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Speaker 1: March thirty, twenty twenty five, Luke Richmond rose his way

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Speaker 1: into Coff's Harbor with his mate Grant Wallingson. It's the

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Speaker 1: end of a mammoth feet for the duo, we have

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Speaker 1: just set a new world record. They just completed the

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Speaker 1: fastest human powered crossing of the Tasman Sea, just over

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Speaker 1: twenty two days after setting.

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Speaker 2: Off from New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: For Luke, it is just the latest in an array

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Speaker 1: of endurance adventures, from climbing mountains to crossing deserts. I'm

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Speaker 1: Ad Middleton and this is headgame today. Luke Richmond on

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Speaker 1: his lowest point being locked up in jail in a

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Speaker 1: foreign country and how it sparked a passion for adventure

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Speaker 1: that continues today. What story mates, I'm really excited to

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Speaker 1: get into this one and really start digging and gather

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Speaker 1: some golden gems, mate, because when it comes to mindset,

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Speaker 1: when it comes to resilience, when it comes to pushing

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Speaker 1: through and really taking control of yourself, you are you

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Speaker 1: are the epitome of that. Before we get into all

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Speaker 1: of that, because it's super exciting. What was it like

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Speaker 1: growing up for you? Because I know in the UK,

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Speaker 1: you know back in the day. And I say back

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Speaker 1: in the day as if we were all farts, mate,

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Speaker 1: but you know it was. It was, you know, quite

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Speaker 1: a survival sort of mindset rather than a thriving mindset.

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Speaker 2: Right. What was it like growing up for you? Mate?

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Speaker 3: It's I guess I'm a dual national hair. You called

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Speaker 3: me a brit but I think I'm definitely and Naussie

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Speaker 3: from down Under.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, you are, of course you are. Course I

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Speaker 2: came over.

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Speaker 3: On a boat, mate, It came over on the ten

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Speaker 3: pound boat. Immigration push back in the fifties, sixties and seventies,

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Speaker 3: so I have that connection to Britain is still very

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Speaker 3: very strong.

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Speaker 2: That's what I've read, mate, So that's my bad. Yeah, correct.

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Speaker 3: And my grandfather was a full on Patriot, you know.

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Speaker 3: We had that very stoic British upbringing, even though I

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Speaker 3: grew up in out Australia, So I guess my early

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Speaker 3: early days were all in the bush we call the

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Speaker 3: bushes out back, you know, I had on big cattle

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Speaker 3: stations where my dad worked and mum worked. So I

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Speaker 3: grew up the little twenty two rifle and running off

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Speaker 3: into the bush every other minute trying to slay things.

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Speaker 3: And you grew up hunting and fishing and growing up

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Speaker 3: a little mini cowboy, and that's all you really wanted

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Speaker 3: to be. But my parents were wise enough to know

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Speaker 3: that you can't grow up a redneck. So I did

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Speaker 3: all of my schooling on a little radio out there

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Speaker 3: to a teacher that was literally one thousand kilometers away.

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Speaker 3: But at the end of primary school age, my parents

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Speaker 3: knew this education wasn't going to get him to where

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Speaker 3: they wanted me to be, so they drove. It was

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Speaker 3: almost four thousand kilometers to us, all town in far

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Speaker 3: north Queensland, and that's where I joined a big high school.

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Speaker 3: So I went from my sister and I in the

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Speaker 3: bush on a little radio to a teacher mine was away,

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Speaker 3: to walking into a high school of six seven hundred

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Speaker 3: kids and a cowboy hat on and having to deal with,

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Speaker 3: you know, stepping into the real world, into a real town.

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Speaker 3: But mate, that was perfect for me because I had

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Speaker 3: the best of both worlds. I had that country upbringing

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Speaker 3: with those morals and values, but then I had the

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Speaker 3: big city, the tech, the socializing, the getting the mates

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Speaker 3: to playing the rugby rugby league and from there joining

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Speaker 3: the green machine, you know, joining up in the Army

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Speaker 3: at seventeen from that town in North.

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Speaker 1: Queens At Yeah, mate, I was hanging onto the old

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Speaker 1: brick when I read about your background and your and

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Speaker 1: your upbringing. That's what that's why, that sort of British

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Speaker 1: sort of angle game to me.

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Speaker 2: Mate.

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Speaker 1: So when I look back on things, you know, your

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Speaker 1: family of travelers, a family of explorers, the family of

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Speaker 1: adventures without even knowing it, right, So did it feel

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Speaker 1: like a sense of adventure when you were growing up

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Speaker 1: because you were traveling and you know, you were moving

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Speaker 1: around and going.

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Speaker 2: From the bush to you know, to school, and it

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Speaker 2: is one big adventure when you're young, isn't it. Did

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Speaker 2: it feel like.

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Speaker 3: That, absolutely, mate, Yeah, because my parents had that you

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Speaker 3: travel of blood from my grandfather and from our sort

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Speaker 3: of history. So they didn't really stay in a place

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Speaker 3: longer than a few years. So whether we're on one

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Speaker 3: cattle station for a couple of years, another cattle station

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Speaker 3: for a year, another one for a few years. So

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Speaker 3: I moved around a lot in the outback areas of

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Speaker 3: the Northern Territory in Queensland and Wa. So I had

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Speaker 3: that in my blood and all it really did was

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Speaker 3: make you feel comfortable and secure in what would technically

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Speaker 3: be insecurity on the road, you know, no possessions, everything

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Speaker 3: in the in the back of the holden and troll

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Speaker 3: on a trailer. But that's where you feel comfortable and free.

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Speaker 3: And I still have that today, even though we've got

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Speaker 3: a great base camp now down here in Tasmania. Whenever

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Speaker 3: we travel, my wife and I or on expeditions around

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Speaker 3: the world, you just feel comfortable, just feels like going home.

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Speaker 3: And I guess that's the roots of Yeah, my parents

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Speaker 3: and how they brought me up is feeling comfortable in

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Speaker 3: those scenarios where most people feel uncomfortable when they're traveling

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Speaker 3: and out on the road with a ROLLI bag.

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Speaker 1: Did you feel comfortable at school when you made that

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Speaker 1: transition into going to school? Because I know my background

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Speaker 1: is similar to yours, right, you know, at the age

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Speaker 1: of one, we moved to Australia. I lived in Australia

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Speaker 1: from the age of one till three, can't really remember it.

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Speaker 1: Then bounce back to the UK at the age of

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Speaker 1: nine and ten moved to France. You know, it's very

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Speaker 1: very similar, mate, and I joined the military the age

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Speaker 1: of seventeen, and again, you know, trying to fit into

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Speaker 1: school at that age, and just you know, having bounced

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Speaker 1: around from forever when I was young, I didn't really

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Speaker 1: fit in at school, hence why I joined the military.

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Speaker 1: What was you know you talk about being outside of

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Speaker 1: your comfort zone from day dot?

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Speaker 2: Was?

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Speaker 1: Were you outside of your comfort zone when you went

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Speaker 1: to school or you or did you just fit I.

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Speaker 3: Rocked in there with a bloody cowboy had on it. It

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Speaker 3: was the worst thing you could do walking into a bit.

