Travel was not the only thing Jason lewis did from 1994 to 2007. He told Iknoor Kaur how he fought a crocodile, dealt with hypoxia and almost got robbed in India
Jason lewis was happy when his friend Chris Tipper joined him for a leg of his expedition. Sadness clouded upon him when he was stuck alone for two weeks in the Pacific Ocean’s counter current. He was embarrassed when he wore girl’s shorts and rollerbladed through South America. And Jason was disappointed when he was run down by a 82-year-old drunk driver with cataract that put him on bed for nine months. In short, his 13-year journey was full of emotions.
Known as the first person to circumnavigate the earth, lewis crossed 37 countries and two oceans to complete an expedition registered in the Guinness Book of World Records. He was recently here to promote the new-formed association of Johnnie Walker and Alfred Dunhill.
lewis set off for the expedition in 1994 with his old university friend, Steve Smith. “Steve came up with the idea,” he shared. “Neither of us were into exploring at that time. He was into environmental science and I was in a cleaning business in West london. But he had done some research. The whole idea of human circumnavigation without motors and sails started with Ferdinand Magellan, who was the first to ever circumnavigate the world in 1522. He was travelling from Spain looking for spices, that were then in present-day Philippines. After Magellan, people had gone around by motors, sails and even hot air balloons. People had even walked across continents, ridden their bicycles across places and a few people had rowed across oceans as well, but nobody had, in the early 90s, connected all the dots and done a continuous around the world journey by just human power. So, the idea came from there,” he added.
Though it took the two of them two years to prepare for the expedition, lewis felt it was not enough. He said, “I wanted to be fit before we leave, but we had no time. There was so much to do. Nobody was ready to sponsor us. Nobody believed in this because one, we were unknowns and two, the expedition was going to be so long that people thought that we would just die or get lost. We sent off hundreds of letters to get funding, but all in vain. Then we also had to get the boat built and get visa applications in place. Finally, we left without funding. I borrowed money and left london with 319 Pounds and 13 Pence (around Rs 30,000).”
Originally, they had planned to go the other way round through Russia, but eventually ended up going towards the US in the hope of raising some funds. “We didn’t want to run out of money in Russia in the middle of winter and die a horrible death. So we rode our bicycles down through France, Spain and Portugal which was cheap and then we set off in the Atlantic Ocean on the boat that Chris made for us,” he shared.
The boat lewis travelled in was called Moksha because “it means freedom and liberation which was a part of our spirit of travelling,” he said. Across the land the two were biking, walking and rollerblading, while on water they used the 26 feet long and 4.5 feet wide wooden boat, kayaks and also swam in bits.
It took Steve and lewis 111 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean and reach Miami where they spent four months and collected money. After that, the two parted ways for a while. “We were getting quite sick of each other and then we had the Pacific Ocean to cross after America which is three times the size of the Atlantic. So through America, he bicycled and I rollerbladed. The States hadn’t been rollerbladed ever and I hadn’t rollerbladed before, so it was a great learning curve. However, in Colorado I was hit by a 82-year-old drunk driver who had cataracts. He left me on the side of the road with two broken legs and that was nine months of recuperating. Then Steve and I peddled to Hawaii where Steve left the expedition because he didn’t enjoy being in the boat anymore and I carried on alone,” he elaborated.
lewis had his highs and lows. “In the Atlantic we came across a storm and the boat capsized. It was half full of water and I thought that the boat was going to sink. But because of its design after 10 seconds it self-righted. However, Steve had been washed away. But as he was being washed away his ankle got caught by the trailing rope. So he was able to pull himself back to the boat,” he said.
He had his share of experiences in India, too. “In India I had a terrible time near Gorakhpur. I was nearly robbed because I was trying to camp, stupidly (laughs). These guys tried to take my bags and then I was taken somewhere in the town where I was allowed to sleep in a temple.”
One of lewis’ do or die moments was in the North East coast of Australia. He shared, “I had a crocodile chase me and he thought that my kayak was a rival croc. He followed me up to the beach — not me, my kayak, but I couldn’t afford for my kayak to be taken out on sea because all my food was on it. All I had was this huge wooden paddle and I tried to push the croc away with it. But he just latched on the end and wouldn’t let go. Finally I pushed the paddle inside the croc’s mouth which was enough to scare him away and I took my kayak to a hill. Then another time, I was almost left behind in the sea. In the Atlantic I had a bag that went to the side and I went to get the bag. By the time I got it, the boat had moved away because it was windy. I was swimming and the boat was going further. Just then I got hypoxia — oxygen depletion — and I started seeing red in the water. I was like ‘Oh god! Sharks!’ The thought of being eaten by the shark made me swim even faster and I luckily got to the boat.”
lewis said a lot of hellos and goodbyes through the course of 13 years, but what was really a task for him was getting back to reality. “I did have company at times, but I didn’t realise that if you are away from somewhere for too long, people there move on. I felt I knew more people in Colorado, where I live now. The idea of home isn’t the same anymore,” he said.
During the expedition he used a sextant and compass and finished it with a satellite phone and GPS. “I’m glad I began travel with the analogue. When you travel without technology, it’s meditative,” he summed up.