Endless horizons

Adventurer Colin Angus reflects on his self-propelled travels around the globe – and his plans for future conquests

From the Summer 2010 issue of Coast&Kayak Magazine. Read the entire magazine online.

Colin Angus completed the first human-powered circumnavigation of the world in 2006 when he cycled into Vancouver after 43,000 kilometres (26,600 miles) of travel. During the course of two years he rowed across the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, trekked and cycled through 16 countries, endured winter in Siberia and searing heat in the tropics. His exploits earned both him and his partner Julie the title of 2006 National Geographic Adventurers of the Year. In 2008 the pair continued their penchant for self-propelled travel with a seven-month, 7,000 km (4,300 mile) journey from the northern tip of Scotland to the heart of Syria using rowboats and bicycles.

Colin’s next trip is quite a departure: speed over distance, an attempt to set the fastest time for circumnavigating Vancouver Island – but again, in a rowboat rather than a kayak, which has been used exclusively in past record attempts. Wavelength editor John Kimantas talked with Colin about his adventures and plans for the future.

WL: I seem to recall the last time we talked on the phone you phoned me from a satellite phone in Chukotka. I was working in a newspaper at the time and you had been escorted across land by a converted tank, and the tank driver had got drunk and ran into a house. You were ready to leave them behind. And this was after abandoning the open water due to storms to cross by land and being arrested when you first arrived on Russian soil. Thinking back at that period of time, was it fun?

Colin: Well, these things become much more fun in hindsight. When you’re thinking back it’s definitely a different world. At the time it’s exciting, we’re seeing all these new places but we are certainly coming across all these formidable challenges which on a day-to-day basic can make it a little bit disconcerting. That whole section going through Chukotka and Eastern Siberia just stands out in my mind as being one of the most unique times in my life.

WL: Tell me a little bit about what made it unique.

Colin: Well, it’s just so different from what we’re used to in our coddled western world. Here, even if you’re living in a cold area in northern Alberta or whatnot, everything’s still pretty straightforward. You’ve got all your conveniences and a nice warm home. There we were pretty much exposed to the elements almost continuously and it’s much less developed in northeastern Siberia and it’s such a different culture. The people are warm and hospitable but it’s very bureaucratic and there’s virtually no infrastructure there. Once you’re going in between the towns there’s just a big open wilderness and it’s quite daunting the prospect of having to cross this wilderness. Distance-wise the area without roads it’s the same as going one side of Antarctica to the other and with colder temperatures because you have to go in the winter. You can’t go in the summer because it’s bogs and marshes. So it’s very, very frigid temperatures. The big difference is there are towns and villages periodically, so little oases that you can pull into and warm up and dry your gear.

WL: This was the area too where your relationship with Tim Harvey broke down. Was it the conditions as much as the people, do you figure? Was it just too much for two people to be doing so much together for so long?

Colin: Well, I think it’s a little bit of everything. If you look historically at different expeditions out there it seems more than 50 percent of them do end up having some sort of rifts or splits. And I think this is just no different. I think I’ve been quite fortunate over the years. There’s the expedition down the Amazon and the Yenisey and the early sailing trips and the later expeditions with Julie and all of them have been quite harmonious in the way of team dynamics. For the number of expeditions it is bound that somewhere along the way you will be with somebody that there’s compatibility issues and this happened once and it was on the around the world trip. First and foremost it’s not the expedition. Obviously that will aggravate things. We didn’t know each other very well beforehand. We were sort of kayaking buddies and sort of knew each other casually and that, but we weren’t like close friends. So there were big voids in our understanding of each other’s personalities and I think once you’re doing an expedition you do get to know each other very well. Unfortunately there wasn’t that foundation that we were able to withstand the pressures and difficulties that come with an expedition.

WL: One of the great things I love about this whole story of your trip is that your fiancé was able to join you and complete that trip with you. It gives it the element of it being a love story as well. Tell me: how did you two meet?