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Speaker 3: Why I asked, everyone's wearing hip hop gear and hat

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Speaker 3: backwards and all that sort of stuff, and I'm there

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Speaker 3: rocking the acubra. I it. It was pretty brutal. Up

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Speaker 3: until grade ten. I was bullied quite relentlessly. And fortunately

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Speaker 3: I had a growth spurt at about grade ten, going

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Speaker 3: in from fifteen to sixteen years old, so then I'd

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Speaker 3: stand up for myself. I could start fighting these guys back,

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Speaker 3: and even though it's probably not politically correct these days,

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Speaker 3: we'd go toe to toe. And it wasn't until I

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Speaker 3: could start, you know, bashing them back and breaking the

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Speaker 3: noses back that it all stopped. And then you know,

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Speaker 3: some of them become your mates, and then we're playing rugby,

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Speaker 3: and it all just carried on from there. So there

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Speaker 3: was a huge transition from being not not necessarily a victim,

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Speaker 3: but having that tough little transition to being in the

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Speaker 3: real world where it's not easy made and you're going

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Speaker 3: to have to stand up. You're going to have to

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Speaker 3: get toe to toe, sometimes hopefully not with fists, but

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Speaker 3: you have to stand up for yourself, voice your opinions,

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Speaker 3: and make sure that that stopped. So that was probably

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Speaker 3: off course big lesson getting into that urban environment and

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Speaker 3: becoming I guess the anti redneck.

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Speaker 2: Mate.

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Speaker 1: And the reason why I ask is because you know,

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Speaker 1: these conversations that we're having, you know, we're hoping that

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Speaker 1: the listeners will will pick up on something that really

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Speaker 1: helps them. Now, how important and it's quite a sore subject,

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Speaker 1: but how important is it to stick up for yourself

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Speaker 1: when you're getting bullied? Now, a lot of people say,

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Speaker 1: go through you know, yes, go through a process of

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Speaker 1: you know, maybe talking to your parents, talking to teachers,

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Speaker 1: et cetera, et cetera. But if that continues, you know,

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Speaker 1: I always say to people, stick up for yourself, and

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Speaker 1: they say, what do you mean by that? And I'm like, well,

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Speaker 1: you know, don't let people walk all over you. Because

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Speaker 1: once they do it, once they do it the second time,

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Speaker 1: a third time, and you know, there's you have to

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Speaker 1: stand toe to toet sometime in your life.

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Speaker 2: It's going to happen whether you like it or not.

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Speaker 1: So you know, if you feel like the time is

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Speaker 1: right when you're getting bullied, it's probably a great approach

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Speaker 1: to just stick up to a buddy, to you know,

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Speaker 1: stand toe to toe with someone. Once you've gone through

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Speaker 1: the processes, once you've you know, sort of exhausted all

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Speaker 1: other options. It is important to stand toe to toe,

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Speaker 1: isn't it.

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Speaker 3: I think it is. Yes, Yeah, For anyone to change

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Speaker 3: their behavior, there has to be a consequence, and I

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Speaker 3: think in today's well the consequences of okay, we'll get

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Speaker 3: together and we'll have a little talk about it, and okay,

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Speaker 3: you're going to get maybe suspended, or we're going to

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Speaker 3: take away some privileges. It's not a consequence that our

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Speaker 3: you know, adaptive systems of really really just apes thrown

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Speaker 3: around in the environment, are used to We're used to

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Speaker 3: pain and we're used to blood. So oh that didn't

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Speaker 3: that didn't work. Okay, I'll come this side. That's my left,

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Speaker 3: that's my right. Arc I'm going to stay in the

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Speaker 3: middle now, because those two sides hurt. It's the same

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Speaker 3: with behaviors. We're getting bullied. You don't even necessarily have

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Speaker 3: to win the fight. You stand up for yourself and

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Speaker 3: make it more difficult for that person to do what

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Speaker 3: they're doing. Well, then they'll start to adjust their behavior

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Speaker 3: because there's a consequence. Okay, Now, like you said, it's

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Speaker 3: very hard to educate people or tell people to do

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Speaker 3: that in today's world. And in today's world, it might

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Speaker 3: just be Okay, I need to stand up and voice

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Speaker 3: what I want to change in a more intellectual way.

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Speaker 3: So I have to upgrade how we understand things, how

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Speaker 3: we communicate, but really stand up for yourself, ready to

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Speaker 3: take on the physicality if you need to. But maybe

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Speaker 3: it's more vocal these days.

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Speaker 1: So you have this growth, but I love it. You

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Speaker 1: have this growth, but you turn into this you know

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Speaker 1: this dude? All right? And then you joined the military.

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Speaker 1: Why did you join the military? Was it a spontaneous

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Speaker 1: action or was it something that you planned?

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Speaker 3: It was always there. It was always there. I mean

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Speaker 3: my great grandfather served, My grandfather served. It skipped my

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Speaker 3: dad's generation, the peace time generation, and fell onto me

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Speaker 3: but even when I walked in, I think I start

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Speaker 3: a high school. They do these little things like a

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Speaker 3: time pathful about a grade eight, you know, what do

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Speaker 3: you want to be when you grow up? Who do

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Speaker 3: you like at school? All that stuff, and they bury

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Speaker 3: it in the ground for five years. I'd actually read

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Speaker 3: right then, I'm going to join the army. And then

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Speaker 3: when they pulled that out at the end of high school,

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Speaker 3: you know, graduating, which well there it was, joined the

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Speaker 3: army and I'd actually ready started the enrollment precedure by

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Speaker 3: that stage, and I was seventeen, but so it had

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Speaker 3: a bit of family lineage first of all, and then

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Speaker 3: I guess there was the I guess the geographical things

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Speaker 3: of far North Queensland. There's not a whole lot of options.

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Speaker 3: Either you're going to go get a trade, You're going

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Speaker 3: to go back in the bush and be a cowboy,

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Speaker 3: or you you know, sign it up at Lavrack Barracks

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Speaker 3: in towns Well, just down the road. So it all

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Speaker 3: just fit for me. So I joined up right on

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Speaker 3: the bus. And then you go to basic.

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Speaker 1: Did you thrive from day one? What was that like

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Speaker 1: stepping into that environment? Because I know it's it is

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Speaker 1: a cultural shock. It's you know, it's a whole different world.

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Speaker 1: I always say to people, do not mix the middle

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Speaker 1: Tree world with society.

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Speaker 2: They do not mix.

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Speaker 1: There's different mindsets, different approaches, different language, you know, different humor.

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Speaker 2: I said, you know, if you are easily offended, then

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Speaker 2: do not join the military.

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Speaker 1: What was it like for you joining and did you

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Speaker 1: find that you sort of you know, you found your belonging.

