The expedition team

Having an interest in desert lands from his early years Alan organised his first independent expedition in 1995 and crossed the Western Sahara desert from North to South (via Mauritania and Western Sahara); recruiting a specialised team and purchasing a used Land Rover to accomplish the project.

Since then, and taking advantage of skills learnt as an Intelligence Officer in the Royal Air Force he has organised, independent pathfinding expeditions to cross the Central Sahara desert (Libya and Chad); Karakum desert of Turkmenistan (eastern dune system); AL Rub al Khali Arabian empty quarter (Oman, Saudi, UAE); Kalahari and Namib deserts of Botswana and Angola; Thar desert of Northwest India and the Chihuahuan desert of Mexico; He has also conducted solo expeditions in the Atacama desert in Chile and the Simpson desert in Australia using the Hay river track and taken part in a desert survival programme in Jordan run by the Royal Marines. He has been sponsored by industry to path find routes and water sources throughout the Eastern Sahara and the Central Asian Kyzl Kum. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society he has presented at the desert workshop at the Society’s annual Explore congress on a number of occasions.

A biochemist by profession, Alan gained his PhD at York University in England and took up a post-doctoral research post at Johns Hopkins Medical School in Baltimore, United States of America. His book, “Desert exploration for the busy professional” that describes expedition planning and implementation specifically in arid areas, is in editorial with Gibson Square Publishing, London. He lives in Southport, England and has a 7 year-old son, Joseph.

Chris has spent most of his life travelling and has experienced a series of very diverse cultures around the world. Amongst other adventures he has crewed a square-rigged sailing ship from Australia to New Zealand and Vanuatu, been an engineer on a cetacean research expedition vessel and sailed from the Caribbean to Plymouth on a 148ft topsail schooner.

Chris was expedition leader-driver for an overland expedition company, running adventure tours through the Middle East and Asia before spending 18 summers carrying out research on the whale and dolphin populations of the Azores archipelago. More recently as logistics manager for 2 expeditions he travelled to to the jungles of Borneo and drove 3 circumnavigations of Sabah by 4x4. Between 2015 and 2018 he travelled as a logistics specialist/skipper on expedition support to East Greenland, dodging icebergs, tsunamis and polar bears, during 450km open boat voyages.

Garry is a Teaching Fellow at the University of Bath, an archaeologist, author and qualified walking leader. Through Walking Leaders, Garry takes executive teams on hiking trips of self exploration, team development and for creative thinking across the UK, Europe and N Africa. As an archaeologist Garry has been involved in excavations across the UK and Europe but specialised in Maritime Archaeology in the Bronze Age Aegean.

He is especially interested in the ancient trade and migration routes and is keen to investigate and explore this aspect of the expedition into and across the Nefud. Garry is currently researching and writing a book on what he calls Outside Thinking for Bloomsbury Publishing, due to be published in late 2022.

Alex is a Documentary Producer-Director who has created content for the BBC, Channel 4 and Vice. Alex specialised in creating powerful people-led documentaries and has experience shooting in many remote and challenging environments around the world.

As a field producer, Alex cut her teeth in the industry filming the extreme overland expeditions of adventure travel company The Adventurists. Whether travelling from London to Mongolia in a Nissan Micra or traversing the Indian Himalayas in a rickshaw – Alex spent two years capturing the highs and lows of individuals undertaking these grand adventures. These expeditions have taken her over the Atlas mountains and across the Eurasian Steppe, through the Gobi desert and the Pamir mountains, across the Indian subcontinent, and into the Himalayas, driving on some of the highest motorable roads in the world. Alex has also worked and lived in Nepal, filming rural communities living in the foothills of the Annapurna mountain range.

Alex is always seeking to find new and usual ways to see the world. She owns a trusty red Honda CB500X and is an advocate of solo overland travel. She's a keen astrophotographer and is captivated by the night sky. Although interested in exploring many topics from behind a camera lens, Alex is an ardent traveller and is fascinated by teamwork and endurance – in particular, capturing life in the extremes

Kat’s wanderlust started when she joined a financial services firm on an international management programme, moving countries from New York, Hong Kong, Malta, Mexico and Paris. Kat has always been sporty and sought adventure, albeit sometimes not as well-prepped as she should have been – she climbed Mount Fuji overnight to see the sunrise in Birkenstocks, shorts with a pashmina. Since then, she’s successfully completed the Three Peaks (Ben Nevis, Snowden and Scaffel Pike) in 24 hours, the 100km Oxfam Trailwalker challenge in Hong Kong, climbed Kilimanjaro, Machu Pichu as well as some volcanos in Guatemala and Mexico.

This love of adventure and challenge, led Kat to sign up for the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race in 2017, choosing to do some of the hardest legs despite having never sailed before. After 31 days at sea, crossing the North Pacific and battling 14-metre-high waves, as soon as she was safely back on dry land, with a beer in hand, the idea of rowing the Atlantic came to fruition. Like all good things, its never smooth sailing and Kat was diagnosed with cervical cancer in March 2019. Despite going into remission in February 2020, in July 2020, the cancer returned and metastasised and Kat was no longer considered curable.

In 2021, despite never rowing before, Kat and two friends broke the world record for the fastest female trio to row across the Atlantic raising over £100k for three cancer charities. Kat is currently 3 years in remission and continues to be determined to continue to challenge herself and explore parts of the world she hasn’t yet made it to. The Atacama has been on her list for a long time and the ability to carry out an expedition with limited environmental impact means it’s the perfect fit for her next adventure!

Becca’s adventurous journey began in 2016 when she, alongside a crew of crazy friends, set off to circumnavigate the world in a £75 car. Following their success, alongside 2 of the crew, together they formed an adventure travel community and have been organising unique road trips that encourage participants to get out of their comfort zone.

Since 2017, she has been a freelance travel writer, working with a number of brands and start-ups, creating city guides, road trip itineraries, and location-specific factual pieces, as well as writing non-fiction tales from her experiences on the road.

She recently (2023-2024) completed her biggest co-organised expedition: driving an American school bus the length of the Pan-American Highway from Alaska to Argentina. As a key team member, she applied her unique skill set in route planning and logistics for global long-distance overlanding adventures to help form the trip. Becca is also in the process of working with a small team to put together a small documentary about the trip.