proportions. On 18th September 1955 at 1016 GMT Britain claimed Rockall, and in 1972 The Isle of Rockall Act was passed, which made the rock officially part of the District of Harris, Scotland. This represented the last territorial expansion of the British Empire. Rockall is today probably most famous for being an area of the BBCs Shipping Forecast. In 1985, a former SAS soldier, Tom McLean, lived on Rockall in a wooden shelter bolted to Halls Ledge, setting the record for the longest solo occupation of the islet at 40 days. Then, in 1997, several members of Greenpeace were landed by helicopter. They stayed in a kevlar re-enforced capsule for 42 days, setting a new longest occupation record, albeit by a group.

They were regularly resupplied and the team swapped over from a nearby vessel. Nicks original aim was to land at the end of May this year and attempt to live on Rockall in his bespoke shelter, for 60 days, thereby setting two new endurance records: the longest solo occupation of Rockall and the longest occupation of Rockall in history. Due to the harsh weather conditions and the ocean environment (waves regularly top Rockall even in the summer month) a bespoke rigid shelter is required. Having considered various options, Nick settled on converting a water bowser, made by Trailer Engineering, and now christened The RockPod. The bowser provided the required shape, size and rigidity for the shelter, whilst having the additional benefit of being designed to keep water in (so logic says it should keep water out!). Having been donated several yacht hatches by Lewmar, these were fitted with some issues due to their low tolerance to curves.

The pod is manufactured from 10mm thermal plastic, and some remoulding was required. The RockPod was subsequently insulated with expanding, fire retardant foam, and a floor fitted. The shelter will be tethered to Rockall using in-situ stainless steel ring bolts placed by Greenpeace, ratchet straps provided by Safety Lifting Gear, and 1 tonne lifting points bolted to the pod, which were donated by William Hackett. With the shelter designed and built, the next major issues were that of food and water. There are no fresh water sources on Rockall, and Nick considered taking desalination equipment (theres lots of sea water out there!). However, due to limited power options and the potential for breakdown, he has decided to take the majority of his freshwater requirement with him, with the remainder being supplied by rainwater collection. Again, various options were considered for food. Dehydrated rations would be light, a benefit for hauling up the rock, but would require extra fresh water to rehydrate. In addition, they rehydrate better when heated. Wet rations have the advantage of, well, being wet and can be eaten hot or cold, cutting fuel requirements.

Fresh food, apart from an initial small supply, has been disregarded due to bulk and the lack of refrigeration facilities, even though its likely to be pretty cold for most of Nicks time on the rock. Power, which will be used to charge a satellite phone, VHF radio, and a laptop, will be provided by a combination of solar panels and a micro-wind generator, provided by Ampair, with storage provided by a portable battery pack. Nick is also considering taking a small recreational petrol generator for emergency use. The electronic equipment will not only allow Nick to blog and Tweet, thereby bringing his expedition to the wider world, but will also enable to him to stay sane with electronic books and music (theres not much else to do on Rockall!). In order to keep himself busy during the 60 days alone, Nick has also devised a number of scientific projects to undertake whilst on Rockall. These include obtaining rock samples from both Rockall and the nearby Hasselwood Rock for study by the British Geological Survey; establishing the true orientation of Rockall, which to date has only been estimated; conducting a GNSS survey of the rock; and collecting any insect and algal samples he is able to identify for future study by the Natural History Museum. Unfortunately, due to lack of funding (the boat charter alone is 13,500) the main expedition has been postponed for a year until 2013.

However, Nick is still heading out to Rockall at the end of this month on a reconnaissance trip, The Rockall Jubilee Expedition, and will attempt to land and hopefully, weather dependant, spend a night on the rock in order to test his clothing and some of his kit. Nick also hopes to raise a flag in honour of HM The Queen during the Silver Jubilee weekend, and will be accompanied by BBC Radio Scotland, who will be broadcasting a programme about the expedition on Monday 4th June.

You can find out more about the Jubilee expedition, follow Nick on this expedition and the future 60 day attempt, and sponsor him in support of Help for Heroes at www.rockallsolo.com ."

Tunisia - Cave Rescue Training 2012 Report

Successfully finished the mission of the 6 - Bulgarian cavers team in Tunisia. Group which was composed of representatives of Sofia caving clubs Academic, Vertilend, Keving, Helicitit and Black Peak: Alexei Zhalov - Head; Gyorev Vanyo, Kamen Bonev, Constantin Stoilov, Nikolai Kamenov and Svetlomir Stanchev from the SC Prista - Ruse carried out the 6-day course for initial training for cave rescue techniques. From the Tunisian side event was organized by the Association Sport for All and the Speleological Association of Zaghouan.