Colin: We actually met in a bus stop in Vancouver. We were both going to the Vancouver Sun Run. A friend of mine had called just the night before and said they had a small team and one of the guys had dropped out. He was sick and was wondering if I would fill in. I’m like okay, sure, so the following day I went to the bus stop to get a ride to the Sun Run starting point and there were a bunch of people there. The buses were completely full. There were 50,000 people going to the race so one after another was going by. So finally one of the guys there flagged down a taxi and a bunch of us piled in and we all started chatting. Well, we were chatting a little bit beforehand and talking more once we were in the taxi and that’s how it all began.

WL: How would it have been to complete that trip alone without Julie?

Colin: I think it would have been very difficult. As with any team the workload becomes less, especially if everybody’s quite proficient with what they do, with everything from actually propelling yourself forward in the rowboat, that work is cut in half, but more importantly the logistical, the planning, the research, all that kind of stuff. Of course I was continuously on the road beforehand, so Julie was also able to do some of the research and work beforehand. Also, in Portugal and getting the boat ready we had a very short timeline to get the boat seaworthy and ready for going out on the ocean because of the fact of the stormy season. Even more importantly the winds switch around off Portugal and if you don’t leave before the switch you’ll have that against you and you won’t make it anywhere. So you have to work very, very quickly and efficiently.

WL: Obviously your relationship survived that trip. Tell me, how difficult were the dynamics in that situation?

Colin: Pretty good. It all comes down to knowing each other very well. Julie’s father was saying to her beforehand I don’t want you to do this row because you really shouldn’t be doing this with your fiancé. I think he was more worried about our relationship falling apart than the actual dangers the ocean had in store. He said you won’t be getting married if you try spending five months in a rowboat with a person you want to spend the rest of your life with. From that angle it was quite daunting, especially in light of what had happened earlier between Tim and myself. We felt we’ve got what it takes and also we talked a lot too about different strategies if things aren’t going well. It’s all about keeping perspective and realizing your mindset can change if things are stressful and difficult and it’s not necessarily a real portrayal of how things are going. Having said that it worked out pretty well. There were always little debates here and there or minor arguments but certainly nothing major.

WL: What was the feeling when you stepped out of the boat in Costa Rica?

Colin: As you can imagine, jubilation, but it was a very fatigued jubilation. The last few days we were hit by a pretty major storm above Columbia and that was a few days away from reaching shore. So we were just thrashed because we went through that and then as we emerged out of the storm the current switched around. It kind of hit North America and created a smaller current not shown in the pilot charts. We had a very strong current against us. When we were rowing individually we basically weren’t making any progress, so we were basically standing in the spot while we rowed on our own, then we would double up and make a little bit of progress, but obviously to double up it means we were each rowing 18 hours a day with six hours of crossover, and that six hours was the only time we were actually moving forward. You get so exhausted all you want to do is take a break, and if you take a break for two hours with nobody at the helm you’ll probably lose a day’s work. It was just that strong of a current. We were so tired when we finally did struggle into shore and we were able to drop that anchor.

WL: Remind me again where you went from there. Did you cycle back to Vancouver?

Colin: Yes, we cycled back to Vancouver so we had a couple of lightweight bikes and we basically went straight from Costa Rica to Vancouver. I think it took 64 days. So we were going pretty hard and all through Central America to Mexico then right through the spine basically of North America. We initially were going to go up the coast but at that time we were getting pretty tired and we were looking forward to getting home and it was just the prevailing winds would be in our favor and also a lot flatter through Texas and New Mexico and then Colorado and into Wyoming then over to BC.

WL: It’s funny after being away all that time and saying you’re looking forward to getting home, you really still had a home at that point?

Colin: You can’t really help when you’ve been born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, the whole Pacific Northwest and Vancouver is in your heart and in your head is still home. So whether you’ve got a house waiting for you or not it’s your destination and where you plan to be.

WL: The trip you did that became the subject for The Rowed Trip – that seems quite more civilized in terms of certainly the area you were traveling.

