Q&A with Levison Wood: human-powered adventures
- X Magazine
- Mar 20, 2021
- 4 min read
By Evangeline Modell
Television presenter and world-renowned adventurer, Levison Wood, has walked the length of the Nile, across the Himalayas, Central America from Mexico to Colombia, across Botswana following the migration of African Elephants, among other expeditions. He tells X Magazine how doing human-powered adventures has connected him with nature.
Q: Do you think doing human-powered adventures has given you a bigger appreciation for the environment and why?
A: Just by the sheer fact that you're walking and travelling at the slowest pace, you can't really escape from whatever the environment might be, whether it's walking through the jungle, crossing a desert or climbing a mountain. You're physically connected to the environment in a way that you simply aren't in any other situation. If you're in a car going on a safari, that's great that you're visiting the place, but there’s always a barrier between you and the physical environment.
On my walks, it can be frustrating at times, it can be very slow-paced, but there’s no escape from it so you're forced into having interactions with people. You're forced into having conversations about all sorts of things like the way that people live and the challenges that they face. I think you just learn a lot more and ultimately walking is what humans have evolved to do over the last two million years so it's a very natural state physically and mentally and I think it does enable you to appreciate what's going on bit more.
Q: As someone who has experienced long journeys by foot, what have they taught you about climate change and environmental issues?
A: Just by virtue of the fact that you're walking and spending a long time embedded in countries, you spend a lot more time gathering different people's views, seeing with your own eyes the effects of climate change. Walking through places like Nepal, for instance, which has suffered enormously from soil degradation, the retreating of the glaciers and so on, its had a huge impact on the ecosystem, on the water tables, on wildlife, on habitat loss and all sorts of things.
The impacts that climate change is having are very apparent. When you're walking, you’re faced with them in the form of dangers, so that could be a landslide or flash floods. All of these things are happening as a result of the human impact on the environment.
When you're walking, you’re vulnerable to the consequences of climate change, and you have conversations with people who might have had their house swept away by a landslide or rockfall or had all their crops destroyed by a certain type of insect that until recently, perhaps, might not have inhabited that particular elevation. All of these things are happening on a pretty rapid scale.
Q: Can you tell us about a moment on a trip when you saw an environmental issue for yourself?
A: When you're walking through somewhere like Botswana in the African bush, you're up against it when it comes to nature. You're constantly on alert, you're constantly having to be considerate of the fact that there are animals out there that can either eat you or squash you.
Particularly in parts of Africa, where the human population has boomed in recent times, there's more encroachment on wilderness areas. There's a lot more human infrastructure that's impinging on places that elephants might have migrated through on their ancestral migration routes. There's a lot more competition for resources, water, watering holes, rivers.
Whereas before there was lots of land so animals were dispersed more, now there's a lot less land, which gives the perception that there’s more conflict going on, but it's just a consequence of the fact that there are less options for things like elephants to get access to water. Humans are building their villages all along rivers or in the way of these ancient routes so obviously there is going to be a lot more conflict. That can end badly for humans, but it usually ends much worse for the wildlife that's concerned. You see that when you're walking through these areas and you hear these stories.
It's very sad for the villagers when they say that an elephant has come into their garden and has eaten their annual crop which is going to result in them not making any money that season. But when you look at it from the elephant's perspective, you think this is the elephants’ land or it used to be until very recently. It's about trying to find a balance.
Q: What advice would you give anyone who wants to go on a human-powered adventure?
A: There’s lots of preparation that you need to do in terms of being physically fit. I think the biggest challenge is getting emotionally and mentally prepared for travelling a lot slower than you would otherwise be. It can get quite monotonous. But it's all about getting into a rhythm.
For me, if I’m going on a journey of six months, the first week is usually quite exciting, the second week you think it’s quite daunting and it's not until you actually stop worrying about the timeframe that you get into a rhythm. You've just got to immerse yourself in the environment and enjoy the really slow pace of life. I find it quite rewarding when all your life choices are taken away from you. You literally focus on where the next meal is coming from, or the next village where you can go and buy some food. It makes life very simple and it's quite nice.
It can be daunting but when you break it down and work out the mileage to get from A to B it's actually not that bad. It's all possible, as I sort of proved with walking the Nile. As long as you’ve got the tolerance physically and emotionally, then I think anyone can do it.
For me, it's always made worthwhile by the people that I meet along the way. You have adventures, there's a few dangers thrown in, but ultimately, it's made enormously rewarding by all the lunatics that you bump into, which can result in sometimes lifelong friendships. I'm still friends with a lot of my guides or random people I met along the way and I think that's quite cool.
Levison’s latest book, The Art of Exploration, comes out September 2021. You can also purchase tickets for his third UK tour here. You find out more on his website, on Twitter @Levisonwood and Instagram: @levison.wood
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