Its realisation was supported by speleo equipment and financially by the Fund Euro Speleo Projects of the European Federation of Speleology a result of prepared and submitted by the SCVertilend- Sofia project. In the training took part 3 cavers from Algeria, 2 Iranians, 4 cavers from Morocco and 12 from the host country or a total of 21 persons. The practical exercises was held in a labyrinth of abandoned mine ores at the foot of the Zaghouan Mt. (1295 m above the sea) rising above the town. The natural range enable the participants to learn and practice techniques for dealing with stretcher transportation in a cave, rigging , the hauling up of the stretcher in vertical sections of pulley and counterweight system, building and running a trolley, haul down the stretcher etc.

Someone managed to master most of the above methods and others of them, but in the end everyone left the course with more knowledge and skills certified for participation in courses, but not that he is a qualified Cave rescuer . The course enabled the Bulgarian cave rescuers to share their experiences in cave rescue. During his stay in Tunisia the Bulgarian cavers penetrated in 4 caves in Jebel Serge Massif (1375 m above the sea) located about 150 km southwest of Tunis.

Larger than they are Rhar Jebel Serge or mainsail de la pass which is the deepest cave in Tunisia (displacement of 305,8 m (+139.3; -166.5) and a length of 2.5 km) and fantastic water cave Rhar d'Ain et Dab which is 2.7 km long. During the stay was collected zoological material from outside, and in particular cave invertebrate fauna. Undoubtedly made one of the secondary, but important destinations of the Bulgarian mission - to lay the foundations for fruitful cooperation with cavers from North Africa and Southwest Asia. We believe that our mission in Tunisia was very useful and successful and we hope it can be appreciated at home and abroad.

The group due to their and our foreign colleagues sincere and heartfelt thanks to Nicola Landzhev and his company Landjoff for his exceptional assistance to having made especially for this training cave rescue stretcher - something without which the training would be impossible.

Exploring the Yukon: 24th May to 3rd Aug 2011

Tom, Teo and I set ourselves the goal of paddling 3000 km down the Yukon River last summer. This unguided and unsupported adventure across North America took us 6 weeks and through some of the world's most beautiful and scarcely populated wilderness areas.

Our total lack of kayak/canoe experience made it that much more exciting (daft). Highly recommended!

Visit the website: http://www.exploringtheyukon.com/ 

Overland UK to Morocco with my son

What an incredible journey and experience. For 3 weeks my son Markus and I lived in our modified Land Rover which consisted of Tent, Cooker, Fridge, Shower and other expedition equipment to explore Morocco and the Sahara and to deliver donated supplies to the under privileged children in the remote areas.

We also managed to raise 1600 GBPfor a local charity called The Zipper Club who support The Papworth Hospital. Papworth specialize in cardiac surgery and saved my father several years ago. Below is a description of the trip, which I was asked to send to the local paper who did an article on our journey. There is also details of our trip on the Norfolk Zipper club web page- http://norfolkzipperclub.weebly.com/2011-morocco-adventure.html After driving from UK and through Spain we met the rest of the team in Malagaand headed to the ferry and onwards to Morocco. Things started to get interesting at the Moroccan border as my son was asked if he was carrying any guns or weapons.

He gave a cheeky smile and said No. The Moroccan border guard then ruffled his hair and then we were on our way into Morocco! Our first camp in Morocco was near the ancient ruins of Volubilis - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volubilis We explored the ruins of Volubilis the next day and my son, Markus, was amazed how they lived back then! We then headed deep into the Cedar forest and climbed up to 7,000 ft in the Atlas Mountains through dense forest, crossing rivers, splashing through muddy puddles and sliding on muddy tracks to reach our next camp. As soon as we made camp high up in the cold Atlas Mountains the heavens opened and we were soaked through to the skin by a tropical storm!

Not the Morocco we had imagined..! As we descended off the mountains we stopped at a very remote school to hand out some of the donated supplies. Several pens, pencils, rulers, note pads and paper were delivered which was gratefully received by the Children. All that was near the school was goats, a water well and several chickens! We then made our way to the Imperial city of Meknes to stock up on supplies as we were now heading for the Sahara. Markus had great delight in discovering that they could make pancakes in Meknes but soon lost his appetite when he spotted a skinned goat with its head still on hanging outside the caf. Our route took us to the Berber town of Tinerhir and over the Jebel Ougnat Mountains and we stopped at an area where they are digging for fossils.

