Features
| NEWS |  | | | | EDUCATION | | | | BUSINESS | | | | SPORT | | |
|
|
|
To all corners of the globe
HE has looked down from the roof of the world and seen some of the most dramatic landscape on earth - but for Hampshire adventurer Adrian Hayes there is still no place like home.
The 47-year-old is back in the New Forest after becoming the fastest man ever to complete one of the most gruelling feats on the planet - the Three Poles Challenge.
Adrian, who was born in Totton and grew up in the New Forest, scaled Mount Everest and walked to both the North and South Poles in the space of just 18 months.
The last of those epic projects - trekking through the frozen wastelands of Antarctica - saw
him battle 46 days of blinding white snow and ice in temperatures plummeting to -35C.
At one point the biting conditions forced one of Adrian's dental fillings and part of a tooth to crack open causing searing pain.
But spurred on by self-belief and buoyed by memories of the mild and picturesque New Forest countryside, he dragged his way to the finish line.
The former Gurkha said: "It is so intense and you are in such isolation when you are out there that you need time to adjust when it's over.
"The conditions are brutal so to come back to traffic jams, good food and alcohol is a real shock to the system - you just can't take it.
 |
| FAMILY: Adrian with mum Linda and brother Damien. |
"For the first two months afterwards you are away with the fairies and for the first two weeks I just didn't want to face anybody.
"Physically it takes time to get back to normal. Mentally, when you get back the problem is that you feel nobody understands what you went through."
Adrian, who lives with his wife and two children in Dubai, tackled Everest in May 2006 and then trekked to the North Pole 11 months later.
Having reached the South Pole with his four companions after a 1,130km trek, he joined a group of only 14 other people in the world who have managed the Three Poles.
"The sense of achievement at reaching Everest was incredible," he said. "I was walking on water for a year afterwards."
"But the North Pole was the toughest - the landscape is constantly breaking up. One day we walked for 15 hours, but ended up having gone backwards.
"You pull sleds weighing 150kg through knee-deep snow so your calves and heels really take a battering.
"I also lost a lot of weight. I had to consume 5,500 calories a day just to keep going."
For many, the mere idea of setting foot in Arctic extremes is enough to send shivers down the spine - but Adrian relishes the idea of taking on the seemingly impossible.
"I do it because it is me. This is just something that drives me and inspires me - it always has done. I feel energised and invigorated by it," he said.
"There are three things; I like it, I'm good at it and I believe I can do it."When it gets really hard you just have to grin and bare it. Sometimes the pain is agonising, the cold is like holding your hands in a fire.
"But the beauty is that you can overcome it all and come up with solutions."
Adrian is currently visiting his mother Linda and brother Damien in Winsor and for the time being the pair are just happy he is safe and well.
They cracked open a bottle of Champagne to mark the end of his remarkable challenge earlier this year.
Linda said: "It does not matter
how old you are, you are still a mother and I was very anxious
when he was out there.
"I had every confidence in him while he was in Antarctica - but I'm just glad he's in one piece."
The adventurer says he is never happier than when he is back in
the New Forest - despite witnessing some of the most spectacular
scenery the world has to offer.
He said: "The New Forest is just
the most fantastic place in the world.
"I don't know what it is about the place - perhaps it was because when I was growing up I used to go trekking and hiking there. I just love it.
"When you are being battered by the winds of the South Pole and everything seems doomed you try to think of anything - your childhood, the New Forest, anything - just so you can get through it."
Far from hanging up his ice pick, Adrian is now plotting
another momentous challenge - walking south to north through Greenland.
Even though it is taking place
in summer next year, Adrian is already eyeing a punishing training regime, which is due to start in September.
As with his other projects he
will take to the beach in Dubai and drag tyres and heavy weights through the sand for hours on end to reach the kind of physical condition required.
At 2,700km it is more than twice the distance he took on to reach the South Pole.
He added: "When I was young I used to read the stories of Scott
and Shackleton and really aspired to what they achieved. But you have got to pluck these things from the clouds and actually do it.
"Everything is possible if you want it badly enough."
9:29am Friday 25th April 2008
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
