Alfred Dunhill And Johnnie Walker - Celebrating a journey shared

When I set out on that circumnavigation the expedition was just this idea to go all the way around the world by human power, just the power of your mind, and your body. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. The fact that I completed a loop and ended up back at Greenwich is really a testament to the boat that Chris built. The boat has cemented our relationship and I think it’s had an effect that is going to be very hard to measure. The main thing is just to start the journey, even if you don’t quite know how it’s going to turn out or how long it’s going to take. And I remember two and a half weeks in the middle of the Pacific pedaling for 20 hours a day and waking up a few hours later and finding that I was back to where I started from the previous morning. And if I didn’t find a way to keep going then there was a greater chance of running out of food and that survival instinct kicked in. And it sort of encapsulated some of that spirit of being in a wilderness to find out more about who I was as a person. Absolutely, you simply don’t know if you haven’t pushed yourself, it’s the only way to measure yourself. I think that’s why we embark on a journey is to connect with the environments that we are in, with other people and with ourselves. The changes in the landscape are actually quite gradual. You can smell the difference. You can feel the difference. Suddenly here we are in a completely different part of the world. That day setting out, we were completely on our own and there was a strange wind against tide situation, the waves were the biggest we had been in so far and I remember dancing on the edge of my anxiety levels and then realizing that actually I had managed to control my fear. I think any other boat, given what it went through, a real beating would have sunk and it kept me alive. And now of course we have had so much time to reflect on what we learnt together… do you think our friendship is stronger as a result? I think it’s much stronger, yeah.