About
Nobody had done it.
That was the point.
Ash Dykes is a Welsh explorer, extreme athlete, author and speaker. Since 2014 he has set five Guinness World Records - four of them world firsts - across Mongolia, Madagascar, China and the Amazon of Suriname, and taken a global audience with him for every mile of it.
- From
- Wales
- World records
- Five
- World firsts
- Four
- Expeditions since
- 2014
The story
A decade of walking into places nobody had walked
It began in Mongolia in 2014, with a 120kg trailer and no support vehicle. Ash became the first recorded person to cross the country solo and unsupported - over the Altai Mountains, through the Gobi and out across the Steppe, 1,500 miles in 78 days.
Two years later he walked the length of Madagascar's interior, summiting its eight highest mountains on the way: 1,600 miles, 155 days, the deadliest strain of malaria, cyclone season, rivers with crocodiles in them and jungle that had to be cut through a metre at a time.
Then the big one. Between August 2018 and August 2019 he walked the Yangtze from its source on the Tibetan Plateau to the sea - 4,000 miles across 352 days, and the first person ever to do it. Sixteen people joined him for stretches of it; ten went home early. He filmed, blogged and live-streamed the whole thing, and the expedition reached an audience of 1.5 billion.
In 2024 he took two more records out of a single expedition into the Amazon of Suriname: the first descent of the Coppename River from source to sea on foot and by kayak, and the fastest recorded ascent of the highest mountain in the Surinamese Amazon.
What has never been part of it is going quietly. Every expedition has carried conservation partners, a camera and an audience, because a record nobody hears about changes nothing.
The record
Five Guinness World Records
Four of the five had never been done by anybody. Each one is dated, measured and independently verified.
Mongolia
Solo and unsupported across Mongolia
The first recorded person to cross the country alone and unsupported, hauling everything needed to survive.
Madagascar
The length of the interior, and its eight highest peaks
The first to traverse Madagascar top to bottom through its interior, summiting its eight highest mountains on the way.
China
The Yangtze, source to sea, on foot
The first person to walk the length of the Yangtze, certified from 26 August 2018 to 12 August 2019.
Suriname
The Coppename, source to sea, by foot and kayak
The first team to travel the length of the Coppename River, deep in the Amazon of Suriname.
Suriname
The fastest ascent in the Surinamese Amazon
The fastest recorded time to summit the highest mountain in Suriname's Amazon.
Behind it
The part nobody films
Months before the first step
Routes, permits, resupply points, weather windows, medical planning, partners and funding. An expedition that takes a year to walk takes far longer than that to make possible, and almost all of it happens at a desk.
Carrying the camera too
Four internationally broadcast series have come out of these expeditions, and much of what you see was filmed by the person walking. The kit is extra weight, the batteries are a logistics problem of their own, and it is the reason the record reached anybody at all.
On stage
Telling it to a room
Two UK theatre tours, a tour across Asia, three TEDx talks and audiences in more than thirty countries - from boardrooms and conferences to schools, colleges and universities.
He has also spoken in parliament alongside Annie Lennox, asking the UK government to increase its contribution to the global fund to fight malaria. The ask succeeded, and the invitation to 10 Downing Street followed - three times.
- 2UK theatre tours
- 3TEDx talks
- 30+Countries presented in
- 4International TV series
Beyond the adventure
The expeditions were always carrying something
Partnerships with conservation and health organisations have run alongside every major expedition, and the platform they built is the reason a walk along a river can end up in front of a government.
WWF
Conservation partner across the Yangtze expedition.
UNESCO
Ambassador.
Gates Foundation
Partner on global health advocacy.
Red Cross
Ambassador.
Malaria No More UK
Special Ambassador, working towards eradication within a lifetime.
Free The Wild
Ambassador for the wildlife charity co-founded by Cher.
Nat Geo
Walking The Yangtze documentary
2016
Welsh Adventurer of the Year
x3
Invitations to 10 Downing Street
350m
Reach as UK Ambassador for Madagascar Tourism
Publication
Mission Possible
Ash's account of the expeditions, an Amazon best seller sold across every English-speaking market and translated into Mandarin and Vietnamese.