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Speaker 3: I think I fit in pretty well mate, when I

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Speaker 3: had that Grosbert and realized, oh, being fit and strong,

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Speaker 3: it actually served me really well, stopped all this boiling stuff. Well,

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Speaker 3: I'm going to keep going with this. You know, you

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Speaker 3: start doing a few weights in the shed, never legs,

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Speaker 3: but you don't doing a few weights, you know, following

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Speaker 3: the old Annie Schwarzenegger stuff. So you start getting bigger

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Speaker 3: and fitter, and then you start playing a bit of

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Speaker 3: rugby and then you're getting that feedback and winning rugby

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Speaker 3: tournaments and playing rugby league up there at home. So

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Speaker 3: I went into the Army whip it fit. I could

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Speaker 3: run for days, you know, super lightweight, but fit as

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Speaker 3: a fiddle. And when you join up for basic, as

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Speaker 3: you know, there is a ton of pt and one

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Speaker 3: of the best things you have going for you. If

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Speaker 3: you just excel at peak, regardless of everything else, you're

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Speaker 3: going to be left alone to a certain degree, you're

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Speaker 3: not going to be a shit for it. So I

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Speaker 3: think I had that in my favor. So that worked

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Speaker 3: out quite well. And then the indoctrination process made as

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Speaker 3: you know, the breaking down of everyone there to build

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Speaker 3: you all back up again as one. You have to

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Speaker 3: just submit. I wouldn't say adapt, to submit to the

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Speaker 3: process and deal with it. So that's all I pretty

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Speaker 3: much did. Just didn't didn't say anything yes sir, no, sir.

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Speaker 3: Let's get after it.

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Speaker 1: What regiment did you join and how did your military

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Speaker 1: career progress, I e.

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Speaker 2: What courses did you do? What did that route look

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Speaker 2: like for you?

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Speaker 3: May it was fairly fairly fluent to me. I was

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Speaker 3: so young when when I signed up, and you're not

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Speaker 3: worldly at all, so you're learning so much in those

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Speaker 3: initial stages. So when you got posted back to one

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Speaker 3: of queens and I was the start of my infantry career,

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Speaker 3: I guess so as one hour Italian up there, infantry

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Speaker 3: soldier starting digger right at the bottom were I joined,

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Speaker 3: as we were doing a lot of peacekeeping rotations to

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Speaker 3: East Team or at that time. So I was on

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Speaker 3: my first swing overseas not even a year later as

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Speaker 3: a young digger. So I was quite fortunate in that.

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Speaker 3: So I got to go through this basic training learning experience,

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Speaker 3: getting prepped up and then getting to serve overseas all

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Speaker 3: within the first couple of years. So by the time

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Speaker 3: my third and fourth years came around, Mate, there was

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Speaker 3: something buried inside me about this longing to travel. So

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Speaker 3: when that re up came around that four year mark

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Speaker 3: where people are going on like yourself, to bury a test,

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Speaker 3: yesf to go on to full careers, like some of

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Speaker 3: my mates that I joined with are just getting out now,

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Speaker 3: I decided to get out my fourth year. I'm out

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Speaker 3: in here. I'm going to go back to this traveling

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Speaker 3: life and see what the world is. Because I hadn't

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Speaker 3: traveled anywhere outside of Queensland and out in the bush,

285
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Speaker 3: so I was in and out of rym young and out,

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Speaker 3: still very young. I just turned twenty two and I

287
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Speaker 3: actually jumped on a plane with a little duffel bag

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Speaker 3: a kip mate, this fresh green machine, knowing nothing, jacked

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Speaker 3: up barmy kid straight to London.

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Speaker 2: Mate.

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Speaker 1: I love this story because I left the army at

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Speaker 1: twenty two and went very much down a sort of

293
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Speaker 1: similar route. But then I jumped straight back into the Marines.

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Speaker 1: So it seems like that you were on that path.

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Speaker 1: So you know, looking back at it, it was the

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Speaker 1: explorer in you, it was the adventurer in you that

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Speaker 1: was pulling you, pulling you back. You've done what you

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Speaker 1: needed to do. You ticked off that challenge. Ultimately, probably

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Speaker 1: you know you've got right, what's next? What's next? What's next?

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Speaker 1: And you find yourself in London. Take take me back

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Speaker 1: to those days and why London is it again? Going

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Speaker 1: back to me going lest we've got a brit here,

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Speaker 1: going back to your roots, all right, mate?

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Speaker 3: I think initially it was everyone's going overseas to do

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Speaker 3: the overseas experience. It was the New Zealand Australian thing

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Speaker 3: to do is get overseas for a few years and

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Speaker 3: explore Europe and have a ball. So that that's what

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Speaker 3: I wanted to do. So I took off flew straight

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Speaker 3: to London. Literally, I flew in like as you know, mate,

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Speaker 3: infantry soldiers starting diggy. It don't make a lot of money.

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Speaker 3: I had seventy quid or something to my name, so

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Speaker 3: I had to find a job stat got a job

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Speaker 3: laboring instantly and just started doing that. But mate, when

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Speaker 3: I come out of the army, I was fairly spun up. Yes,

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Speaker 3: I was still young, and as you know, the rewards

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Speaker 3: system in the military is quite different to the civilian world.

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Speaker 3: So we were rewarded for aggression, for violence at the

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Speaker 3: end of the day. And I took these learned behaviors

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Speaker 3: that rewarded me really well in the military into the

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Speaker 3: civilian world. And I also took quite a heavy drinking

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Speaker 3: culture with me along the way. So I went from

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Speaker 3: a real heavy drinking culture in the battalion to London

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Speaker 3: where it was on par if not next level. But

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Speaker 3: I had all these types of emotional turmoils and aggression

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Speaker 3: and violence trying to fix everything, so mate, it didn't

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Speaker 3: go too well. By the time I was in London

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Speaker 3: for a couple of years, I found the drink. Then

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Speaker 3: I found the drug culture and eventually made I became

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Speaker 3: a drug addict there for you know, probably a good

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Speaker 3: year or so, just just pushing it real hard and

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Speaker 3: had my bloody cliche J rock Bottom moment in London

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Speaker 3: as well. You know, woke up in jail, no idea

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Speaker 3: how I'd gotten there, high as a kite, and just

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Speaker 3: you know, a total wreck, full of shame about this

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Speaker 3: guy that I had become, you know, And you know,

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Speaker 3: as rough as that period was, it was, it was

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Speaker 3: that turning point. And you mentioned having good mates in

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Speaker 3: Eurrabic statements there made and I was lucky to have

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Speaker 3: another guy that had stayed in the military made of mine.

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Speaker 3: His name was Liam, and I called him the day

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Speaker 3: I got released from from jail. Mate, I was in

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Speaker 3: a bad way. I got released, when straight home and

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Speaker 3: got high, but I knew something had to change, so

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Speaker 3: I called my mate. I said, Liam, I need some help.

345
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Speaker 3: I got to get out of this situation that I'm in.

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Speaker 3: And he was a mixed martial artist, so he enjoyed

347
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Speaker 3: jiu jitsu and muyti and all this fighting stuff. And

348
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Speaker 3: he said, Mate, go to this place in Thailand called

349
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Speaker 3: Tiger Moy Thai. Just go there, start training, clean yourself up.

350
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Speaker 3: You know, I think it can really help you. So

351
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Speaker 3: I got off the phone, booked my flights then and there.

352
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Speaker 3: I finished my drugs in the black cab on the

353
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Speaker 3: way to Heathrow, and I flew out straight to Thailand.

