Eid al-Adha , The Festival of Sacrifice, is coming up for all our worlds Muslims, 1.2 billion in total, representing  28% of the worlds population. It marks the end of the pilgrimage to Mecca. In Oman it also means that everybody is taking ten days off work, everything is closed, our work is brought to a total stand still and a lot of locals have rushed to all the malls in Muscat to buy presents. My friend Kamil calls it the Muslim Christmas. He and his family will fly for a short holiday to Bahrain, three days of additional shopping. It is a time you spend together with your family. I will write a blog report about it, once Eid is over. We look forward to it very much. Suddenly something big is happening in town! No matter what, we will still leave Muscat and head for Salalah to meet one of my Bedu friends from the Al-Mahra tribe, Mussalem Bin Hassan and at the same time check our upcoming route through the country.

Since I arrived to Oman I have received a fair amount of requests from people who´d like to join the Expedition, which is an honor, from some really good names with in exploration and adventure and I have received an uncounted number of emails from people, all young men, if I can help them find sponsors or how to go about. And I think throughout these 24 years of travelling, and 1000s of emails, this is the most common question I have received. So, inspired by a Facebook friend, Alistair Humphreys, I have spent a fair amount of my thoughts today, whilst sitting in long queues of traffic, dodging shoppers crossing the road, thinking about the issue. So here we go,  3 tips and thoughts on the subject!

1. Do you really need it? I know many “wannabes” and first timers want sponsors because they think it looks cool, professional and impressive having a lot of logos on yourself and your gear. Travelling like I do, with cultures as the main issue, one doesn´t want to look like a formula one guy. I can understand that climbers, north and south pole skiers…I mean where meeting people and cultures are less important…and so on want to keep a high profile and market their sponsors, but otherwise there are other ways to market your potential sponsors. I have a feeling that potential sponsors in the West understands this, that it is not good to get over exposure, but in this part of the world, it hasn´t hit home yet.

Two of our main sponsors in Siberia......

So my point is, if you have the funds, it is a better choice. Less work, less stress and you run everything the way you want. However, I want to add, I have always had a great partnership with my sponsors and many of them are very good friends today and they have never, ever, had opinions how I use their brand or expose it. However, I have heard other opinions, especially if you involve broadcasting media. (Check the site at www.siberia.nu and the link to partners to see what sponsors I had on the Siberian trip.) I know that Christian Bodegren, who is trying to pass the Sahara Desert, is funding his expedition by himself. I respect that a lot for a first timer.

And, if you haven´t done a serious Expedition before, do one, and than try for sponsors for the second one. Potential sponsors wants to see a track record of what you have done. So better choice is to work and save money!

2. You really have to figure out, what does a potential sponsor want out of it? What can you offer them, which all the others cannot? For example I have a friend who is in charge of Canons sponsorship department and he gets 300 requests for sponsorship per day. He offers sponsorship to ten causes a year, meaning less than 1% of all who asks and almost all of them are well known already. I don´t want to make it look hopeless, just telling you how hard it is. My only advice is, try a new perspective, if you are not famous.

3. Target only the ones which fit your vision and find ones that you will become a pal with. Some people do anything for money, forgetting that the future will judge you by who you cooperated with. After awhile, if you take anything, your vision gets clouded in being looked upon as purely a moneymaker. Many of them in exploration I am afraid. I personally really enjoy working with sponsors. I think it is because I love dealing with people and almost all of them are very good friends to me today, with whom I socialize. Like the legendary Olle Widell at the former Outside Scandinavia. He believed in me from the beginning and sponsored me through many expeditions. I would never deal with a sponsor if I don´t have a personal relationship with them. So find the ones who fit your vision and it will be a great partnership for both!

By the way, have a look at this! (Yeah, I know, it doesn´t have anything to do with sponsorship!)

Satellite equipment sponsored by Tomas and Tina at Explorers Web on the Siberian expedition, they´re two of my best friends today.

The long way down south in a kayak

By

Christian Bodegren

I have quit my work to do a trip, adventure, expedition, journey, or which ever name you glitzhammers prefer to use.

Maybe I’m selfish by doing this for myself, but hopefully I can inspiring somebody else to take a bit in this big tasteful cookie we prefer call earth. If I can inspire one person to do and learn more I have a succeeded. I have never been into thinking about to do things first or on record time which seems to occupied many people out there. In my mind I’m always going to be the first to seeing and feel and getting inspired in my one personal way. And therefore, I have planned to start this journey at the very top off Venezuela where the mighty Orinoco delta reaches  the ocean.

In a kayak this time, against the current. I plan to paddle along the river systems for ten months, heading south. the mission is to see how the people live and how the nature survive along the river systems, in this big and interesting continent. I still have plenty off things to do in Venezuela when I arrive before I can put the kayak in the water. And it  always take some time before you get into the routines and start to relax on a journey like this.

