Explorer Mikael Strandberg

One of my oldest friends, Marc, said yesterday when I told him about another roller coaster story of my life which is happening right now:

“I say, go for it! Can´t wait to hear what comes next! Your life is more interesting and unusual than a science fiction book!”

It´s Marc and me on the photo to the top right here. It is taken by our common friend Steve Jewell in Mikumi National Park in Tanzania, I think 1988, when I was cycling from North-Cape in Norway to South-Cape in South-Africa and Marc started his 7 year all around the world cycle tour. The reason we are armed is that earlier that day, whilst walking through the high crass of the park, following a group of baboons and the two female scientists who´d been tracking this especial group and family for a year, suddenly we heard a roar and a female lion stood up in the grass!

I remember the female scientists had told us before, if this would happen, don´t run! They did! And so did the two armed rangers we had with us, so the only one´s left, glued to the ground like three termite mounds, where Steve, Marc and me. Most likely by pure shock, even though I do seem to remember that Steve, also one of my best friends, afterwards said that he was cool as a postcard and just wanted to study the behavior of the lion…Sure, Steve, I also remember you were having it off with one of the scientists….

I also remember it all happened so fast, and since I am such a coward, I took a step behind Marc, so if the lioness would go for an attack, it wouldn´t be me who got killed. Sorry Marc, I do believe it was all instinct….Anyway, the lioness, as all wild animals, feared us more, and turned around and slowly ran off away from us. That is why we are armed. And that is also the reason we have hair and look young, which is not the case today…

I often get questions what my old partners on route are doing today. Steve, he joined me in Maasailand aswell, where he met his wife Theonestina, with whom he lives in Canada today and have two children. Last time I saw him was 5 years ago and he was extra-ordinary fat. He is still one of the funniest people on earth and i talk to him on Skype irregularly. Marc isn´t to thin either, today, but a successful business man and runs a spa in Williamstown. On and off he´d like to hit the road again and just came back from a tour in Namibia. read about it here! Marc is a very generous, smart, funny and extra-ordinary kind person who right now lives by himself with his love of life, the Golden Dream, his dog. He will in some capacity be involved in the Expedition and my future. He is one of my very best friends. Last time I met him was also years ago, I think 2 years ago, when I visited him in Williamstown for the second time. He was known as Hub Sprockett in Africa. And Steve went under the name of Steve Clitoris. Or at least that is how he was presented at a conference somewhere in Africa. I think it was Mbeya. That time was the funniest in my life. I had ten good laughs a day, African style. An African laughter is different to all others. It begins in your stomach, than kind of rolls all the way up to your mouth where it explodes! Best feeling on earth it is, and it is a long time since I was even close to a laugh like that. I think it was very close in Yemen though.

There´s not a lot to laugh about in Sweden. Maybe life was better before, as the old people tend to say. Nope, from now on, I will find my old habit to laugh! This is my next little personal project, laughter!

Mankind, or the human being, has fascinated me more than anything the last 10 years of my life. That fascination was the main reason for me going to Maasailand in the year 2000 to get closer to the birth place of us humans. I passed through Olduvai Gorge for example, which is commonly known as the Cradle of Mankind, and there´s definitely a specific feeling of belonging here. And since than, humans more than spectacular scenery, amazing culture or animals, has enlightened my wanderlust. This morning, when I started to read the morning papers, I read that a sister of ours, called Ardi, have been discovered, a vital link between the apes and humans in Afar, the Rift Valley in Ethiopia, of course. 4.4 million years old…now, that gives a lot of perspective on a lot of things! It is, still considered, that we humans as we are today are around 150 000 years old, so it took some time for us to develop to this interesting species that we are today!

But complicated as well, I still follow the developments in Yemen closely everyday. Regarding humans in Yemen, I read this editorial today called Suffering is the rule, not an exception. isn´t it amazing, really, even though we have the resources globally, still, to make everyone relatively content with being alive, we just don´t care, it seems like. This is so hard to understand. However, there´s always exceptions to the rule. everywhere. I am very privileged to know quite a few out of these amazing humans who spend there life’s thinking about how to find ways to help others. One of them is Jamie, who fully has understood that education is the only way, really, to give everybody the same opportunity to live.