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Speaker 3: I touched down into Pouquette, so down to Pouquette, signed

355
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Speaker 3: up to fight camps. And back in those days, it

356
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Speaker 3: was six hours a day and muy thai three in

357
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Speaker 3: the morning, three in the afternoon. That's your only option.

358
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Speaker 3: And maybe that's what I did. I went into there

359
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Speaker 3: like it was my rehab, doing six hours a day

360
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Speaker 3: and muy thai for two months and clean myself up.

361
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Speaker 3: Turned it around.

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Speaker 1: Wow, mate, do you know what I sat here obviously

363
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Speaker 1: looking at you through the screen, but listening to you.

364
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Speaker 1: It's almost a mirror image of my life when I

365
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Speaker 1: actually left in twenty twelve, when I left the Special Forces.

366
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Speaker 1: You know, that sense of belonging, that sense of reward,

367
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Speaker 1: that sense of the.

368
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Speaker 2: Literally are very good at bigging you up. You're the

369
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Speaker 2: best at what you do.

370
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Speaker 1: You know, we're the best unit here, We're the best squadron,

371
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Speaker 1: We're the you know. It's like everything is you know,

372
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Speaker 1: and again, you know, physicality, aggression, violence, And I can

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Speaker 1: remember it just gave me a little shudder down my

374
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Speaker 1: spine when I was listening to you there, mate, because

375
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Speaker 1: I remember sitting in a prison cell because I.

376
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Speaker 2: Got into an altercation of violent altercation.

377
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Speaker 1: And I just remember sitting there and I had time

378
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Speaker 1: to think, and I was like, right, the two worlds

379
00:18:34,720 --> 00:18:38,080
Speaker 1: don't mix. Do not try to merge the military world

380
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Speaker 1: with society with civy street because they don't mix.

381
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Speaker 2: Right, What's what's going on here?

382
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Speaker 1: And I went back to you, and you nailed the

383
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Speaker 1: two words aggression and violence. And I looked at the

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Speaker 1: two worlds and I thought, in the military, you know,

385
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Speaker 1: I was taught to counter violent aggression with extreme aggression.

386
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Speaker 1: Someone's aggressive to me on the belve I've got to

387
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Speaker 1: be extremely aggressive. I've got to counter it with extreme aggression.

388
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Speaker 2: Aggression. Same with violence.

389
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Speaker 1: How do I counter violence? How have I been taught

390
00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:12,439
Speaker 1: to counter violence with extreme violence? If someone's violent to

391
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Speaker 1: me on the battlefield, I've got to counter that with

392
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Speaker 1: extreme violence. I've been taught to do that. And I

393
00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:21,360
Speaker 1: remember thinking, and that's why I'm sat here. I'm sat

394
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Speaker 1: here because I don't need to be in this code

395
00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:26,880
Speaker 1: red aggression anymore. So I decided to in my head.

396
00:19:26,880 --> 00:19:28,679
Speaker 1: I was like, I just need to cut violence out

397
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Speaker 1: of my life full stop. And this is what I

398
00:19:30,760 --> 00:19:34,000
Speaker 1: say to people. You have to untrain it. It's almost

399
00:19:34,040 --> 00:19:36,119
Speaker 1: like you've trained years and years to become a soldier.

400
00:19:36,160 --> 00:19:38,760
Speaker 1: Now you need to train yourself actually to become a civilian,

401
00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:40,919
Speaker 1: you know and city street, you know. But there's no

402
00:19:41,040 --> 00:19:43,720
Speaker 1: course of that, right, there's no course for that. It's

403
00:19:43,800 --> 00:19:44,720
Speaker 1: like trial and ever.

404
00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:45,399
Speaker 2: You know.

405
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Speaker 1: The unfortunate bit of that is when you leave the

406
00:19:47,640 --> 00:19:49,240
Speaker 1: go oh, we're going to give you this course. We're

407
00:19:49,240 --> 00:19:51,440
Speaker 1: going to give you this course. It's like no, no, no, no,

408
00:19:51,680 --> 00:19:54,040
Speaker 1: teach me to be a civilian. Train me, like you've

409
00:19:54,040 --> 00:19:57,840
Speaker 1: trained me to be this soldier, this aggressive, violent soldier.

410
00:19:58,080 --> 00:20:01,280
Speaker 1: Now train me to be a peaceful all you know,

411
00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:07,520
Speaker 1: an empathetic, a compassionate civilian. Which that process doesn't happen,

412
00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:12,200
Speaker 1: which is something that I'm actually talking to a program

413
00:20:12,240 --> 00:20:15,760
Speaker 1: about about putting that in the military, of actually training

414
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Speaker 1: people to be a civilian.

415
00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:20,280
Speaker 3: We didn't have to redefine what your identity is the

416
00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:22,639
Speaker 3: because you're this certain character and now you have to

417
00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:24,840
Speaker 3: be like, I need to change who I am now.

418
00:20:24,880 --> 00:20:26,800
Speaker 3: I think I was lucky with the training camps. So

419
00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:29,600
Speaker 3: when I walked in there prior to the training camp,

420
00:20:29,680 --> 00:20:31,520
Speaker 3: my last name is Richmond, so I was rich O.

421
00:20:31,840 --> 00:20:34,480
Speaker 3: Everyone knew me as rich I was rich o, the soldier,

422
00:20:34,800 --> 00:20:38,240
Speaker 3: the rugby player, the violent drunk, the bloody guy that

423
00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:41,359
Speaker 3: always wins the fights. Whatever, that's rich. Oh. I walked

424
00:20:41,359 --> 00:20:43,880
Speaker 3: into the camp and I started calling myself Luke. Guys,

425
00:20:43,920 --> 00:20:46,000
Speaker 3: I'm Luke, and John, I'm here. They didn't know about

426
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:48,359
Speaker 3: my history, they didn't know I was there to detox

427
00:20:48,440 --> 00:20:51,080
Speaker 3: and clean clean myself up from all the addiction stuff.

428
00:20:51,680 --> 00:20:55,439
Speaker 3: So I got to reinvent who are And that was

429
00:20:55,760 --> 00:20:58,679
Speaker 3: perfect timing for me. Luke was there. Luke was getting

430
00:20:58,760 --> 00:21:02,800
Speaker 3: kicked to ship all these little pid these multid masters.

431
00:21:02,880 --> 00:21:07,280
Speaker 3: Every day, his ego is getting destroyed. The sweat that

432
00:21:07,359 --> 00:21:09,880
Speaker 3: chemicals everything coming out of me, and it just helped

433
00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:13,359
Speaker 3: me build into this new character, this new identity that

434
00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:15,720
Speaker 3: I could carry on into the rest of my life.

435
00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:18,960
Speaker 2: And how hard was that for you to do? That transition?

436
00:21:19,400 --> 00:21:20,480
Speaker 2: Did that excite you?

437
00:21:20,600 --> 00:21:20,719
Speaker 3: Did?

438
00:21:20,880 --> 00:21:22,399
Speaker 2: It was the discipline there was.

439
00:21:22,440 --> 00:21:25,119
Speaker 1: It not an easy route to clean yourself up, but

440
00:21:25,359 --> 00:21:26,919
Speaker 1: it was a new adventure for you.

