ExWeb has posted an interview with Swedish adventurer Christian Bodegren on his next expedition, which is scheduled to get underway soon. The man who once paddled the length of the Amazon River will next travel by foot across a vast expanse of land-locked territory. Bodegren is currently in Mongolia, where he is planning to walk overland across that country and Kazakhstan, eventually reaching the Caspian Sea.
The Swede says that he is still ramping for this expedition to get underway, with part of the process finding camels to accompany him on the journey. Those creatures will serve as his mounts and pack animals as he travels for weeks on end. When he reaches the border with Kazakstan he’ll sell of his Mongolia camels to purchase new ones.
Christian says he learned a hard lesson about crossing international borders with camels when he made a trek across the Sahara a few years back, and that he doesn’t want to repeat those problems once again.
In the interview, Bodegren talks logistics and his inspirations for undertaking this journey. He says that after paddling the Amazon back in 2012 he tried to return to a normal life, but after awhile he started to get anxious staying in one place for too long. Slowly he started to think about some other potential challenges that he could undertake. This Mongol expedition slowly started to come together.
At this point, it is unclear exactly when Christian will start the walk, or how long it will take him to complete it. But, on his official website the dates for the walk are 2016-2017, so he at least expects it to extend into next year. Similarly, there aren’t a lot of details on his exact route, which is probably going to be decided as he moves along. He does plan to cross the Gobi Desert though, which gives us some indication of where he’ll be.
Christian is posting occasional updates to his website. If you’d like to follow him as he proceeds, that would be a good place to stay up to date on his current situation. It should certainly be an interesting expedition to watch unfold.
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