Colin: It certainly is more civilized. It’s a very different trip in its nature. At the same time I think a lot of people think of it as a stroll in the park. When you get into the nitty-gritty of it, it really is quite complex both logistically and in the amount of physical effort required. At the end of the day we traveled 7,000 kilometres with about 6,000 of that both boats and bicycle. We did the final leg on just our bikes to Syria from Istanbul because we realized we wouldn’t be able to ship our boats out of Syria. Just hauling that much gear – we each had our own boat, half the time we were on land, the other half we were in the water. In total I think it was 250 to 280 pounds – just to haul that almost the distance from one side of Canada to the other, through rivers, through canals, against currents, with currents, over roads and tracks and mountains, there’s a lot of physical effort. But it was a really magical way to explore the diversity of Europe, seeing all the architecture, and these different cultures, and getting to sample the food. You’re doing a lot of physical work, but it is within an environment where there is obviously fewer dangers to encounter. At the same time there is a lot of things you do have to watch out for.

WL: I would think the toughest thing would be just dealing with civilization and the limitations on being free to explore when you’re dealing with highways and waterways that are basically developed.

Colin: It was easier than we expected. We had quite good maps and road atlases and that sort of thing so we never went on busy highways for the most part. We’d be on quiet waterways or on bicycle paths or farmers’ lanes. As far as camping and that we designed the boats so you could catamaran them together and put a tent on it if we were in areas too developed – not for actual traveling but just to create a platform camp in the more urban areas. But we were surprised at how easy it was to find a spot and camp. There was a few times when we had a lot of difficulty, you know, in a corner of a farmer’s field or in a forest. The nice thing about waterways even if it is quite developed usually you can always find some little green patches of scrub or parkland that you can just pull into and be quite discrete. Even if it’s a park. Oftentimes there’s an area where the trail wanders away from the shore so that would be where you could discretely set up your tent and camp.

WL: The rowboat you used in that trip – that was your own design, was it not?

Colin: Yes.

WL: So this is what you’re developing into Angus Row Boats?

Colin: Yeah, and the whole concept behind those was we wanted something that would be very easy to portage, being able to pull behind our bicycles, which is a very efficient way of portaging them. We were considering kayaks first of all, but of course when you’re in the water you can’t carry the bikes and trailers in the boat. And we thought of canoes, but a canoe is just not seaworthy enough for the open water we’d be facing plus if we had a canoe it would mean one person was towing a boat and the other person would have quite a light bike so it would be nice to distribute the weight a bit more evenly. So basically the concept as you can see they look kind of like kayaks with the advantage of being decked and having sealed compartments and being very seaworthy like a kayak, but because they are bigger you’ve got that rowing system which allows you to get a little more drive into the propulsion.

WL: So I gather that is a bit of your focus now, developing this rowboat company?

Colin: Well, there’s a whole bunch of things. With the rowboat company, yeah, that is sort of a big focus. Actually I’m creating a couple more too... You see a lot of canoes out there and a lot of kayaks, which are wonderful craft, but at the same time there’s very few rowboats which have their own advantages for different purposes. You see a lot of sliding setup seats, you see racing and competitive boats. There are a few recreational boats available but they’re really not like kayaks where you pack in a week’s worth of gear and just go off camping... But for people who like the workout you get with rowing and who like that sort of power or maybe rowed in college or whatnot would certainly like a way to get out there on the water and explore the islands, get out to the Gulf Islands or whatnot, and be in a rowboat.

WL: So explain to me your bid for the speed record in rowing around Vancouver Island.

Colin: That’ll be commencing in probably mid-June. I’d like to have the full daylight and also looking at the weather it looks like July is one of the best months for the weather. So it’s starting mid-June and I’ll be using one of the boats we used on the last expedition, the expedition boats, and we’re packing that full of gear and hope for the best – hope for some good weather and no repetitive usage injuries and give it a go.