I met Jamie in London, in the exiting Soho district to discuss how to implement his ideas on the upcoming Expedition. Jamie is a laid-back, intelligent, soft spoken explorer of sorts, who has decided to move the class-room out into the bush! I am mean this is an amazing development of the resources we have today, to build bridges between cultures, educate and create opportunities. It just shows how far we´ve come since Ardi lived on this fantastic globe of ours.

So, my hope is that Jamie will be able to help the expedition with his expertise! Since I know that the potential to make a difference with an Expedition like this, is without limits.

I receive a lot of emails right now about my photos from Yemen.

Justin wrote:

Marianne Ahrne wrote:

I had no idea that you were a world-class photographer as well. Your photos are world class and they really makes me wanna go to Yemen. How long are you staying for?

Lots of praise and, of course, that makes life easier. However, do see the Yemeni photos here!

And I get a fair amount of questions if I have any more slide shows from my travels to show. And I do…..but it was in Yemen were I finally got back to my old passionate photography, which have been on holiday for three years. However, why not have a look at these series of slide shows: (Have in mind though they´re quite crappy in comparison.)

• Oman
• The Galapagos Islands, Peru and Ecuador
• Patagonia
• Rub Al-Khali
• Papua New Guinea

And why not finish off with a little slide show from The Kolyma Expedition in Siberia?

Go here!

PS. Photo from the Maasai Expedition from the year 2000. the year I actually had hair. And a big stomach. DS

I just finished a book that I have had tucked into my bookshelves since 1988. It is called The Fearful Void written by a bloke called Geoffrey Moorhouse. It was given to me by a very good friend that I have lost touch with, unfortunately, for more than ten years, Ed Sismey. He is the one to the right on the photo, next to Steve Jewell and me, all resting whilst cycling through the Atacama Desert 1986. Ed gave it to me, because he knew I was going to pass the Sahara on a pushbike. The book scared me then, asmuch as it does today. Regarding, Ed, or Lucky Ed, as we called him, I am sorry to have lost tocuh with him. I don´t even know where Steve is at the present, even though he is one of my best friends. I believe somewhere in Africa, since he is married to a Pare woman he met during our Maasai Expedition 2000. Probably looking, as always, for food. And that brought me back to the book I have just finished, as part of my research into the upcoming Expeditions.

It is an odd feeling planning an Expedition, sitting in a comfortable environment, not realizing all the immense hardships waiting, until suddenly, most likely in the middle of the night, you wake up and feel terrified. This happened to me at four a clock this morning. I suddenly realized, soon I will suffer from the discomfort of immense heat, millions of flies, gut rot, incredible pain all over, acute tiredness, lack of hope, worries of surviving and tons of misunderstandings with people I come across or travel with. Easily forgetting to overwhelming positive experiences waiting. What I look forward to the most is getting away from the Duckpond I live in called the West, away from all gadgets and time limits. But, the book scared me, it showed everything that can go wrong. This git called Moorhouse, writes lovely, but he lacks most things an explorer should have, because everything possible, and then I mean everything, goes wrong. He sets out to become the first person ever to cross the Sahara by foot and camel, makes it half way, ending up in Tamanrasset , which I passed on a push bike and liked 1989, but the story is full of terrible mistakes and he is complaining about everything. Most of all the people, locals, he travels together with. They try to cheat him all te time. He almost perishes but still doesn´t forget what painting he has seen at Le Louvre or chapels visited. Themes he comes back to regularly. It is written in 1973. He does so many errors, because he wasn´t properly prepared and doesn´t just have what it takes.

But the book should be read by anyone attempting to cross the Sahara or doing a major Expedition. Because it shows what one should not do. And it is a good read. He reminds me a lot of Lucky Ed, who is, together with Geoffrey Moorhouse, the unluckiest guy on earth. But Ed never complained about other people. I will dive into Thesigers book Arabian Sands for awhile, to set my heart right.