🎧 Follow the show here— it really helps Adventure Diaries reach more listeners. Thank you.

Oscar Scafidi has spent two decades living and working across 36 countries in Africa — writing travel guides for Bradt, teaching African history, and launching himself down some of the continent's most remote rivers. In 2022, he and a teammate attempted the first descent of Madagascar's Mangoky River: 750km, 28 days, and a 200km portage across a waterless mountain range that nearly broke the expedition before it began.

The Mangoky has no agreed source — no GPS coordinates, no signpost. Getting to the start meant heading towards a mountain and asking locals which way the water flowed. Getting to the finish meant nine days on foot through terrain with no water and no settlements, carrying a 40kg Klepper folding kayak in pieces, before finally reaching the river proper.

This episode covers the full story — the five years of planning, the crocodiles, the schistosomiasis, the team dynamics, and the entirely unplanned French feast that closed it all out.

Chapters:
00:00 Cold open — Crocodile Canyon and why hippos are the real danger
01:28 Guest intro — Oscar Scafidi, expedition kayaker and Africa travel writer
03:45 From Italy to Sudan — how an accidental teaching job started everything
07:35 Why Africa? The British Airways flight that set Oscar up for the continent
09:45 Travel writing and Bradt guides — how an accidental career took off
13:25 The Angola Kwanza River expedition — how Oscar became an expedition kayaker
18:10 Why Madagascar? Five years of planning a first descent
20:55 Finding the source of the Mangoky — a river with no agreed starting point
23:35 The 200km portage — when the worst-case scenario gets worse
27:05 The Klepper kayak — a century-old design built for expeditions
31:00 Crocodiles, pirogues, and 50km days on the main Mangoky
47:25 Schistosomiasis, team dynamics, and 28 days of isolation
49:00 Finishing on the Mozambique Channel — a surprise ending and a French feast
55:00 Pay it forward — Our Kids Are Future Madagascar

Oscar Scafidi — travel writer, history teacher, expedition kayaker

Website / expedition: kayakthemangoky.com

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ScafidiTravels

Documentary: https://youtu.be/KlVlWQcZlA8

Book: Kayak the Mangoky

Charity: Our Kids Are Future Madagascar — educational charity supported by 25% of book profits

For full show notes and links, visit: adventurediaries.com/podcast

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thanks For Listening.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a comment and subscribe for more exciting content.

Please visit AdventureDiaries.com/GO For more authentic stories of Adventure Exploration and the natural world

The Adventure Diaries Podcast also covers a broad spectrum OF topics withIN the fields of Adventure, Exploration, Micro-adventure, Survival, Mental Resilience, Conservation, Scotland, Hiking, Solo Travel, Cycling, Nature, Storytelling, Mountaineering

🎧 Follow the show here— it really helps Adventure Diaries reach more listeners. Thank you

In 2008, Louis-Philippe Loncke became the first person to walk the full length of Australia's Simpson Desert unsupported — 35 days, a 215kg cart, no water cache, no drops, no helicopter rescue within range. Last year, he tried again. He covered 75 kilometres in 13 days and turned back. Climate change, he believes, may have made this crossing permanently impossible.

The Belgian engineer turned explorer nicknamed The Mad Belgian first understood the scale of what he'd done when Jon Muir — who had been to both Poles — wrote that unsupported desert crossings make Mount Everest look like child's play. Louis-Philippe has catalogued 21 near-death experiences and is building a classification system to prove exactly why Everest barely makes a Class 2.

What You'll Learn:
• Why Australia has two million wild Afghan camels — and why eating them is an ecological good
• The frog that lies dormant in a salt crust for 30 years and revives when floodwater returns
• Why Mount Everest rates only Class 2 on the Mad Belgian's expedition scale
• How a 10-degree temperature rise may have closed the Simpson Desert to solo crossings forever
• What it's like to be chased by 14 wild camels with nowhere to run

LOUIS-PHILIPPE LONCKE | The Mad Belgian
www.louis-philippe-loncke.com
YouTube: Luffy Tests | Meet Explorers with Lou-Phi
Charity: Jane Goodall Institute — tree-planting events across Europe
Project: Expedition Database — global index of adventurers and expeditions

ABOUT LOUIS-PHILIPPE LONCKE
Belgian adventurer and Explorers Club Fellow known as The Mad Belgian. In 2008 he completed the
world's first unsupported north-to-south crossing of the Simpson Desert in 35 days. A former bank
IT engineer, he has completed 20-plus expeditions across Tasmania, Australia, Poland, and
Azerbaijan, surviving 21 documented near-death experiences. Currently building the Expedition
Database, a free global index designed to work like IMDB for the adventure community.