WL: Do you have any other major trips in store after that?

Colin: The round Vancouver Island is sort of a bit of a warmup to train up for my next one, which is I’m going to be attempting to break the 24-hour speed record in a rowboat. As of yet nobody’s actually tried breaking that category so there’s not really much of a number to drive for, but I’ll just be giving it my best and seeing what I can come up with.

WL: That’ll be on the Yukon River I take it?

Colin: No, it’ll be flat water. I’ll also be trying for the human-powered record of any sort. The fellow who currently holds that is from Calgary1, and that’s flat water again. It was initially held by a kayaker, then a sit-on-top kayaker. I think there were two sit-on-top kayakers that successively broke the record, and the sit-on-top kayaker held it for quite a while, then the guy from Calgary created a vessel that was pedal powered. It was a very sleek trimaran and he currently holds the record. It is 245 kilometres [152 miles] in 24 hours that he did – so just over 10 kilometres an hour he was able to maintain, which is pretty good. The disadvantage of a rowboat compared to his craft is, like kayaking, both hands are occupied the whole time so he was steadily able to eat and drink while he was on the go with his legs working away whereas it’s a bit harder doing that body maintenance for 24 hours. At the same time I’ll be making a different rowboat for that, sort of a faster, sleeker boat. That’ll be the next challenge, which will be about three weeks after completing the Vancouver Island trip.

WL: What stands out as your favorite memory and your least favorite memory of your various trips?

Colin: I think some of my favorite memories are on the Atlantic Ocean. It’s pretty magical being out there. It’s such a different world from what you’re used to. Even though I had a lot of experience on the ocean in my younger years I spent sailing it’s very different when you’re traveling that slowly. You get a lot of wildlife collecting under the boat and you almost become one with them. You name these different fish2 and jump in the water and swim with them. And it’s just like being in a big aquarium and having this aquatic world around you. Worst memories I guess would be being back in the ocean again, but the anticipation of having a hurricane coming towards your boat – just that whole sort of buildup and suspense. We actually had two hurricanes on the Atlantic and the first was a complete anomaly. It formed in a part of the ocean where never before had there been a hurricane. We had advance warning that it was coming and unlike any other boat that could move away we were a sitting duck and all we could do was just prepare for it, battening the hatches and packing everything inside and making sure it’s all secure. Up until that point we had always seen lights on the ocean whether it be fish boats or passing cargo ships. Suddenly I remember the night before the hurricane it was completely black, not another light on the sea. That’s because everything else was gone. You just feel really alone and as we’re sitting tracking, we’d get regular updates on the hurricane’s progress coming towards us. It was calm except this huge oily swell which was being produced in the hurricane and was just mountainous waves slowly moving past. It was quite a daunting feeling.

WL: How much of this traveling you have done is simply an addiction – something you feel compelled to do?

Colin: I think it’s more you’d call it a lifestyle. My motivation for going out and doing these adventures started young. As a young boy I read adventure books and stories about sailors and adventurers and always thought it was a magical way to go out and explore the world. My first trip I decided to do when I was 12 years old. I just wanted to get a sailboat and head off into the high seas. And seven years later, eight years later I ended up sailing away from Vancouver Island. That was my first real journey and it just continued from there. I have found it great that there are so many different ways you can get out and explore the world and visit these remote places that you’d never see otherwise. And that’s the great thing about human powered trips. In any expedition with a theme you have this idea I’m going to run this river from source to sea or I’m going to go around the world by human power. As you go and do that journey all these other scenarios unfold that you would never have imagined in a million years. These places you visit you could never have imagined going to in a million years, but you just do because they happen to be on the route of your journey. Oftentimes those scenarios or those places end up being the most enchanting. Maybe you’re on the side of a river somewhere waiting out a storm and some local people in a little hut above invite you for dinner and a whole new story unfolds.

You can find out more about Colin’s new unfolding stories, books, DVDs and rowboats at www.angusadventures.com