This area is littered with Fossils and the Moroccans make beautiful ornaments with them and sell in the Souks but not everyone realizes they are dug out by a few guys with nothing more than a pick axe in the middle of the Desert. The tracks were punishing and we soon got into the routine of checking over the vehicles everyday to see what had broken or fell off. Markus and I became slick operators at making camp and preparing the food. Markus even washed the dishes a few times although was not a fan of that chore We then entered the gigantic dunes of Erg Chebbi. Erg Chebbi is an incredible place and some local Moroccans have built an Auberge. This is a place with basic amenities but we were shocked and delighted to see a swimming pool in the middle of the Sahara after several hot, dusty and sandy days - http://www.aubergedusud.com/

The Berbers then presented Markus with a birthday cake! What a surreal experience to see my son enjoy his birthday cake followed by a dip in the pool in the middle of the Sahara. Tummys full, well rested and clean we then set off even deeper into the Sahara and after a day of fighting sand dunes in the Land Rover with our tyres deflated slightly to aid traction we arrived at a Berber camp. These are nomadic people and there lifestyle is as basic as you can get. Everything they own they can pack on the back of a camel and move house. We delivered some clothes to the Berbers, and they were very kind and showed Markus around their home. To say Markus was gob smacked would be an understatement! We the fought on for several more days and our next target was the 20th Century city of Zagora. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zagora,_Morocco

Zagora has gained its reputation of being a good stopping point of any expedition as it has several garages who can jump into action at the drop of a hat (and right price, normally called the diplomatic price ). We spent a night here for stocking up on supplies again and took the opportunity to get our vehicles checked over. We had 10 vehicles and 6 of them needed serious attention! One even had a broken chassis.! Disaster we thought! How on earth can we carry on and complete our planned route in time and deliver the rest of the supplies. The 6 vehicles were left at the garage at 4pm and by 11am THE NEXT DAY they were all ready! The garage mechanics worked through the night and waved us good bye the next day. You don't get that service in the UK.!!! We were glad we had all our vehicles checked as we were now entering the Western Sahara and going further and further from any form of civilisation. This was also a dangerous area as this is known as a disputed area so it is known for bandits to regularly cross back and forth from Algeria.

The Moroccan army try to police this area but due to an invasion in 1995 some of the area is littered with land mines. We always had a briefing by our support crew leader John in the mornings but this one was different. We had strict instructions to stick to the track and stay behind him as he had information of a track which had been swept by the Army and was clear of mines and to put a wheel outside this track may ruin our day. We decided to stay at the back of the convoy for obvious reasons. We battled on through this section which was very rocky with the odd sand dune to surprise us. We then started meeting children towards the end of the route. We had no idea where they had come from as there were no buildings in sight or any signs of civilization.

We stopped often to greet them and handed out the remaining donated gifts and supplies and wondered how they knew where the mines were!? Since Markus had been so good at helping with everything, I asked him if he wanted to drive. He sat on my knee and drove through the mine field area for 30 minutes. I dont think there are many 10 year old boys who can say they have driven through a minefield in the Sahara..! Thankfully we got through without loosing anyone and we headed for Taroudanthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taroudant If we thought we would be arriving in a city full of glittering lights, cinemas and McDonalds then we would be wrong! Taroudant is a Berber market town and is full of character. Markus and I sat in the town and just watched everyday life go by.

We had a competition to see who could spot the craziest thing, I am not sure who won. We could not be further from what we consider our normal life back home! Markus and I walked around the Souks and investigated all the different arts, crafts and dried fruits. Even though Markus had been given a cake earlier in the trip, this was his actual birthday, and he put his hand in his pocket and bought me a drink to celebrate him turning 10 years old. Once at Taroudant our off road section of the trip was over and all our donated supplies had been handed out. It was tarmac all the way back to Spain, so nice easy drive, so we thought The road twisted and turned over spectacular cliff tops and sweeping bays. We stopped at the delightful fishing port of Essaouria which is fast becoming busy with surfers due to the Atlanic coastline.

The homeward journey took us via the coastal lagoons of Moulay Bousselham. However, our thoughts of a nice easy drive on tarmac was shattered when another tropical storm developed and washed the sides of mountains onto the roads. Roads were flooded and became slippery so we had to drive carefully through the floods, avoid the washed out roads and also keep an eye on the normal Moroccan motorist, who are not used to such slippery road surfaces. This can be confirmed by the amount of holes there were in the stone barriers on the side of the mountain passes. Tired and dirty we fell back into our hotel in Spain and enjoyed a full nights rest, hot shower and a few celebratory drinks. We had done it! Over the 3 weeks we had been to some incredible places, seen amazing things, met some fantastic people and had managed to deliver some donated supplies to make a small difference to a few children in Morocco.

The one single thing that stands out in my mind is just how friendly the Moroccan people are. Everywhere we went we were greeted with huge smiles, the shout of Salam and frantic waving as we drove past. We have raised over 1,600 GBP for the Norfolk Zipper Club which both Markus and I are very grateful. Just goes to show with a little effort you can make a difference and no matter where you come from, what your religion is or what you believe in, a smile is the same in any language!

