Alastair Humphreys

Traveller and videographer

Biography:

Alastair Humphreys spent over four years cycling round the world, a journey of 46,000 miles through 60 countries and 5 continents. His books 'Moods of Future Joys' and 'Thunder & Sunshine' recount his epic journey described by explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes as 'The first great adventure of the new millennium.'

Alastair’s quest for adventure began young. Aged nine, he completed the 20 mile Yorkshire 3 Peaks challenge, then the National 3 Peaks in 24 hours aged 13. At 15 he cycled off-road across England. After leaving school, Alastair taught for a year in South Africa.

Whilst at university (Edinburgh and Oxford) Alastair cycled from Pakistan to China, Land’s End to John O’Groats, Turkey to Italy, Mexico to Panama and across South America. He ran a charity project in the Philippines and the London marathon dressed as a rhino.

Consciously steering himself away from becoming an expert in any one niche of adventure, Alastair is driven to try new challenges in new environments. Alastair has walked across southern India (following the holy Kaveri river), rowed across the Atlantic Ocean, run the Marathon des Sables (6 consecutive marathons through the Sahara desert), rowed to France, completed a crossing of Iceland by foot and packraft, and participated in an expedition in the Arctic, close to the magnetic North Pole. He has also walked across the Empty Quarter retracing the route of one of his heroes, Wilfred Thesiger, walking 1000 miles in 45 days through the desert in Oman.

The concept of microadventures led to Alastair being named as one of National Geographic's Adventurers of the Year. He has worked with clients including National Geographic, Talisker, Peugeot, Skoda, easyJet, Cartier, Victorinox, Vodafone, GoPro and Adidas on this movement. Alastair’s book, Microadventures, was an Amazon UK Top 20 Bestseller for all books. Grand Adventures reached Number 8 for all books on Amazon UK.

The speaker talks about:

Alastair’s inspiring, funny and yet challenging talks about his expeditions deliver a highly original case-study on self-motivation, setting small targets to achieve outrageous goals, the rewards of risk, the power of story-telling, the magnificence of our world, and a call to arms that nothing is achieved without being bold enough to begin it.

Keynote Speaker Programs:

• Microadventures
• Lessons from the Road