Going round the world - the hard way
Ice, deserts, seas and mountains await this South African adventurer in his quest to circumnavigate globe - around the poles.
|||Johannesburg - Adventurer and extreme athlete Mike Horn aims to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe north-to-south in a continuous expedition.
The South African started his round-the-world “Pole2Pole” expedition in Monaco on 8 May, where he set sail for Namibia in his boat Pangaea.
The Cape Town-born explorer will alternate between boat, skis, kayak and the Mercedes-Benz G-Class. The expedition will take the Mercedes-Benz brand ambassador from Europe to Africa and then on to the Antarctic, Oceania, Asia, the Arctic, North America and finally back to Europe.
The aim is to gain an insight into culture and nature in rarely explored regions. During his trip, the adventurer will be reporting on his experiences with people in different regions of the world on his website www.mikehorn.com and at #Pole2Pole on Twitter. The expedition is due to end back in Monaco in 2018.
“I consider everything I do a challenge,” said Horn, just before setting sail from Europe after weeks of intensive preparations and equipment tests in wintry Canada.
“I’m glad that the expedition is finally beginning and that many new impressions and experiences lie ahead.”
The next stage involves driving the G-Class through the world’s oldest desert, the Namib desert, on the Namibian coast. The route then passes through the Okavango delta in Botswana, the world’s largest inland delta, and on to Cape Town.
From there it’s across the Southern Ocean to Antarctica, where he will cross Antarctica on skis. Crossing finished, he will sail the Pacific from south to north, ending up in the Arctic.
He will then travel by ski and kayak to Greenland, where he will return to his boat and finish his trip by sailing back to Europe.
Horn has been pushing the limits of human abilitiesfor 25 years with a number of spectacular expeditions. He has circumnavigated the globe entirely under human power, followed the Artic Circle around the globe during the Artic winter, and swum the length of the Amazon River.
Mercedes-Benz has assisted him on his expeditions for many years, including 2015’s “Driven to Explore” expedition on which both partners raised awareness of environmental changes in even the most remote regions of the world.
Star Motoring