00:00 Louis-Philippe Loncke — who is The Mad Belgian Explorer?
01:49 Growing up in Belgium: from furniture makers to Boy Scouts
06:00 From ING Bank Singapore to hiking 2,000km across Australia
13:19 Why the Simpson Desert? Finding the world's most impossible walk
18:37 The 2008 world first: crossing the Simpson Desert unsupported
26:00 How to survive without resupply in the world's most arid desert
31:00 Wild camels, dingoes and the world's most venomous snake
41:00 Going back: the 2016 backpack attempt and 2024 cart failure
54:00 How to grade an expedition — the Class 1 to 6 adventure scale
1:04:00 The Expedition Database: IMDB for the world's adventurers
1:13:00 21 near-death experiences: barge cables, cliff falls and floods
1:19:00 What's next: Azerbaijan, the Tintin rocket and future films
1:31:00 Pay it forward, call to adventure and quick-fire questions

For full show notes and links, visit: adventuredia

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thanks For Listening.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a comment and subscribe for more exciting content.

Please visit AdventureDiaries.com/GO For more authentic stories of Adventure Exploration and the natural world

The Adventure Diaries Podcast also covers a broad spectrum OF topics withIN the fields of Adventure, Exploration, Micro-adventure, Survival, Mental Resilience, Conservation, Scotland, Hiking, Solo Travel, Cycling, Nature, Storytelling, Mountaineering

🎧 Follow the show here— it really helps Adventure Diaries reach more listeners. Thank you

Pete Casey was chest-deep in floodwater, five days without food, in the middle of the Amazon at dusk. His guide said: "This is a beautiful place to die, and the day you die is the best day of your life." No higher ground in sight, no GPS signal, no way out. This is the story of the first ever sea-to-source ascent of the Amazon River.

No military training, no wealthy sponsors, no support team. Pete sold his home, scraped together £110,000 in equity, and walked into the Amazon alone. What followed was six and a half years, over 7,000 kilometres, swimming every river crossing against the current, trekking through flooded rainforest, and navigating remote indigenous communities that had never seen a Westerner pass through on foot.

From near-death in flood season to coca plantations in the Andes, this is the full arc of one of the most extraordinary human-powered expeditions ever completed.

What You'll Learn:
• Why Pete ascended the Amazon sea-to-source — and why almost nobody does it that way
• The method he built for swimming river crossings with a packraft and local guides
• How 23 days in flooded forest without food nearly killed him
• What encounters with remote indigenous communities actually look like
• The brutal reality of coming home to nothing after six and a half years

Pete's presentation at the explorers club in NYC.

🌐 ascentoftheamazon.com

📸 Instagram: @p.c.casey
🌿 Junglekeepers (pay it forward): junglekeepers.com

00:00 Cold open — chest-deep in floodwater
01:18 Who is Pete Casey and what is the Ascent of the Amazon?
03:21 Growing up with no money in Sussex — how adventure didn't come naturally
05:19 First trip to South America — joining Ed Stafford's Amazon walk
07:50 Photography dreams and why building became his career
11:32 How Pete decided to ascend the Amazon sea-to-source
17:23 Selling his home — the point of no return
21:17 Route planning on Google Earth and arriving alone
26:26 Why Pete swam every river crossing — method and fear
29:27 The Pororoca tidal bore and using the Amazon tide to gain ground
34:00 First Una tribe encounters — being surrounded
47:11 23 days in flooded forest, no food, chest-deep in water
51:50 Recovery in Manaus and planning the next leg
55:28 How kit evolved over 6.5 years — Wellington boots vs jungle boots
1:00:40 What Pete ate in the jungle — farinha and sardines
1:05:00 Walking alone through cocaine plantations in the Andes
1:13:40 The Explorers Club, coming home, and the food bank
1:23:34 Pay it forward: Junglekeepers

For full show notes and links, visit: adventurediaries.com/podcast

Send us Fan Mail

Support the show

Thanks For Listening.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a comment and subscribe for more exciting content.

Please visit AdventureDiaries.com/GO For more authentic stories of Adventure Exploration and the natural world

The Adventure Diaries Podcast also covers a broad spectrum OF topics withIN the fields of Adventure, Exploration, Micro-adventure, Survival, Mental Resilience, Conservation, Scotland, Hiking, Solo Travel, Cycling, Nature, Storytelling, Mountaineering