441
00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:30,560
Speaker 3: It was made and I just leaned on those learned behaviors,

442
00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:35,639
Speaker 3: the good ones about discipline and integrity and initiative. Turned

443
00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:37,840
Speaker 3: up when I was supposed to turn up. Did every

444
00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:40,280
Speaker 3: single rep that they told me to do, and the

445
00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:43,800
Speaker 3: physicality served me well, but it really the physicality just

446
00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:46,960
Speaker 3: helped me quieten the mind down all that anxiety and

447
00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:49,520
Speaker 3: all that torment that was going on there. I found

448
00:21:49,520 --> 00:21:51,800
Speaker 3: that if I just felt myself every day and this

449
00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:54,080
Speaker 3: new skill that I'm trying to acquire and it's just

450
00:21:54,160 --> 00:21:57,439
Speaker 3: so physically hard, that my mind would quieten down, and

451
00:21:57,440 --> 00:21:59,639
Speaker 3: it just gave me just a little bit of peat

452
00:21:59,720 --> 00:22:03,359
Speaker 3: and time to figure out all that emotional intelligence. Why

453
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:05,640
Speaker 3: is there so much turmoil here? Why do I try

454
00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:07,919
Speaker 3: and fix it with anger all the time? You know?

455
00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:12,080
Speaker 3: And I think that brutal physical transition of those six

456
00:22:12,119 --> 00:22:14,720
Speaker 3: hours a day helped me to discover a lot more

457
00:22:14,760 --> 00:22:17,760
Speaker 3: about myself in terms of the mental space and learn

458
00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:20,600
Speaker 3: the tools that I needed to learn to reinvent myself

459
00:22:20,640 --> 00:22:24,000
Speaker 3: to then insert back into the real world. And it

460
00:22:24,040 --> 00:22:27,680
Speaker 3: was during that transition that calm period of peace over

461
00:22:27,680 --> 00:22:30,480
Speaker 3: there for those couple of months, where those those little

462
00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:34,320
Speaker 3: beliefs and dreams from my youth came alive again. The

463
00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:36,400
Speaker 3: explorer and me that just wanted to run off into

464
00:22:36,400 --> 00:22:38,520
Speaker 3: the bush with the twenty two where he came back

465
00:22:38,880 --> 00:22:40,719
Speaker 3: and he said, mate, why don't we just go and

466
00:22:40,880 --> 00:22:44,440
Speaker 3: do some expeditions, some big adventures, see if you can.

467
00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:46,480
Speaker 3: I was reading a lot of explorer books, see if

468
00:22:46,520 --> 00:22:49,200
Speaker 3: you can measure up against these stoic explorers of old,

469
00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:52,359
Speaker 3: you know, the Shackleton and Mundson's and the like, And

470
00:22:52,400 --> 00:22:54,760
Speaker 3: that's what came alive in me during that two month period.

471
00:22:54,840 --> 00:22:57,359
Speaker 3: So that's what I wanted to I guess point and

472
00:22:57,359 --> 00:22:59,000
Speaker 3: shoot towards you.

473
00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:03,760
Speaker 1: Decided to then to climb. What what got you into climbing?

474
00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:08,080
Speaker 1: Because I know climbing can be quite egotistic. Where you

475
00:23:08,080 --> 00:23:09,920
Speaker 1: will go, Ah, I want to stand on all the

476
00:23:10,560 --> 00:23:12,400
Speaker 1: seventh summer, so I want to stand on the top

477
00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:14,480
Speaker 1: of the world. I want to you know, But there's

478
00:23:15,800 --> 00:23:18,520
Speaker 1: it once you A lot of people start that process,

479
00:23:18,640 --> 00:23:22,000
Speaker 1: especially tackling the higher mountains like you have, and then

480
00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:24,520
Speaker 1: you know that they experienced high altitude sickness and then

481
00:23:24,560 --> 00:23:27,280
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, maybe that was a bad idea. What

482
00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:29,760
Speaker 1: was When was the first time that you thought to yourself,

483
00:23:29,800 --> 00:23:31,600
Speaker 1: do you know what? I'm going to go and climb

484
00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:32,680
Speaker 1: some serious mountains here.

485
00:23:33,480 --> 00:23:36,159
Speaker 3: I think it came alive first of all in the

486
00:23:36,200 --> 00:23:39,159
Speaker 3: camps that I wanted to do a sa mountain. So

487
00:23:39,200 --> 00:23:41,960
Speaker 3: climbing was the goal. Initially in the early days, but

488
00:23:42,040 --> 00:23:44,560
Speaker 3: made I was also broke and I was this reinvented

489
00:23:44,600 --> 00:23:46,480
Speaker 3: guy with nothing going on, so I had to first

490
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:49,760
Speaker 3: find a job. I was fortunate there was a big

491
00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:52,240
Speaker 3: mining boom on back in my home state of Queensland,

492
00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:55,840
Speaker 3: back in straight, so I flew home, went straight underground

493
00:23:55,840 --> 00:23:58,320
Speaker 3: coal mining for six months, just twelve hours a day.

494
00:23:58,640 --> 00:24:00,440
Speaker 3: They'd only let me do five ship in a week,

495
00:24:00,440 --> 00:24:02,480
Speaker 3: which when I go to another mine and do two more,

496
00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:04,600
Speaker 3: just to keep me off the piss and get the

497
00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:07,080
Speaker 3: money in the bank in what I called my adventure fund.

498
00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:09,960
Speaker 3: And once there was enough in there, that's when I

499
00:24:10,000 --> 00:24:12,200
Speaker 3: just started daunt some basic searching of my first big

500
00:24:12,200 --> 00:24:14,720
Speaker 3: mountain and found the list you mentioned, the seventh Summits.

501
00:24:15,080 --> 00:24:17,000
Speaker 3: I thought, well, that's a that's a bloody good place

502
00:24:17,040 --> 00:24:19,719
Speaker 3: to start. It sounds right up my alley. I'm going

503
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:21,480
Speaker 3: to try and do it all next year. So I

504
00:24:21,520 --> 00:24:24,520
Speaker 3: set myself this goal to try and do seven twelve months,

505
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:27,040
Speaker 3: had the money there ready what I thought was going

506
00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:29,760
Speaker 3: to be enough money, and just set off mate and

507
00:24:29,840 --> 00:24:32,480
Speaker 3: ak On Cargo was the first down in South America,

508
00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:35,800
Speaker 3: down in Argentina under seven thousand meters and that was

509
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 3: my first.

510
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:40,919
Speaker 1: Introduction to So you went straight to Aconcagua, which is

511
00:24:41,320 --> 00:24:44,920
Speaker 1: the second highest of the seventh summits, obviously Everes being

512
00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:48,199
Speaker 1: the highest. But normally, you know, you work your way up.

513
00:24:48,240 --> 00:24:50,560
Speaker 1: But of course you don't, Luke, of course you don't.

514
00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:53,200
Speaker 1: Why Why did I I'm surprised you didn't go straight

515
00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:54,040
Speaker 1: for the big boys.

516
00:24:54,840 --> 00:24:57,600
Speaker 2: But Aconcaga? How did you get on, mate?

