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Jason Lewis | |
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| Born | (1967-09-13)13 September 1967 (age 58) |
| Occupations | Explorer, author, speaker |
| Website | explorerjason |
Jason LewisFRGS (born 13 September 1967) is an English author,[1] explorer andsustainability campaigner credited with being the first person tocircumnavigate the globe by human power.[2][3] He is also the first person to cross North America oninline skates (1996), and the first to cross the Pacific Ocean by pedal power (2000). Together with Stevie Smith, Lewis completed the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from mainland Europe to North America by human power (1995).
Lewis set off with friend and fellow adventurer Stevie Smith fromGreenwich, London on 12 July 1994, to complete the world's first human-powered circumnavigation, and the two dubbed the journeyExpedition 360. By July 2007, Lewis had travelled over 60,000 km (37,000 mi). He successfully ended his 4,833-day expedition on 6 October 2007, having travelled 74,842 km (46,505 mi).[4][5]
In mid-1994, Lewis and Smith mountain-biked 2,700 kilometres (1,700 mi) through France, Spain andPortugal to the port ofLagos, Portugal. Departing on 13 October 1994, Lewis and Smith then pedaled 111 consecutive days and 7,200 kilometres (4,500 mi) across the Atlantic Ocean from Portugal toMiami, Florida in a wooden pedal-powered boat namedMoksha.
Lewis thenrollerbladed thousands of miles across North America. He was struck by a drunk driver inPueblo, Colorado, and spent nine months recovering from two broken legs. He finished the North American expedition leg in 1996. In 1998 and 1999, Lewis and Smith spent 53 days pedalingMoksha across the Pacific Ocean fromSan Francisco, California toHilo, Hawaii, where Smith ended his journey. In four days, Lewis and a small group of supporters hiked the 80 miles across Hawaii.
After 73 days of solo pedalingMoksha across thedoldrums, Lewis completed the Pacific Ocean crossing from Hawaii to the islandatoll ofTarawa. In May 2000, he was accompanied byMoksha's builder, Chris Tipper, to pedal the 1,300-mile stretch from Tarawa to theSolomon Islands. With the help of friend and expedition supporter April Abril, Lewis then pedaledMoksha 1,450 miles for 32 days across theCoral Sea to Australia. In 2001, Lewis and a group of supporters spent 88 days cycling 3,500 miles across the Australian outback, starting nearCooktown, Queensland, and finishing in the port city ofDarwin, Northern Territory.
After spending many years raising funds to continue Expedition 360, Lewis was reunited withMoksha in 2005. He and expedition supporter Lourdes Arango pedaled 450 nautical miles from Darwin toDili,East Timor.
Throughout 2005, Lewiskayaked thousands of miles through the Indonesian archipelago from East Timor to Singapore. In 2006, he biked from Singapore to theHimalayas, and biked and hiked through the Himalayas to the port ofMumbai. Covering 2,000 nautical miles in 46 days during early 2007, Lewis and friend Sher Dhillon pedaledMoksha from Mumbai,India, crossing theArabian Sea toDjibouti.[citation needed]
Lewis then planned to travel throughEthiopia,Sudan,Egypt, and the Middle East before reaching Europe[6] – encountering a problem at the Sudan-Egypt border. The Egyptian authorities would not let him pass through their waters, and when his visa for Sudan ran out he was left with an "impossible decision".[citation needed] He attempted to kayak acrossLake Nasser toAbu Simbel but was arrested on suspicion of spying. He was released, but Egyptian authorities forbade him from cycling the 178-mile journey toAswan. He completed this section illegally by riding partly at night.[7] During his journey through Sudan he encountered actorsEwan McGregor andCharley Boorman who were travelling south as part of theirLong Way Down motorbike trip.[8]
In July 2007, Lewis reachedSyria, and then cycled acrossTurkey,Bulgaria,Romania,Austria, Germany, andBelgium before returning to London on 6 October. PullingMoksha in tow, Lewis crossed the Greenwich Meridian Line where he had begun his expedition 13 years earlier.
During his expedition, Lewis twice survivedmalaria,sepsis, a bout of mild schizophrenia, and a crocodile attack near Australia in 2005.[9]
As part of a wider interest in sustainability and education, Lewis has visited more than 900 schools in 37 countries, giving talks to students and involving them in a variety of programs to promote world citizenship, zero carbon emission travel, and awareness of consumption habits on the health of the planet.
In August 2020, Lewis announced on his blog that he and Stevens would embark on a three-year journey named GB360, circumnavigating United Kingdom and Ireland with refitted Moksha, bike and kayak, documenting examples ofsustainable living along the way.[10][11][12] They began the first leg of their trip, Cymru360 circumnavigatingWales, fromDeeside on 19 June 2021, covering 650 miles in 8 weeks, and ending on 12 August.[13] After completion, Lewis tweeted that if funding permits, they plan to circumnavigateScotland or Ireland in 2022.[14]
Throughout his 13-year expedition, Lewis' friend, cinematographer Kenny Brown, collected many hundreds of hours of footage, and has compiled the work into a feature-length documentary titled,The Expedition.
In 2012, artist Kris Stacks and writer Anthony DiMatteo created a 27-page black and white webcomic based on the writings of Lewis. The free webcomic was titledExpedition360.[citation needed]
In his earlier years beforeExpedition 360, Lewis worked as a window cleaner, and as a member of a rock n' roll cover band. Before carrying out his 13-year human-powered circumnavigation, Lewis had never crossed an ocean before. Nor had he roller bladed, kayaked, or ridden a bike for more than a few miles.
He regularly delivers inspirational speeches about global sustainability, and appears for book signings and readings to promoteThe Expedition trilogy. He also frequently writes for magazines and travel books. Lewis is vegan and a strong animal rights supporter, known for saying he "won't eat anything that has a face."
When Lewis was recuperating in Colorado during his expedition, he gave talks at schools. It was there that he met Tammie Stevens, an actress, who was taking a theatre workshop at the same school. After Lewis returned to London in 2007, he was offered a six-figure advance for a book about his experience, but he rejected the deal upon learning he'd have to work with a ghost writer, leaving him broke, homeless and unemployed. It was then that Stevens sent him an e-mail to reconnect. Upon hearing about his plight, she started her own publishing company, Billy Fish Books. They later married and settled in theBeulah mountain community in Colorado.[16] In Beulah, they hosted a "Don't Nix It, Fix It" repair party to encourage sustainability in 2019.[17]
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