There has been a great deal of talk lately here in the UK about explorers and expeditions.  First, the great debacle and debate that was explorers vs. geographers at the Royal Geographical Society (for the record, it seems for now the geographers have won).  Then, my main man Ran, finally pushed through to reach the summit of Everest on his 3rd attempt.  Brilliant!  All good PR for the expedition game, adventuring and exploring in general.

One chap, who, in my opinion is doing more than anyone at the moment to prove the worth of just getting out there and doing it, is Mike Horn.  This bloke is unstoppable.  I was fortunate enough to catch up with him last year, when his boat, Pangea docked in London en route to Greenland.  He was busy entertaining some Mercedes-Benz hot shots (one of his sponsors no less) but was stoked to chat with a fellow Amazon alumni.  His stories from the time he spent on river were amazing and made me feel quite humble about my own experience in comparison.

Right now, Mike is on the Pangea Expedition, a 4 year journey from 2008 to 2012 around the globe to educate young people about the world we live in.  I know what you are thinking, “Yeh, right we’ve heard that before.  Jumping on the climate change, environment, youth bandwagon is nothing new”.  However, with much respect, this time it’s a little different.  The YEP or Young Explorers Program that Mike has initiated is truly brilliant.  He has secured some great partners and put into action an expedition that actually will count for something.  He’s certainly not dragging a box of wires around on the ice, spending 4 million quid in the process and calling it science.

Check out YEP and you will see the more than a thousand odd kids who are genuinely excited about our planet.

Tell me this is not an expedition that can make a difference.