Like for example, getting use to the new sounds in the jungle during the night, which keep you awake or getting used to the new climate which makes your body react in different ways. And I cannot plan for everything, but I am just trying to reduce the bigger mistakes, which could be a danger for your health and life. In some way, that is the way I like my outdoor life. Because we humans always try to bring order and control over everything in our life and our surroundings. The nature has always  a different agenda about this subject . An agenda whiteout perfect corners and straight lines which in our minds it’s not what a controlled surrounding should be. But from the smallest thing to the biggest,  it’s a fascinated system, like a puzzle which its perfectly links together, the ecosystem. And everything have purpose in this chain, which we are constantly trying, and succeeds, to break.

I hope we are finding our way back to the reality and stop fighting against the nature and start to living with it. That is what I’m going to try to do it for the next ten months in a kayak cross the South America.

Please follow my trip and stay updated in www.christianbodegren.com

Mohamed Bouazizi shakes the Arab World

by

Christian Bodegren

Who would have thought that a 26 year old fruit and vegetable salesman named Mohamed Bouazizi, would get an entire Arab world to shake? And who could have known that he would be the one that triggered people in Tunisia to rise up in anger against a tyrant who’s dominated their country for 24 years, and chase him out of the country?

I would not have thought it, that day I stood before the court in Tunisia in 2010 on charges of an illegal sale of my dromedaries, with my Sahara expedition fresh in my memory. My female lawyer told me:

“I’m sorry for everything, but it’s probably best that you do not come back to Libya for at least five years.”

I managed to leave the country after my second attempt, sure that I wouldn´t be able to return for a long time. Maybe never. That was also the end of my Saharan dream. Two days later I walked into a church in Sweden where my big brother was getting married, who knows, maybe everything has a purpose. Several months later Ben Ali fled, and the people of Tunisia were raising their hands to the sky, and they could take their first deep breath of freedom. After days, months and years of dictatorship where television, radio, press and regular access to the internet which was completely in the hands of the regime. This has been a revolution like a glass of water under a dripping tap, which slowly fills up and overflows. And that last drop in this case was the young man named Mohamed Bouazizi.

Somehow the Tunisians wrote a manual on how a modern revolution of today can be made and they even exported it to Egypt. In my mind, it is not difficult to understand that the Libyans took the courage after 40 years of oppression and began their revolutionary journey after the Egyptian people succeed. Mubarak was backed by a strong police and security apparatus, which had a very good track of people who actively worked against the regime. And Egypt was also an indispensable ally for the United States in the Arab world. If the Egyptians managed to overthrow Mubarak, I thought it wouldn´t be impossible for the Libyans to overthrow Gaddafi.

I remember my friend Mohammed shouted to me, as he left me on the shores of the Red sea to start my journey with three young camels in October 2009:

“There are as many police officers in Egypt as grains of sand in the Sahara!”

And I spent a major part of my Expedition money on bribing the police. I have had a few thoughts about Kaddafi and Libya:

Muammar Kaddafi has almost written a manual how to succeed as a dictator in a country. A man with a best before date, I hope. He has been in control since 1969 and has made Libya to North Africa’s now most closed, controlled country. Because he sits on the North Africa’s largest oil reserves. Which means the uprising in Libya will push up the oil prices. This is going to make the global recovery of the economy to slow down. And that is going to make the USA and Europe to handle this situation completely different compare to what we have seeing before whit Tunisia and Egypt. Everything is linked, and when it comes to supporting various regimes with export and import, most countries are guilty, and all should take responsibility for that too. As long it iss not making any fuss which can have a effect on the economy we have no reason to interfere. It is all about the money.

Khadafy’s eccentric approach to running the country in his personal day to day mood, have repeatedly destroyed the lives of the people in Libya. I did also became involved in his family’s problems during my time in Libya. It happened during my time in southern Libya, along with my four dromedaries, when I was trying to get the necessary permits so I could cross into southern Algeria, and whilst I was trying to get an extension of my visa. I didn´t get any of them. And it was all due to Mr. Gaddafi’s youngest son, Hannibal and his heavily pregnant wife in 2008, who had an incident when they had poured boiling water on two house maids in the suite at a luxury hotel in Geneva, and got arrested for it. That made the mad Gaddafi call out for jihad against Switzerland. It killed my chances to get needed permits. Isn´t this politics at its best or what?

My journey ended in the same country this great Arab revolution started. Tunisia. This is where I fled. A country where a 26 year old fruit and vegetable salesman named Mohamed Bouazizi was working.

One person can make a difference.

Christian Bodegren is now preparing for a new Expedition.

Please visit my sponsors Termo who are making it possible for me to write 2 blog reports per week. Just click the logo to find the best underwear on earth!

I continue to get loads of emails asking what happened with the Arabian Expedition?

