‘College helped me build the confidence for record-breaking career’

Former Coleg Llandrillo student Ash Dykes is contemplating his next adventure after his recent world record-breaking expedition in Suriname.

Ash achieved his fourth and fifth world records in October with two death-defying missions in the impenetrable Amazon jungle.

He and his team became the first people ever to travel from the source of the Coppename river to the Atlantic Ocean, facing caimans, sting rays, poisonous spiders and even a jaguar as they kayaked the 380-mile river.

During their 37-day odyssey, they also set a record for the fastest ascent of Suriname’s highest mountain Julianatop, summiting the 4,199ft peak in five days, eight hours and 35 minutes.

Both achievements have been verified as official Guinness World Records.

Pictures: Jacob Hudson

Ash previously wrote his name into the record books by becoming the first person to hike the 4,000-mile Yangtze River in China, the first to trek solo and unsupported across Mongolia, and the first to walk the length of Madagascar.

His latest trailblazing expedition is to be documented in a new TV show, following on from ‘The Great Wall with Ash Dykes’ and his National Geographic series, ‘Walking the Yangtze’.

Ash says while the Suriname expedition was one of his shortest, it was “intense” as he and his crew trekked uncharted territory, battled intense heat and starvation, and faced predators that had never before seen a human.

“Suriname is the most densely forested country in the world - 93% of it is covered by jungle,” said the 34-year-old from Llysfaen. “We wanted to be dropped in the middle of nowhere to find the source of the Coppename River.

"There was no evidence to suggest that anyone had ever been to the source, or that it had even been mapped. There seems to have been an attempt in the 1800s which failed, so it felt like the baton had been handed down.”

Ash, along with extreme photographer Jacob Hudson and wildlife experts Matthew Wallace and Dick Lock, were dropped by helicopter in the remote Wilhelmina Mountains.

“That was quite intimidating, when the sound of the helicopter got gradually quieter and was replaced by the noise of the Amazon rainforest,” said Ash.

Armed with machetes to hack their way through the undergrowth, the team trekked for days to locate the source of the river, with Ash losing three toenails and splitting one toe open during the hike.

But that was barely the beginning of their challenge, as they then had to climb Julianatop, before kayaking the remote river teeming with dangerous wildlife all the way to the Atlantic coast.

The perilous nature of their mission was laid bare when they found themselves eyeball to eyeball with a jaguar, one of the Amazon’s most elusive apex predators.

Ash said: “We saw a jaguar on the river bank, and instead of turning and going back into the forest, it just stood there staring at us. Dick and Matt, our wildlife experts, said this was the natural behaviour of a jaguar which has never seen humans before - that it was probably the first and possibly the last time it would ever see a human.”

The expedition was sponsored by Cher’s Free the Wild charity, with Ash and his team collecting data on how humans are impacting wildlife.

“They wanted us to track the wildlife to see how they would react to seeing us, and also to see how human activity has affected the wildlife,” he explained.

“We kept logs to report back to them - we saw a poison dart frog, with colours that hadn’t been seen before, so that evidence is now being looked at to clarify whether it’s a previously undiscovered species or a colour variation.”

The team also found evidence to support existing studies showing capybaras and tapirs have become nocturnal as a result of human activity.

“The ones closest to human populations have been turned nocturnal,” Ash said. “But in areas uninhabited by humans they are not naturally nocturnal - we saw both capybaras and tapirs out and about in the daytime - so you’ve got these split populations where about half are nocturnal and half are not.”

As a new year begins, Ash is launching a new fitness app, is in the early stages of planning for another adventure-based TV show, and is also considering future expeditions.

“I’m always searching, there are always things that take my interest,” he said. “I’ve always been interested in Greenland and also the Congo. Whoever walks the Congo River as a legitimate world first, I think it will be the greatest expedition of the past century.”

Ash has to pinch himself at the career he has built, having started out aged 19 by heading to Asia on a shoestring budget after completing a sport course at Coleg Llandrillo.

“I set off to travel at age 19 with £10,000 that took me two years to save,” he said. “Everyone apart from close family tried to discourage me from taking that leap, saying I’d return with no money, no qualifications and behind in life.

“College really helped me to discover that I was a kinaesthetic learner, that learning for me was hands-on, practical. It was very helpful with building up that confidence - trying things, making mistakes but learning not to make the same mistake twice, bringing out more of the experience that I wanted to gain. That just added to the feeling of ‘now’s the time’.

“I remember being in Llandudno Junction about to set off for Mongolia, I was about 22. I was in the Jaguar Land Rover showroom looking around and I thought, ‘it’d be cool to partner up with these guys one day’. Five years later they announced me as a brand ambassador.

“I remember watching Joe Rogan and the next minute being invited onto his podcast. Having people like Gordon Ramsey and Channing Tatum actively following me on social media, being on a plane and seeing my documentary on the Great Wall of China - little things like that are very humbling.

“I thought it would be cool to work with brands like this but for it to actually happen and be growing and developing, it’s bizarre. I have to pinch myself that I’ve got to a point where I’m making a living out of following my passion.”

Asked for his advice for anyone looking to follow their own dreams, Ash said: “Remain stubborn, remain determined, keep going and protect your energy.

“Protect your passion, whatever you want to pursue. It doesn’t matter if no one sees it for you, as long as you can see it for yourself.

“You’re far more capable than you give yourself credit for. I didn’t know that when I was 19 or 20, but I eventually realised I was so much more capable than I ever thought.”