517
00:24:57,600 --> 00:25:01,119
Speaker 1: Because you know it's it's you hit that when the

518
00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:03,679
Speaker 1: weather comes in and you're going to know about it.

519
00:25:03,680 --> 00:25:07,680
Speaker 1: And also you know, talk about bloody tackling altitude straight away, mate.

520
00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:12,240
Speaker 1: The introduction was at seven thousand meters that's you know, cop,

521
00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:15,000
Speaker 1: that's some feet.

522
00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:17,240
Speaker 3: May was I think I was? Fortunately I was super fit, hey,

523
00:25:17,359 --> 00:25:19,879
Speaker 3: so just kept up the fitness after camps, kept it

524
00:25:19,880 --> 00:25:22,440
Speaker 3: going in the minds. I was training before my shift

525
00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:24,600
Speaker 3: in the pit, and then after my shift in the pits.

526
00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:27,320
Speaker 3: I was on this relentless pace. So when I got there,

527
00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:29,000
Speaker 3: I was super fit and no idea what the hell

528
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:30,959
Speaker 3: I was doing. I've got a bit of a budget,

529
00:25:31,000 --> 00:25:33,080
Speaker 3: so I'm carrying all my own loads and doing all

530
00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:35,400
Speaker 3: all the legwork as well, which I think in those

531
00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:38,960
Speaker 3: early days, not even knowing helped me acclimatize really well.

532
00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:41,720
Speaker 3: But as you mentioned, mate, on cargo, even though it's

533
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:45,240
Speaker 3: a non technical you couldn't hear a trekking peak you

534
00:25:45,280 --> 00:25:47,240
Speaker 3: could call it. There's no big climbing moves in it,

535
00:25:48,160 --> 00:25:50,879
Speaker 3: but it is very, very dangerous. So we had a

536
00:25:51,080 --> 00:25:53,399
Speaker 3: bad storm that ripped up the peak while we were

537
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:56,480
Speaker 3: at our camp three and Makee pick out a Spanish

538
00:25:56,560 --> 00:25:59,520
Speaker 3: tank and we went up four days later for our

539
00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:03,600
Speaker 3: summits on a perfect bluebird day. So just this changing

540
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:06,480
Speaker 3: system that came through over that three day period. You

541
00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:08,560
Speaker 3: kill people or allow you to walk to the top

542
00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:11,640
Speaker 3: on a beautiful day. You know. That's that's high altitude mountains,

543
00:26:11,680 --> 00:26:12,120
Speaker 3: as you.

544
00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:12,960
Speaker 2: Know too well.

545
00:26:13,520 --> 00:26:17,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, we turned around at camp four on Acorcagua because

546
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:21,440
Speaker 1: the wind's it's known as you know, the windy mountain

547
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:25,040
Speaker 1: because it will literally blow you.

548
00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:25,719
Speaker 2: Off that mountain.

549
00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:27,960
Speaker 1: And when I say blow you off that mountain, will

550
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:32,720
Speaker 1: that wind comes through there from camp three or upwards. Yeah,

551
00:26:32,880 --> 00:26:36,800
Speaker 1: it's super exposed up there, isn't it. So it's you've

552
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:39,560
Speaker 1: got to That's what I said for your first one, mate,

553
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:42,479
Speaker 1: But you obviously get up there and crack it, and

554
00:26:42,520 --> 00:26:44,280
Speaker 1: then you know Donali as well.

555
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:49,280
Speaker 2: You know, I see that you've done Donali's hairy as well, right.

556
00:26:49,680 --> 00:26:52,760
Speaker 3: It is amazing. Hey, that's the like a pitio of

557
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:56,000
Speaker 3: a beautiful expedition because you have to do everything yourself.

558
00:26:56,359 --> 00:26:59,159
Speaker 3: You're flying into this remote area up in Alaska. You

559
00:26:59,280 --> 00:27:01,720
Speaker 3: load up, that's you've got your backpack on as well,

560
00:27:01,760 --> 00:27:04,320
Speaker 3: and you're doing all the work heading up those glaciers,

561
00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:08,040
Speaker 3: up through the camps, up through your high camp, brutally

562
00:27:08,160 --> 00:27:11,639
Speaker 3: cold and winding even in summer, building those big snow

563
00:27:11,640 --> 00:27:14,840
Speaker 3: walls around your tent every day and night. The workload

564
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,360
Speaker 3: was immense compared to a Concagua. But maybe what an

565
00:27:18,359 --> 00:27:22,639
Speaker 3: expedition unbelievable and we're fortunate enough on that trip. I

566
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:25,240
Speaker 3: got to bag that one as well. But yeah, brutal

567
00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:27,280
Speaker 3: cold on top you have that's sort of minus there

568
00:27:27,359 --> 00:27:30,399
Speaker 3: in stomach conditions as we're going for the summit, and

569
00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:32,280
Speaker 3: those were all new for me. Everything was new for

570
00:27:32,320 --> 00:27:36,159
Speaker 3: me at that point. Dragon sled, you know, getting across crevasses,

571
00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:39,000
Speaker 3: learning how to rescue people out of cravas, all that stuff.

572
00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:42,760
Speaker 3: It was a monster learning experience on Denali.

573
00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:54,480
Speaker 1: So you're basically just bouncing from mountain to mountain. It's

574
00:27:54,600 --> 00:27:58,760
Speaker 1: keeping you focused, it's you know, you're learning along the way,

575
00:27:58,840 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 1: You're you're growing, were evolving, and then you hit Mount

576
00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:06,919
Speaker 1: Alberis in Russia. Tell me about that one, because I

577
00:28:06,920 --> 00:28:08,399
Speaker 1: had caught an ordeal there, didn't you.

578
00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:11,119
Speaker 3: I was on a roll, hey, and I, at this

579
00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:13,160
Speaker 3: period of my life still had a bit of an ego.

580
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:16,520
Speaker 3: I'd taken up this new hobby of mountaineering. Crushed the

581
00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:19,560
Speaker 3: first two, went to a Chilly got that one, went

582
00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:21,600
Speaker 3: to Carstons, got that one and said, oh, I'm on

583
00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:23,119
Speaker 3: a roll here. I'm going to be one of the

584
00:28:23,119 --> 00:28:27,280
Speaker 3: greatest adventurers ever, and then rocked up to Russia what

585
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:30,959
Speaker 3: would be considered a trekking peak once again. Short window

586
00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:33,480
Speaker 3: to get it done, mate, had two attents of that

587
00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:36,320
Speaker 3: bad boy, and the weather just broke us. I was

588
00:28:36,320 --> 00:28:38,640
Speaker 3: trying to do a fastest stent with just myself and

589
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:41,520
Speaker 3: my guide Valentine, because I was quite acclimatized. We've gone

590
00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:44,560
Speaker 3: off the back of a bunch of peaks, pushing quite hard,

591
00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:48,880
Speaker 3: turned around first time, beforn, waited a few days, try again,

592
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:52,320
Speaker 3: got caught again, but made This is probably one of

593
00:28:52,360 --> 00:28:56,120
Speaker 3: my biggest lessons in mountaineering, because at that point where

