Q: where did the original idea come from?

>> STEVE: In the summer of 1991 I was working in Paris, France, involved in environmental research and Global Warming. I was almost twenty-five. I had an interesting life and job, but wasn’t really happy being in an office all day. I was also unhappy realising that a ‘big solution’ to the environmental problems wasn’t going to happen. And so, after living for a third of a lifetime, I decided to really ask myself, for the first time, what do I most want to do without worrying about the future, money, or anything else.

Nothing happened for a while, just lots of questions and doubts and an uncomfortable feeling that maybe I didn’t want to do anything at all.

The first, certain feeling came with the word ‘adventure’. It had to be something physical, outdoors. I didn’t want to be an expert, or specialize in anything technical that needed lots of equipment - like climbing Everest or traveling by car - I wanted to keep it simple, natural and down-to-earth.

What is the essence of adventure? For me it was a physical test of body against nature. So when I asked myself to imagine the most exciting adventure possible, ‘around the world’ sprang to mind. The ‘most exciting’ and the ‘essence’ of adventure naturally came together to form ‘around the world by human power’. When I realised that no one had ever tried to go around the planet just using one’s own power before, I knew that I had found what I was looking for.

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