JASON LEWIS

...is the inspiration behind a unique project entitled Expedition 360: the first attempt to circumnavigate the world using only human power.

Since departing the Greenwich Meridian Line in 1994, he has travelled 20,000 miles - over half way around the planet - without assistance from either motors or the wind; pedalling a one-of-a-kind pedal boat across the world's oceans, bicycling and rollerblading over land.

In the year 2000, Jason entered the Guinness Book of Records by becoming the first person to pedal the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco in the US to Cairns, Australia - 178 days and 7,500 miles.

In 1994, with pedal partner Steve Smith, he completed the first East-West crossing of the Atlantic by pedal power, and a year later, became the first person ever to roller blade unsupported across the USA.

He is now halfway to achieving what has described by some as 'the last great human challenge'. It is expected for the remaining 16,000 miles to take a further 4 years to complete.

After bicycling from Greenwich to the south coast of England in July of '94, Steve and Jason pedalled 'Moksha' - the 26ft wooded pedal boat we built in the UK in 1993 - across The Channel before continuing on bikes through France, Spain and Portugal to the southern tip of The Algarve.

It then took 111 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean to Miami, Florida (4,300 miles). Along the way they encountered many adventures: severe storms blew them off course for days at a time; a whale used the underside of the boat as a scratching post one night; a fishing trawler nearly ran them down two weeks out from Portugal and a huge 40ft wave capsized the boat and almost washed Steve away.

By the time they reached Miami in February of 1995 and having spent 4 months never more than 4 feet away from the other person, Steve and Jason decided to travel separately for the US section. Steve used a bicycle to San Francisco and Jason used roller blades!

Just as he was beginning to get the hang of it (never before having skated), an 82 year old man with cataracts ran him down on the hard shoulder of a highway in Colorado, smashing both legs and putting him into hospital for 6 weeks. In the days that followed it looked certain that his left leg would have to be amputated due to the severity of the fractures.

With little else to do while wheelchair bound he began visiting local schools and started a collaboration with teachers to develop some of the educational activities now available to students via the website. The 'Classroom Expedition', for example, now has thousands of children connecting to the expedition team by satellite and conducting investigations in the classroom connected to science, maths and geography.

Thanks to the unorthodox healing methods of a Chinese Doctor in San Francisco, nine months later he was able to continue on from the original accident spot; climbing 12,000 feet over the Rocky Mountains and through the 130+ degree heat of Arizona to eventually arrive at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, 1,700 miles later.

Reunited again, he and Steve and decided to try an overland section through Central and South America to Peru, then pedal Moksha across the southern hemisphere to Australia. However, they reached as far as Honduras before nature abruptly halted their progress.

The 1997 El Nino affect had not only reversed the winds and currents in the southeast Pacific - making passage through this ocean region impossible - but many of the roads in Colombia and Ecuador they would depend upon to reach Peru had been washed away by floods.

They returned to San Francisco to try plan B: pedalling Moksha to Hawaii and then onto Australia - 7,500 miles of open ocean. The first attempt ended in near disaster, the voyage having to be aborted 10 days in due to severe weather. During the ensuing storm the boat flipped over and filled with water, destroying all the equipment and supplies inside. She very nearly sank during the salvage operation. It took 8 months to replace all of the internal equipment and supplies enough to try a second attempt. This time they were successful, pedalling the 2,400 miles in 53 days to Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii.

It was at this point Steve decided he'd had enough and decided to quit. Jason carried on alone.

The next leg - 2,300 miles from Hawaii to the island atoll of Tarawa in the Republic of Kiribati - took 73 days. After three weeks his body was covered in boils from the constant exposure to salt water. After four I was feeling lethargic and treated himself for assumed heat fatigue. His life was probably saved however by a doctor in Colorado who, having been following the daily website updates he was sending back from the boat, called on the satellite phone and diagnosed him with blood poisoning. By chance the necessary broad-spectrum antibiotics needed to knock out what was guessed to be a common pathogen in the seawater were in the bottom of the first aid kit. Otherwise he wouldn't have lasted more than a few days.

Halfway into the voyage he encountered the hardest section of the entire expedition to date - the doldrums. No huge seas or cyclones, just a steady 1-knot current running against Moksha's bow from the direction he wanted to go.

For 10 mornings in a row, having pedalled for 13 hours straight the previous day, he would wake up only to find the boat back at the same spot from where they started. It was the most demoralizing 10 days of his life.

Finally, having even resorted for the first time in his life to prayer, the current shifted and he was able to make it to the idyllic island paradise of Tarawa lagoon. But not before all three of the desalinator pumps broke down 100 miles and two day's pedal from land, leaving no option but to scavenge for chance rain showers with the saucepans out on deck.

In May 2000 he was joined by one of the original boat builders - Chris Tipper - for a 21-day pedal to the Solomon Islands. A 42-year-old schoolteacher from Colorado in the US - April Abril - then joined him for the remaining 1,100 day crossing of the Coral Sea to Australia.

Topics explored...

· Living your dreams: human potential is enormous when the individual is motivated. We are capable of achieving what others might deem 'incredible' or even 'impossible' if we believe in our self and our own potential.

· Commitment is the key: as Goethe said, "whatever you can dream, or think you can, just begin it". Sometimes just committing to taking the first step down a road, even if we cannot see the end of it, is the key to ultimate success.

· Live the day as if it were your last: we tend to spend so much of our lives in the future. "When I have this I will do that..." "When I am this I can do that..." But as we all know, tomorrow never comes. Living fully and enjoying the experience comes from being immersed in the moment - living 'present'.

· Promoting environmental responsibility: becoming aware of the effects of our actions on others and the environment both locally and globally is essential if future generations are to inherit the same immensely bio diverse planet as ours has.

· World Citizenship: understanding the similarities as well as the differences between cultures helps to build community both locally and globally.

· Technology - good or bad? Technology is neither inherently good nor bad. It is HOW we use it that determines whether it has beneficial or adverse effects for humans and the environment. Never before has humankind been presented so comprehensively with the tools to either destroy the planet upon which we ourselves depend upon for own survival, or safeguard its future.

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