Walk The Walk

Former British Army officer turned intrepid adventurer Levison Wood has conquered the Nile, the Himalayas and now the length of the Americas on foot. His next step is an obvious one – a trip to Suffolk, as he turns his attention to spreading the word of what he terms ‘modern-day exploration’ throughout the UK. 

- Jake Taylor

TO begin our interview with arguably the most talked about explorer of the minute, a definition: “Modern-day exploration means pushing oneself over the limits,” begins Levison. “It’s not enough these days just to visit a country, swim across a lake or climb a mountain – 21st century adventurers must offer something unique in order to secure the necessary investment to live their dream.”

Levison, certainly, has pushed this idea further than most in completing mammoth journeys on foot across some of the globe’s most hostile and hazardous habitats. And in continuing to push physical and mental endurance to the limit, his latest expedition – an 1,800-mile trek from Mexico to Colombia captured for Channel 4’s Walking the Americas – is no less daunting than his previous journeys along the Nile and over the Himalayas.

“No less daunting, but quite different in many ways,” says the adventurer of his American adventure. “It was a different environment, obviously, with a lot of jungle. I also went through eight countries this time. In terms of distance, it was about the same as the Himalayas, just a very different environment. The humidity was tough to contend with, plus environmental factors interrupting you in almost every mile - in the jungle you’ve got a lot of creepy-crawlies, snakes and things like that – but fewer hills, thankfully!”

As a man who honed his craft during his time in the British Army, where he saw action during the war in Afghanistan before going on to emulate his exploratory heroes, Levison Wood comes across as a man to whom walking the length of the Americas is an effort on par with a gentle stroll in the park.