Charlie Walker: Curious and wild-hearted
When we speak with Charlie Walker for this feature he is relaxed, with verdant hanging plants on the shelves behind him framing his profile.
It's a stark contrast to the environment that he'll be spending 3 months in from 12th February: ski trekking 1000 miles along the frozen Lena River in Arctic Siberia. It's the coldest inhabited place on earth, with temperatures reaching -50°C.
As Charlie readily acknowledges, this trek will be a race to reach the Arctic Ocean before the ice on the river melts, because spring in Siberia is arriving earlier year on year. If he is forced to abandon his route, it would only serve to further highlight the issue that he’s seeking to document: the effects of climate change upon this remote part of the world and the communities that live there. It is the indigenous Yakut people with whom Charlie will be meeting, reindeer herders seldom visited by Westerners due to the inaccessibility of their homeland.
It's no wonder that the Scientific Exploration Society felt compelled to bestow the Elodie Sandford Explorer Award for Amateur Photography on Charlie to fund this trek. He has committed, by accepting this funding, to bring the Yakut community to a wider audience, through photographs of its people, environment, wildlife, fauna and flora. What better medium for capturing the impact of flooding, wildfires and permafrost thaw, than the visual? In addition to documenting these signs of climatological crisis, Charlie will be recording traditional ways of life for the Yakut people, before these disappear into folklore forever.
This desire to engage with remote communities, beyond the reach of modernising influence, permeates many of Charlie's previous expeditions. He has traversed Mongolia on horseback, hiked from the east to north coast of Papua New Guinea, paddled a dugout canoe through the Democratic Republic of Congo and completed an 8000km triathlon along the Eurasian border. On his website, accounts of these adventures are always accompanied by portraits of the local people and recollections of their generosity and kindness. Wherever his travels have taken him, Charlie has been fortunate to be welcomed with open arms. (Apart from the one time he cut a hole in the fence of a Chinese military base to get into Tibet - you can read more about that in his books!)
His first expedition came after the completion of a postgraduate degree in Journalism, when Charlie was working on the travel desk at the Daily Express. Dissatisfied, Charlie's mind wandered back to the seed of an idea that he’d had two years previously, to cycle between the Dead Sea and Mount Everest. By now the goal had expanded to encompass reaching the furthest points from his home in each of Europe (Nordkapp), Asia (Singapore) and Africa (Cape Agulhas). He began to save his monthly pay-check, until he had enough funds to buy a second-hand bike and some camping gear from eBay. Old Geoff, as the bike became known, took Charlie from his English village to 60 different countries over 4 years and 43,000 miles. With a journey like that under his belt by the age of 27, it's no surprise that going back to a desk job was never an option.
Photos: Archie Leeming
The common thread through all his travels has been the connection with local people. When Charlie sets his sights on a new expedition, it’s always with the human perspective in mind, to uncover the lived story behind the empirical data. Whether it be the herders of the Gobi Desert or the village chiefs on the Lulua River, there is a tale to be told, often one that would not otherwise reach our ears. Charlie continues the oral traditions of our ancestors (and the isolated communities of today) by capturing these stories and taking them to new generations of listeners, touring schools with his adventures. He presents the human perspective to these young minds, not through a television screen, but in a shared room.
“Spending 60 minutes in a room with young supple minds is a great way to share my findings, educate and hopefully have a real lasting impact.”
And it’s not hard to see why they would be captivated by what Charlie has to say. During our conversation he is erudite and measured, modest and yet self-assured. This is a man whose decade of pursuing simultaneously physical and intellectual challenges has taught him well. He’s always learning and always ready to pass on what he’s learnt to the curious and the wild-hearted.
If that sounds like you, you can follow Charlie’s upcoming expedition to Yukutia through his Instagram @cwexplore or order his two previous books for yourself from his website www.cwexplore.com