How a drunkard inspires me to live my dreams

Let's play spot the wife!! (i.e. my wife is somewhere in this crowd. You're unlikely to find your wife at Yes Stories, though you never know. That would truly be a YES story!!)

If you’ve never been to a YesStories then you are most definitely missing out.

It’s sort of like a mix between a bunch of mates meeting in a pub and a selection of awesome adventure talks. That’s the way it is for me now on my 5th YesStories attendance.

We rendezvous in the upstairs room of a pub in Central London. For the last few it has been the Glassblower in Piccadilly. With the inevitable noise (at one point we had carol singers outside. On another it sounded like a bin lorry had crashed into a dumpster of empty bottles) and repeatedly shocking sound and projection system you’d think that the big man, Dave Cornthwaite, would look into finding another venue. (Hint! Hint!)

Speaking of DC, you can’t avoid his bear-like man hugs even if you tried. Which I didn’t. I kinda like the manly embrace I get each time I meet him. I’m not generally speaking a ‘hugger’ but he tends to bring it out in me.

Truth be told, I was running late so I only caught the end of the live call-in from Olie Hunter Smart who was trekking the length of India. Due to the Kindness of Strangers he’s only had to sleep in his tent on 3 separate occasions. The rest of the time being taken into the bosom of a home. Lucky bugger!

The first speakers were two ladies, Lily and Sarah, who co-founded the fashion company Y.O.U. Underwear. It stands for ‘Your Own Underwear’. These two Uganda Marathon alumni got together to try to make a brand that makes a difference with their wonder undies. They use only ethically-sourced, organic cotton in their knickers and profits from the company are redirected into projects to bring underwear to underprivileged parts of the world.

In the words of Lily, ‘We’re changing the world with our underpants’.

Next up was Morg, a veteran YesTriber. I recognised his unavoidably awesome dreadlocked hair from previous events. What I hadn’t noticed previously, was that he was missing something significant.

He only had one arm.

Now, I’m not being disabilist. The fact was that last time I’d seen him he had two arms. And now he only had one.

He’d only gone and done the classic and shoved a power saw through his armpit. He happily informed us that his artery in his armpit split three times. His heart had stopped on the operating table. ‘Yeah, I had a bit of bad luck,’ he smiled. No shit!

He flicked through a selection of gorey pictures of his knee being sewn into his armpit and other grotesque images. ‘This is just a bag of blood,’ he said of the current slide before going on to describe what it was like to have a phantom limb that sometimes feels like he is holding ice cubes for a whole day. ‘I can feel my palms sweating right now,’ he said eerily.

That’s when the man in front of me fainted.

It wasn’t serious. He was fine. It was probably a combination of the image of a huge bag of blood, the stifling heat of the pub and the fact that Morg’s injuries aren’t just severe and grim but they are very, very real and absolutely life changing.

At least it wasn’t his tattooed arm that was amputated. That would have been a waste of some incredible ink!

Annette Price of H2O photography was up next. This wicked women dared to go where most people would dream, into the abandoned mines of Wales to photograph the neglected machinery and rock formations that were left behind. From ghost like railway tracks that stopped dead at flat rock faces to elaborate rusting wheels and pulleys dropping down into the darkness. Her aim was to find out ‘What lay in the darkness beyond the miner’s torch?’. She described how some shots took up to 60 minutes to set up. She’d go down into the mines and caves with some buddies and they’d go off and leave her getting the perfect angle. On her own. In the dark. For an hour. Crazy!

Her new project is to photograph the Thames from her canoe.

And you know what, she doesn’t get paid to do any of it. Purely for the love of the project. Immense.

I just couldn't avoid Morg's epic hair in this shot of Leon.

Before the break was seasoned adventurer Leon McCarron. I’d love to be like him, making a professional living from my adventures. But no matter how hard I work at this adventure malarkey, he has something I will never had achieve:

Good looks and an Irish accent!

He embarked on an eye-opening trek across the Middle East, using a map that had no names in an attempt to avoid conflict in such a conflict-dominated area. ‘I can move from one area to another, from one story to another, from one conversation to another.’ With the intervention of the UK government in Middle Eastern politics it’s not surprising that he noticed that ‘the further I go into the Middle East, the more Irish I become’. He described his brain as ‘working best at 3mph. 1.5mph uphill.’ Views were ‘Visceral’, ‘Picturesque’ or ‘a place carved by footsteps’. Yes, he really did speak in erudite sound bites.

But he was shocked by the cooperation of the area. Mosques were built intentionally next to Churches. Samaritans (the original ones from the Good Samaritan fable) still roamed the earth. And Bedoiun nomads rode camels, smoked roll-ups and philosophised about the meaning of life. ‘Give without remembering; Take without forgetting’.

That, my friends, is how a pro delivers an adventure talk.

During the break I got chatting to Charlie Knight who had just cycled from Geneva to London. You should check him out. I also talked to Lindsey Cole who was steadily working her way through her fourth large glass of white wine. More about her in a bit.

Claire Janine was first after the break. From the unrealistic dreams of being a pro adventurer to the far more realistic (but equally amazing) story of making many small steps towards living a memorable life. From attending her first YesStories to completing a 52 Fitness Activity Challenge, to Swifty Scootering the length of the Rheine, to the A-Z of place she'd never been. I’ll be honest, I lost track of the incredible stuff she has done and aims to do, especially when she brought out biscuits that she had baked for all the audience. This bubbly energetic girl is the personification of a challenger if ever there was one. ‘Every hurdle is a Yes to be taken.’ You go girl!

Following Claire was Dan Keeley. I’d heard about his run from Rome to Home (AKA London) a while ago. What I didn’t know was the background. In tears, Dan described how his fast paced life had led up to him standing in the fast lane of a motorway having completely lost the plot. His mental breakdown led to an extended series of psychiatric care. What no one expected was he would get through that and then run virtually from one end of Europe to the other on his own.

I don't mean he donned a VR headset and just ran round his living room. The absolute legend did it for real.

He also didn’t leave a dry eye in the house.

His message was that it is such a gift to ask for help. To trust someone else with your emotions, with your mental state, with your health. That is one of the greatest gifts you can give.

Last, but by a long shot no means least, was the irrepressible Lindsey Cole. This seasoned traveller told her incredible story about walking the rabbit proof fence.

By seasoned, I mean she had pickled herself in about 9 glasses of Sauvignon Blanc.

She was noticeably swaying as she stood giddily at the front. Swaying and swearing like a catholic school girl on her first ever night away from the nuns.

Her exuberance for life and excitement for her tale were palpable as she recounted the story of 2 sisters who had walked the Rabbit Proof Fence halfway across the Outback of Australia and the journey she took following in their footsteps.

I don’t know if she intended to be but she was absolutely Hilarious with a capital ‘H’! What a way to end the night!

The last few bits were Emma Karembo-Taylor talking about the YesTribe trek in Jordan that she was organising and Dave telling us about his recent epic expedition along the coast of Norway on a Schiller Bike.

And Bussy. Don’t forget Bussy.

Anyway, another wonderful evening shared with friends and strangers alike. Make sure you get along to one soon. The information is on the website. See you there!