A LIFE IN TRAVEL Mike Stroud
The British physician and expedition partner of Sir Ranulph Fiennes shares his most memorable travel moments
What are your strongest memories from the first overseas trip you ever took?
A family of ducks that lived on the French campsite to which I had gone for a week with my junior school.
What was a standard family holiday like when growing up?
When very young, it was a week in farm accommodation somewhere near the sea in Devon or Cornwall. Later, it was a two-week trip to Spanish beaches with the drive taking three days in each direction. The “are we nearly there” questions started on day 1.
Who has most inspired your travels?
My father took me walking and scrambling in the hills and mountains and this led to my love of the outdoors, the challenges that could be found there and then seeking them ever further afield.
What is the greatest trip you’ve ever been on?
In 1993, Sir Ranulph Fiennes and I became the first men to walk, unsupported by animals or machines, across the Antarctic continent — 95 days of impossibly hard toil in glorious, icy isolation.
And the worst?
I recently undertook the world’s longest kayak race — 1000 miles down the Yukon river from Canada to Alaska. To meet the 450-mile and final cut-off times entailed paddling non-stop for a gruelling 18 hours a day. Camping stops were on steep rock and timber strewn banks, immersed in clouds of mosquitoes and one minute it would be baking hot whilst the next would be in icy hail. It was brutal!
What destination did you dream of most while borders were closed due to the pandemic?
My wife came from Holland and a few years before she died, we bought a small house by a canal in the beautiful Dutch town of Enkhuizen. I love that house and through the pandemic, I missed being there, along with chances to be with her lovely family.
What’s your approach to packing for a big trip?
It is very dependent on the nature of the trip — a week away in civilisation and I am throwing things in a bag an hour before leaving; a long and remote expedition, and it is months of research to ensure reliability and performance at least weight. You become very focused if a mistake might cost your life!
What is the destination that most surprised you — good or bad?
Ethiopia is the most extraordinary country I have visited. Stunning geography coupled with fascinating history and culture, and really friendly people.
Where was your most memorable sunrise/sunset?
My first major polar expedition entailed living in a small hut with four others for a whole year. Behind the hut rose the glacier-covered Mt Erebus, Antarctica’s only active volcano. The sun set for four and a half months at that latitude but after only four months, I climbed Erebus alone, taking two days in the dark, bivouacking in temperatures as low as minus 50C. My reward was to see the sunrise from the summit crater, two weeks early because I had gained enough height to see further over the horizon.
What’s the first thing you do when you get home from a long trip?
My long trips have nearly all involved partial starvation as you simply cannot carry enough food to meet the needs of hard work in harsh conditions. As a consequence, when you get back, all you want to do is eat.
What do you miss most about home when you travel?
Camping is fine but after a few weeks, you really crave a bed.
Where is the one destination you must see in your lifetime?
Although difficult, anyone with a chance to visit Antarctica should leap at it. The landscape is like nowhere else on the planet, the ice colours range through every blue known to man and the skies blaze in reds and oranges. And then there is the wildlife!
What’s your favourite thing about travel?
I love the stepping away from normal life. It not only grants opportunities to witness new things but also the opportunity to appreciate your normal life from a different perspective. It is good for the soul.