Charlie Walker

Tales of challenge, adventure and personal growth in remote corners of the world

Charlie is a British adventurer, writer, photographer and motivational speaker. He specialises in long distance, human-powered expeditions and has travelled by bicycle, foot, horse, ski, kayak and dugout canoe. His work has featured in a range of publications including The Times, Daily Express, The Guardian, Wanderlust, Travelmag, Travel Africa and Sidetracked magazine. He was also named Travel Blogger of the Year in 2013 by the Association of Independent Tour Operators.

Charlie’s longest expedition was a 43,000-mile bicycle journey reaching the furthest cape in each of Europe, Asia and Africa before returning home. On this journey he traversed 60 countries, encountering extremes of weather, remoteness and physical exhaustion during the four and a half years he was away. The twists and turns of this journey presented him with challenges he had never dreamed of facing but, through introspection and perseverance, he overcame them and completed the journey.

In 2012 Charlie walked 1,000 miles solo across the Gobi desert from China to Mongolia. This feat involved walking over six marathons a week for six weeks whilst carrying enough food and water to survive. Also in 2012 he trekked 600 miles across Central and Northern Mongolia in the company of only a semi-feral pony and a stray dog he found in the forest.

In 2014 Charlie descended the Lulua, a little-known tributary of the Congo River, in a leaky dugout canoe. This journey into remote and effectively uncharted territory of DRC was beset by rapids, waterfalls, hippos, crocodiles and finally, shortly after leaving the river, violent bouts of malaria and typhoid fever. In 2017, Charlie undertook an eight-month, 5,000-mile triathlon tracing the perceived Europe-Asia border in order to highlight the arbitrary nature of this line.