Australia Interview: Huw Kingston, Adventurer and Author of Mediterranean: A Year around a Charmed and Troubled Sea
Dedicated to the memory of the friend who brought us together, Akshay Kumar.
I first met the inimitable Huw Kingston when I was invited to attend the 14th Adventure Tour Operator Association of India (ATOAI) annual convention in the Araku Valley in February 2019 where he was delivering the keynote presentation. Now it is impossible to describe Huw in one word or even one sentence but if I were to pick three, I would say a terrific adventurer, brilliant communicator and, most of all, an extremely humble and friendly guy and therefore someone I immediately took a liking to. Of all his innumerable adventures which he described in a most engaging and entertaining manner, I was most fascinated by his one year journey around the Mediterranean where he covered 13,000 Km by foot, bike, kayak and rowboat, travelled through 17 countries and raised an impressive A$100,000 for Save the Children Australia. After the lecture I caught up with Huw and got him to sign the book he wrote about his personal Odyssey around the Med. Since that time we have become good friends – another thing in common is that we both did Economics for our first undergraduate degree. I would say that I have been as successful an economist as he has been an adventurer and explorer but I know which life I would rather have led! Still Adventurers Are Ageless and Huw will always be a role model – and always younger than me – as he loves to point out!
Your one year journey around the Mediterranean using only human power has been your greatest adventure and makes for an absolutely fascinating story. What drew you to the Mediterranean Sea of all places?
Epic human powered journeys have been my thing for the longest time. The Mediterranean is certainly right up there and was the longest continuous journey that I’ve undertaken. The original ‘why circumnavigate the Mediterranean?’ is lost in a haze of red wine! I think it had to do with after having done 25,000km around Australia, a continent containing a single country, it was time to do a sea encompassing multiple countries and cultures.
You started and ended your journey on the beaches of Gallipoli in the faraway land of Turkey to coincide with the 100th Centenary of Anzac Day. Why is this date so important to Australians and what did it mean to you personally?
During the First World War, on 25 April 1915, Australians and New Zealanders were among an allied force that landed on the beaches of Gallipoli in Turkey. Over the following months some 10,000 young Australians were killed in yet another tragic campaign of war. We commemorate Anzac Day on 25 April each year and it is the single biggest commemoration day in Australia with every village, town and city holding a service to remember. What really gave my idea the fillip it needed was the realisation that the Anzac Centenary was occurring on 25 April 2015. This gave it a strong Australian connection and I started to wonder if I could get around the Mediterranean in exactly 12 months starting and finishing at Gallipoli, Anzac Day to Anzac Day? In parallel I realised that I could do this journey using a combination of human powered means – sea kayaking, walking, mountain biking and ski touring. In the end I didn’t do any ski touring but I did have my first experience of ocean rowing.
You travelled 13000 Kms through 17 countries by kayak, foot, rowboat and bike in one year. Can you explain this particular combination of transport means? Why not kayak all the way around the Mediterranean?
In fact my original idea was to sea kayak the whole way. This would have taken more than a year and, much as I like sea kayaking, I wasn’t too excited about sitting on my rear end for so long. So the idea then became to sea kayak all the way but also climb the highest peak in each country as a means of stretching the legs (although past experience has shown that my short Welsh legs have never stretched). The journey then started pushing out to some 2 years at which point my lovely wife Wendy said ‘oi!’ So we settled on a combination of kayak, foot and bike to be completed in one year; the rowboat got added on later
I do love journeys that combine different modes of transport. It is how I went around Australia. You can be enjoying a walk say of a month or two, but then look forward to swapping modes and muscles.
What was the single biggest challenge that you faced on this incredible journey? Was there ever a point where you thought you might have to give up?
Probably refusing the endless offers of hospitality along the way. One year around the Mediterranean could have so easily become two years!
But jokes apart there were many hugely challenging times – giant storms while trekking through the Alps and big seas in the Med while kayaking and rowing. But these were all part of the experience and I never thought of giving up. Yes I got sick but I recovered, yes my way forward was blocked but I always found another way (including accidentally ending up in a rowing boat for 2 months and 1500km to circumvent strife-torn Libya, Syria and other such unfortunate countries, never part of my original plan), yes I missed my wife and family but their love powered me on.
For the kayak, foot and bike part of the journey you were mostly travelling alone. Is that your preferred form of experiencing adventure?
As a general rule yes. I am a very sociable person but I do like both the unique challenge of solo adventuring and also the freedom to make your own decisions without needing to consult others. But if the majority of my journey around the Mediterranean was solo, there were hundreds of people who made it the journey what it really was; a human journey powered by human kindness.
On long journeys, particularly ones more remote than the Mediterranean, travelling solo does allow you, after some weeks, to really start to regain some of the senses of direction, understanding, awareness that we all possess as animals, but have lost in our technologically driven, over urbanised existences.
Travel is all about the people you meet along the way, not the things that you see and the places that you visit. You were helped along your journey by some wonderful individuals. Could you mention three who were instrumental to the success of this adventure?
Three? Only three?! That is too unfair to the dozens who helped me with realising my dream! There were many who I knew before the journey but there were as many (more!) who I met en route who became key to its success. I’ll randomly grab three as examples
Marin – I met this young Slovenian just after I finished the first 3000km and 3 months of my journey in a sea kayak from Turkey, through Greece, Albania, Montenegro and Croatia. By a remarkable set of circumstances and coincidences he and I ended up, 6 months later, in an ocean rowing boat from Tunisia to Greece. Absolute bloody legend!
Julio – This senior harbourmaster in southern Spain did everything he could to help me in my quest to gain permission to kayak across the Strait of Gibraltar, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world. Such endeavours are not officially allowed but Julio prodded and primed me in so many unofficial ways and eventually it did happen.
Stavros – This bear of a man is the glue that holds Greek kayaking together. From looking after me royally when I reached Athens to helping get my sea kayak from Morocco to Turkey to being on the jetty when Marin and I washed up on the Peloponese in the row boat from Tunisia, Stavros was everywhere and ever helpful.
You raised A$100,000 through Save the Children Australia for the children displaced by the Syrian conflict. Can you explain a bit about your choice of charity and your unique method of raising that money?
My journey around the Mediterranean had a link to the First World War. But as I was planning it and indeed undertaking it, a humanitarian disaster was taking place on the waters of that famous sea with millions of people displaced by the civil war in Syria and countless thousands drowning as they sought refuge in small boats, heading for somewhere safer. I partnered with Save the Children specifically to raise money for the most innocent victims of war and conflict – children from Syria.
There were many aspects to my fundraising including the obvious straight donations. However I also did various other things like ‘sell’ each country I planned to visit. So you could buy little Monaco for $1000 or fork out $10000 to own Turkey, my start and finish country.
Have you thought about your next adventure and where it might take you? Any plans to return to India?
The Mediterranean journey is 5 years old now and since then there have been many shorter adventures and travels and a few longer expeditions such as ski touring in Tajikistan. Adventure is never far from my heart and I am always thinking about it. However the Covid 19 pandemic has forced one to turn eyes closer to home for a while.
India has of course, played a key role in my adventuring and I have made many lifelong friends there. From the late 1980’s to the early 2000’s I came repeatedly to India to undertake many journeys such as skiing all the way from Kashmir to Kulu. I have a real passion for the Himalayas and have always been delighted to travel the greatest mountains on earth in winter on skis. It has been great to reconnect again with my Indian friends on my recent ATOAI trip and I certainly hope to be back soon!
For those of you who are inspired to read about Huw’s travels around the Med his book Mediterranean: A Year around a Charmed and Troubled Sea is available at www.amazon.in in both Kindle and print formats.