594
00:28:56,200 --> 00:28:58,120
Speaker 3: Valentine and I we're only a couple of hours from

595
00:28:58,160 --> 00:29:00,360
Speaker 3: the summit, Maylee, you could see it before them out

596
00:29:00,360 --> 00:29:03,840
Speaker 3: come in and my sort of naive, probably ego driven

597
00:29:04,240 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 3: brains like let's just push, let's get this thing. And

598
00:29:07,640 --> 00:29:10,720
Speaker 3: Valentine being in the more experienced climber and were sheltered

599
00:29:10,760 --> 00:29:13,280
Speaker 3: behind a big rock wall at this stage to Mate,

600
00:29:13,800 --> 00:29:17,120
Speaker 3: I don't think we should. And he said to me

601
00:29:17,120 --> 00:29:18,480
Speaker 3: something that I remember till it till the day a

602
00:29:18,560 --> 00:29:20,040
Speaker 3: dial made. He said, it's better to come to the

603
00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:23,400
Speaker 3: mountain ten times and go home than to come once

604
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:26,400
Speaker 3: and never go home. And maybe it was his Russian

605
00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:28,080
Speaker 3: accident when he said it, or the bloody win, but

606
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:29,880
Speaker 3: it was a pretty powerful moment. You know, I've got

607
00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:32,040
Speaker 3: a little bit teary, and I knew that we're going

608
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:34,320
Speaker 3: to fail this one. I also knew that if we

609
00:29:34,360 --> 00:29:36,320
Speaker 3: made it back down safely, I wasn't going to have

610
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:38,760
Speaker 3: more time to have another crack at the summit. So

611
00:29:39,520 --> 00:29:41,360
Speaker 3: it was a whole big moment going on. We turned

612
00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:43,520
Speaker 3: it around, we got chased down by the storm, made

613
00:29:43,520 --> 00:29:46,800
Speaker 3: it back to base and had had to call the

614
00:29:46,880 --> 00:29:49,520
Speaker 3: day mate. So that was my first big failure in

615
00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:52,480
Speaker 3: the mountains, my first big lesson. But it's one I

616
00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:55,240
Speaker 3: value to this day. That one lesson has kept me alive.

617
00:29:55,760 --> 00:29:58,280
Speaker 3: Pop on the twenty or more mountains that I've done

618
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:00,720
Speaker 3: since those early days. You know, we've turned around on

619
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:03,520
Speaker 3: three or four more for that exact reason. So he's

620
00:30:03,520 --> 00:30:04,760
Speaker 3: probably saved my life that day.

621
00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:06,320
Speaker 2: I love that.

622
00:30:06,520 --> 00:30:09,360
Speaker 1: And you said, you know, failure, you know, I know

623
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,320
Speaker 1: it's a dirty word, but it's anything but because thereafter

624
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:15,200
Speaker 1: you said, lesson one of the biggest lessons. You know,

625
00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:20,040
Speaker 1: I've learned, and I learn through failure. I embrace failure, mate,

626
00:30:20,080 --> 00:30:21,800
Speaker 1: I look at failure and I commit to it.

627
00:30:21,880 --> 00:30:24,240
Speaker 2: Now I'm going to fail. But I love what you said.

628
00:30:24,680 --> 00:30:27,479
Speaker 1: It's better to come to the mountains ten times and

629
00:30:27,520 --> 00:30:31,760
Speaker 1: go home than to come once and never Wow, never

630
00:30:31,840 --> 00:30:32,320
Speaker 1: go home.

631
00:30:32,480 --> 00:30:37,320
Speaker 2: Oh that's you've given me goosebumps. Mate. You had a

632
00:30:37,360 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 2: little bit of trouble as well when Russia.

633
00:30:38,760 --> 00:30:42,240
Speaker 1: Didn't you you were going through.

634
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:48,080
Speaker 3: I'm gone on, yeah, on your way down. Even after

635
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:50,719
Speaker 3: that powerful moment, and we turned it around and we're

636
00:30:50,760 --> 00:30:53,560
Speaker 3: coming down. We're getting chased down by this storm. I

637
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:56,480
Speaker 3: still wanted to have a crack at it if we could.

638
00:30:57,000 --> 00:30:59,280
Speaker 3: And Valentine said, there's a there's a down to chopping

639
00:30:59,400 --> 00:31:01,800
Speaker 3: over here on this other ridgeline. It had crashed there

640
00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:04,840
Speaker 3: the season before. Let's go there, hide out in this

641
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:08,200
Speaker 3: sort wreckage. Maybe the wind will drop. I was like, yes, perfect,

642
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:11,240
Speaker 3: let's go. So we made our way over there. He's

643
00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:15,400
Speaker 3: banging on this thing and the door slides over. We

644
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:19,800
Speaker 3: fall inside this thing with the wind howling outside, and

645
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:23,160
Speaker 3: it's then I notice this AK forty seven point in

646
00:31:23,200 --> 00:31:26,520
Speaker 3: my head. So there's this Russian soldier in there who's

647
00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:30,600
Speaker 3: on picket high up in the mountains, inside this wreckage,

648
00:31:31,120 --> 00:31:38,040
Speaker 3: guarding the equipment on this helicopter. Yeah, mate, Valentine's yelling

649
00:31:38,080 --> 00:31:40,320
Speaker 3: at him. He's yelling at Valentine. I'm stuck there like

650
00:31:40,360 --> 00:31:43,720
Speaker 3: a deer in the headlights looking at this barrel. Yeah,

651
00:31:44,120 --> 00:31:47,800
Speaker 3: not knowing what's going to happen. And eventually it all

652
00:31:47,840 --> 00:31:51,320
Speaker 3: comes down. He coins it down, he puts the rifle down,

653
00:31:51,600 --> 00:31:53,840
Speaker 3: but he doesn't let us stay, will not let us

654
00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:56,560
Speaker 3: stay in that chopper, forces us back out into the storm,

655
00:31:57,000 --> 00:31:58,959
Speaker 3: and down we go, down the mountain.

656
00:32:00,480 --> 00:32:03,320
Speaker 1: If you tipped up, mate, and opened my helicopter door

657
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:06,720
Speaker 1: with your head in your face. I'd have been like that, mate,

658
00:32:06,760 --> 00:32:09,800
Speaker 1: come on, yeah, this is I would have plastic cuffed

659
00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:11,440
Speaker 1: your mate, put a bag over your head, and I

660
00:32:11,480 --> 00:32:14,280
Speaker 1: would have put you through the system that mate one.

661
00:32:14,880 --> 00:32:16,760
Speaker 3: I felt sorry for the guy. Imagine being on pick

662
00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,440
Speaker 3: it up there in the freezing cold mountains. You know

663
00:32:19,720 --> 00:32:22,640
Speaker 3: your job made up? You go, poor bugger, poor bugger.

664
00:32:24,640 --> 00:32:26,719
Speaker 1: Ete car You're lucky, You're lucky you made it out

665
00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:29,240
Speaker 1: of Russia. From being honest, mate, I was very lucky.