Scott Laddiman Driver, Cook and Bottle washer

Outer Hebrides Way/ Timeless Way Hike

This is a vary rare hike, and we've only found 2 accounts of it ever being done (very strange). Crossing the Outer Hebrides The longitudinal nature of this island chain make it a great challenge to cross on foot, yet its astonishing that no official long distance footpath exists. Whilst plenty of short Km paths around these islands exist most visitors concentrate themselves in focal areas. Very few set themselves the feat taking in the whole chain. Stunning scenery and loads of wildlife awaits those who try bridging these islands.

The few small settlements will provide an insight in to a unique way of life here which has frontier feel about it. The expected hike will start at one of the main southern settlements of Barra and end at administrative capital of Stornoway some 140 miles later. A trip to St Kilda on the extremities of the UK, and whose population was evacuated in the 1930s is also on the cards as part of this challenge. 

Atacama Crossing - does anyone have any advice?

Hi In March 2013 i will be taking part in the Atacama crossing in Chile, this is a multi stage self supported event where competitors run or walk across 250km of the Atacama desert in 7 days.

The Atacama is the most arid inhospitable desert on earth and the whole race is at an altitude of between 2300-3300m . I am very excited about this event, I've waited all my life to take part in an epic hardcore challenge.

Has anyone out there done this already?

I'm always open to hints and tips .

Many Thanks

Emrys

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/SouthWalesfirerescue

The Brazil 9000 Expedition

Video Update #4 Black Gold (April 2014)In December 2013, 32 days after paddling out of Santarm, we reached the city of Belm and the end of our canoe voyage through Amaznia. The waters that wed followed for so long now disappeared into the Atlantic. It seems like ages since we set off from the source of the Rio Ma at Cabura, and it kind of has been; 158 expedition days, 3362km and a bunch of hold ups and side-projects on top of that. But thats ok with us, were learning to let this voyage run at its ownpace.This video update lets you see a little bit of our lives on the river, as we travel and build up our stories for an eventual film release. Watch it here.As always a big thanks goes out to all of you for your support and encouragement, our equipment sponsors and enthusiastic donors from all corners of the globe. And to the Amazonian river folk for their kindness, shelter and blackgold.Expect more news soon, now that our good old Ally canoe has been retired and we look south, to the road and the unknown.Until the next time,?Gareth Aaronwww.brazil9000.com****************Update #3 Caboclo Kingdom (March 2013)We are crossing Brazil from north to south on a historical human-powered journey of over 9000km (5500 miles), travelling by foot, paddle and pedal.Our time amongst the Amazonian people, known as 'caboclos', has been magical. This teaser video gives you a glimpse into life on the river and some of the stories we've been gathering. You can watch it here:http://brazil9000.com/caboclo-kingdom-update-3/A very special thank you to our equipment sponsors and all the kind folks whose donations are helping to keep our voyage across Brazil going.For more info please visit:brazil9000.comUntil the next time,Gareth Aaron****************Update #2Found in a Lost World (November 2012)Searching for our start point and the journey down the Rio Ma was one of the toughest phases of the expedition that well face. With so many stories to tell and already a big archive of footage, were releasing these brief video updates whenever we get an internet connection:http://brazil9000.com/found-in-a-lost-world-update-2/...and to get the full story and photos see http://brazil9000.com/diamonds-or-gold/Right now we are in Boa Vista, the state capital of Roraima. Its been good to get some rest, eat a lot and process our photos and video footage. We also need to fix our canoe which took a beating on the rapids on Ma. Manaus lies 800km away down the Rio Branco and Rio Negro, well be checking in there in around a month for another update. Along the way well be tweeting via our Yellowbrick tracking device - follow us @skeetoloungeA big thanks to everybody for all the support and encouragement.****************A record breaking voyage across Brazil by foot, paddle and pedal.Aaron Chervenak Gareth Jones are crossing Brazil from north to south on a historical human-powered journey of over 9000km (5500 miles).Its a journey that has never been attempted, not even with the use of motorized transport.The expedition started September 2012 at the source of the Rio Ma at Monte Cabura in the remote Amazonian region where Brazil borders Venezuela and Guyana. It ends, around 15 months later, at Chu on the border with Uruguay.After travelling through the Amazon basin by canoe, they will hike out across the scorched Caatinga hinterlands and on down thousands of miles of tropical coastline.Through photography and film, Brazil 9000 will present an unprecedented portrait of Brazil and the Brazilians; visiting indigenous territories, deforested ranch lands, industrial ports, deserted beaches, fishing villages, pristine jungle and huge metropolises.The project will reach a global audience, with content in both English and Portuguese, with regular web updates, film and a series of photographic exhibitions to coinicide with the Brazil World Cup (2014) and the Rio Olympics (2016). Ideas for an educational program linking UK/US and Brazilian schools are also being developed.