Well, the very good news is that we have one major sponsor in the waiting, but need one more to get it going. And we have a few minor one´s lining up too, but right now, it is on hold. I don´t know for how long. I am still waiting for the go ahead from the major contributor, but so far, he is still pondering. Therefore, I have returned back to Stockholm in Sweden, getting on with my old life. Lecturing, guiding, writing and waiting to see what happens. I do have some extremely interesting projects coming up on both the Exploration front and the lecturing side of life. Today I lectured at TED X in Stockholm and enjoyed their idea of spreading interesting ideas a lot. You can see the lecture LIVE here!

So, right now, it is kind of a Catch 22 situation of my life.  But, it is also an extremely good time of my life. Something I will share with you all in the future. But this is not the right time. But, it is definitely a major piece in the jigsaw of understanding the meaning of life!

I also think about Congo pretty much every day and miss the company of Jeff, Kennedy, Olly, Emmanuel and the smell of Africa.

I have met a lot of great people since I came back to Sweden, my old friend Nima for example. Who knows what will happen if we put our knowledge together?

By the way, I follow Ripley´s slog against himself in Mongolia!  And I am happy to say that Christian Bodegren have returned home after some minor problems on his Sahara trip. He has definitely grown as a human being, which shows that his Expedition was a success!

Stockholm early morning, autumn has arrived, it is windy and it has been raining all night, but days are sunny and the autumn colors are fantastic! However, I feel real heavy headed and extremely tired. I just get a few hours of sleep right now. And my mood is swinging from desperation to joy….It is always the same story….time to leave, not knowing when I will return….I am kind of packing everything together, cleaning out the apartment, phoning my friends, saying good bye, storing the extremely few things I have after a disastrous divorce and I am ready to take the big step and leave Sweden for awhile, sweating away for awhile in a desert.

Right now I get many questions from you readers about when is the Expedition taking place, and I answer:

“In shallah, when the time is ready…”

I just don´t know, this Expedition just grows, and is getting quite difficult to handle. I have pretty much worked day and night since the vision arrived. I do need 8 hours to feel human, but 5-6, it is tough, but I am living on all the joy all this gives me! But I am leaving Sweden now, getting ready to leave on The Expedition as soon as I have acquired camels, trained them, set everything up with my partners, Salim and Nasr, and have most permits needed, so if all goes well, between 3-12 months from now…..however, remember Chrsitian Bodegren, the Swede I helped with my experience, he is on his way! Go for it Christian! (See http://www.christianbodegren.com/ ) Even though his English sometimes makes things hard to understand, it is an interesting read from a guy who has put his life at stake and wants to become an explorer!

“And the funding?” people ask. Same answer:

“In shallah, when time is ready, all things will fall in place….”

I have slowly turned my mind into the Arab way of thinking, as you see, all is written in the stars already, so why worry….;-)….So right now, am trying to check out of Sweden, which isn´t all to easy. There´s the Internet company who says I need to pay another three months, the gym wants an additional month and so on…..times are hard, so nobody is really helpful, they want their money, whether they need it or not…hardest is getting the time to meet all my best friends…I will soon say goodbye to my family, which is always a nightmare, but I have done so many times now, so it is part of life….

But, once on the Expedition, all these normal day worries will be gone with the wind!

Just a small report from the flat….

Right now I have one guy I´ve assisted, my friend Marcin´s Kolyma Expedition, who has had serious problems with the extreme cold and his equipment braking and he has changed his initial route, ending in Bilibino instead of Chersky. And it seems like he has been backed up by two friends most of the time in a vehicle, I am afraid, due to the cold. Still he is fast! But he is a true explorer, no doubt.
Christian Bodegren (see photo above) however, is planning his first Expedition. Travelling by camel from Egypt to Morocco, a great feat. He came to visit me today, we spread maps on the floor, chatted about oasis, where to start and we´ve been looking at what is waiting for him. Question is, he could do as good with a piece of sand paper. His Expedition though, is of great interest to me, since a crossing of the Sahara is part of my great Arabian project. Christian has dived into pretty much all books on the project and he is well versed of all existing routes through this great desert. As far as we know, the only crossing with camels of the Sahara desert by white people, was done by Michael Asher and Marieanetta Peru in the 80`s, but Christian would then be the third European to cross the lot and the first Swede in history. (There are some amazing ultra runners which have crossed it, supported, a reader told me, for example http://www.runningthesahara.com/ , but I consider this sport, not exploration of another culture. Still, what a feat!) Christian, though, is very eager to do it with 5 camels and wants to leave as soon as possible. His only worries are the visa regulations in countries like Libya and Algeria, stupidities is hindering every explorer worldwide, these ridiculous obstacles making life so much harder for the good of all human beings. Christian is also reasonably ambitious and sees the Sahara as a project of three big challenges in his life, which is a great thought and that makes me believe he will do it. No matter what. He is also very sensible regarding sponsors, one of the most frequent questions I get and I have always answered, first do a big Expedition, then ask for sponsors, when you have a better CV. Christian understands this, even if he comes from the south of Sweden.

However, he didn´t like my moose heart stew today, which makes me wonder how he is going to handle a casserole made up of local intestines mixed with goat testicles….