ASH AIMS TO MAKE HISTORY IN CHINA

AN adventurer from North Wales is set to become the first person to walk the length of the Yangtze River in a single year.

Self-taught explorer Ash Dykes from Old Colwyn is about to embark on his third world-first expedition – and his most ambitious to date.

The 25-year old will travel to China mid-April where he will spend six weeks learning the local language, traditions and intense training, before heading to the starting point in June.

The 4,000-mile journey from west to east China will see the former Ysgol Eirias pupil trek across 11 provinces along the riverbank by foot.

Mr Dykes is far from a typical adventurer – with no background or formal experience in expeditioning, with his travels funded by passion rather than a bulging bank balance.

His first taste of adventure came following his time at Llandrillo College. After saving as much money as he could to take a trip to Vietnam: “Everyone at college was deciding what they wanted to do. All I knew was I wanted to travel.

“We did all of the usual backpacking tourist stuff. It was great but it just wasn’t quite the adventure I was hoping it would be.

“We ended up buying a couple of £10 bikes and heading off the beaten track and into the jungle. In hindsight, it was ridiculous. We didn’t even had a puncture repair kit. But it will always be one of my favourite memories. Riding these bikes with pink baskets and flowers on the front, trying to find adventure.”

This first taste of off-grid travelling had young Dykes hooked.

In 2014 he became the first person to trek solo and unsupported across Mongolia while pulling a trailer weighing 18 stone through the Gobi Desert in 40-degree heat: “Obviously I had trained physically, but psychologically, I just always had to expect the worst. Knowing the challenges I’ll face and how to overcome them I had to tell myself that if there were wolves, expect t them to attack. If there were b blizzards, they’d be the biggest.

“But it’s illegal to carry a weapon as a foreigner in a lot of places. I c couldn’t have a gun. I just had a knife and two hiking poles. If I cross any wolves, it’s a case of making myself look bigger and not turning my back on them. They don’t like fire though. If you have one lit, they tend to stay at bay.

“I remember two nomads coming along on horseback. They were using hand-gestures as they didn’t speak English. They were telling me there were wolves ahead, and I would get eaten alive if I carried on.

“I saw footprints in the sand, but I didn’t see them. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t see me. That was pretty scary.”

The following year Ash became the first to hike the length of Madagascar. The trip took him into the deepest part of the island’s jungle: “I remember my logistics manager warned me that there were some communities that had never seen a white person, and only heard rumours of torture after the French were there. In some tribes. they believe they will fall ill if they even touch a white person. One day, we were coming over a ridge in the thick jungle and we spotted a mountain community by the time we got there, the village was deserted.

“They must have seen us before we saw them. They had scattered and abandoned their homes to hide from us.

“On that same trip I was held up at gun point by a drunken military officer. He was holding an AK47 to my face demanding money and my passport and trying to fight me. It was terrifying.

“Thankfully some sober officers came over and took the drunk one away. They smacked him in the head and apologised to us.”

This terrifying experience was not the only threat to his life, after contracting the deadliest strain of Malaria – Plasmodium falciparum - which saw him just hours from death: “I’d been bitten by a mosquito. I was taking my anti-malaria pills but I’d had a bout of sickness and diarrhoea after eating some dodgy eel. This meant I wasn’t getting the full dose. I managed to hang on for five days before getting medical treatment. I was just hours away from slipping into a coma.

“I was delirious. I was hallucinating and I was losing my senses.

“There were two voices in my head – one was screaming at me to get up and have a drink. The other was telling me to just go to sleep, it would be a painless death.

“It was an amazing transformation once I got medical attention. Seven days later I was back on the trek.”

Despite this, he completed the 1,600-mile journey in 155 days.

Dykes is heading off to China next month to begin preparations for his adventure. Setting off from the river source in the Tibetan Plateau he will face sub-zero temperatures as he treks across the Jianggendiru Glacier.

He will then travel over wetlands, mountains and through cities like Shanghai, to reach the point where the river meets the East China Sea.

Should he complete the challenge it will be his third world-first record.