666
00:32:31,040 --> 00:32:32,840
Speaker 3: And I haven't been back yet, mate, haven't been back

667
00:32:32,840 --> 00:32:35,200
Speaker 3: to bag that one yet. And actually that was the

668
00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:37,280
Speaker 3: end of my my year as well. And as you know,

669
00:32:37,360 --> 00:32:39,720
Speaker 3: with mounds, mate, it's a costly endeavor. And what I

670
00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:41,800
Speaker 3: thought was going to carry me through the seven was

671
00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:43,880
Speaker 3: nowhere near it. So I didn't get to go and

672
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:46,280
Speaker 3: have a crack at Everest. I did manage to get

673
00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:49,959
Speaker 3: Vincent in Antarctica, so I got amazed that year failed

674
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:53,000
Speaker 3: on Elbris. Well, learn my lessons on Elbris and then

675
00:32:53,040 --> 00:32:55,520
Speaker 3: didn't get a chance to go and crack Everest that year,

676
00:32:56,160 --> 00:32:58,680
Speaker 3: and he made in all the years since. When you

677
00:32:58,760 --> 00:33:00,920
Speaker 3: start to learn the sponsorship and you start earning a

678
00:33:00,960 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 3: bit of money, and I've probably had the budget to

679
00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:06,200
Speaker 3: go and go and bag to big one. I've just

680
00:33:06,240 --> 00:33:08,760
Speaker 3: been distracted and got and pumped it into four or

681
00:33:08,800 --> 00:33:09,960
Speaker 3: five other expeditions.

682
00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:10,160
Speaker 2: You know.

683
00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:12,480
Speaker 3: The price tag is just it's a bit outside of

684
00:33:12,520 --> 00:33:14,480
Speaker 3: my pay grade these days. You've been up in that

685
00:33:14,600 --> 00:33:17,560
Speaker 3: valley probably ten times now, climbing all around it, but

686
00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 3: still haven't been to the summer mate.

687
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:22,240
Speaker 1: Did you? And I suppose this is a bit of

688
00:33:22,240 --> 00:33:25,480
Speaker 1: a serious and personal question, Luke, you know, deep down

689
00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:32,480
Speaker 1: if you would have stopped, could that have potentially taken

690
00:33:32,520 --> 00:33:35,840
Speaker 1: a different turn in your life?

691
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:38,440
Speaker 2: Again? And what I mean by that is, did you

692
00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:41,719
Speaker 2: have no choice? Did you know that you couldn't stop?

693
00:33:42,600 --> 00:33:45,400
Speaker 3: May The chapter that wrote about those London days was

694
00:33:45,440 --> 00:33:48,880
Speaker 3: called the Demon Days, right, and that demon that the

695
00:33:48,920 --> 00:33:52,240
Speaker 3: metaphorical thing is I think it's still in there. It's

696
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,880
Speaker 3: definitely still inside me. It's caged. He's way down deep.

697
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:59,160
Speaker 3: He's not coming out. I've got control, absolute control today,

698
00:34:00,200 --> 00:34:03,280
Speaker 3: but I didn't have it in the early years. So

699
00:34:04,200 --> 00:34:06,800
Speaker 3: the short answer is no, I can't stop. After the

700
00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:10,560
Speaker 3: Seventh Summits, I went back home, got into the fitness industry,

701
00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:13,960
Speaker 3: started earning a bit of money, got distracted into the business, world,

702
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:16,200
Speaker 3: started a gym, you know, going through what I should

703
00:34:16,239 --> 00:34:20,280
Speaker 3: have been doing as an adult. And after a period

704
00:34:20,280 --> 00:34:22,719
Speaker 3: of years where I've made some money, now it's coming

705
00:34:22,760 --> 00:34:26,080
Speaker 3: in really well. The gym's doing great. I should be pumped.

706
00:34:26,520 --> 00:34:28,440
Speaker 3: Made the demon he got out. You know, I had

707
00:34:28,440 --> 00:34:31,080
Speaker 3: a bit of a relapse in those years when I

708
00:34:31,120 --> 00:34:32,600
Speaker 3: was trying to be this other person.

709
00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 2: Now.

710
00:34:34,320 --> 00:34:37,399
Speaker 3: Fortunately at that exact same period, I met a woman

711
00:34:37,400 --> 00:34:40,880
Speaker 3: who became my wife. But when we were just dating,

712
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:42,200
Speaker 3: she was working for me in the gym and we

713
00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:44,200
Speaker 3: were dating. She could see that I was on this

714
00:34:44,239 --> 00:34:48,239
Speaker 3: little spiral down and she asked me, when were you

715
00:34:48,320 --> 00:34:50,320
Speaker 3: last happy? Because you're not happy now. When were you

716
00:34:50,440 --> 00:34:52,960
Speaker 3: last happy? And I said to her when I was

717
00:34:52,960 --> 00:34:56,319
Speaker 3: in the camps training, when I was just doing these adventures,

718
00:34:56,360 --> 00:34:59,520
Speaker 3: you know, owning nothing, earning nothing, I was the happiest

719
00:34:59,520 --> 00:35:02,399
Speaker 3: I've ever been. And she said, well, let's go do that.

720
00:35:03,719 --> 00:35:07,320
Speaker 3: So on the back of that statement, we sold the gym,

721
00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:10,440
Speaker 3: sold all the purnature, so all the cars, got rid

722
00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:13,760
Speaker 3: of everything, moved to Thailand, back to the training camps,

723
00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:17,040
Speaker 3: and just became basic two hour day coaches, strength and

724
00:35:17,040 --> 00:35:22,960
Speaker 3: conditioning coaches in the training camps and lived the dream base, jumping, climbing,

725
00:35:23,280 --> 00:35:26,560
Speaker 3: the crossing, the Gobi Desert trip, push hard on all

726
00:35:26,600 --> 00:35:30,279
Speaker 3: these little missions, mate, the demon was gone. I was

727
00:35:30,320 --> 00:35:32,480
Speaker 3: doing what I was meant to be doing. And that

728
00:35:32,600 --> 00:35:35,080
Speaker 3: led onto the big Ocean rows and that all the

729
00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:38,239
Speaker 3: other stuff started from from meeting my wife. She asked

730
00:35:38,280 --> 00:35:40,560
Speaker 3: that question, and off we went and got back to

731
00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:44,080
Speaker 3: what was I think In the early days, it was medicine, mate.

732
00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:47,680
Speaker 3: The expeditions calmed my brain down. I had to do

733
00:35:47,760 --> 00:35:50,560
Speaker 3: it in order to survive. Then it evolved into the

734
00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:53,840
Speaker 3: feeding ego, chasing the world record, get the seven summit's,

735
00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:56,080
Speaker 3: be the youngest, all that type of stuff, which is,

736
00:35:56,160 --> 00:35:57,719
Speaker 3: you know, it can be a very good thing. It's

737
00:35:57,719 --> 00:36:02,080
Speaker 3: a dry absolutely. Then it evolved into what it is today.

738
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:02,319
Speaker 1: Mate.

739
00:36:02,320 --> 00:36:05,839
Speaker 3: It's the love of exploring. But I cannot stop. We've

740
00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:08,719
Speaker 3: had three trips this year already, and already I'll be

741
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:10,719
Speaker 3: looking at the calendar, looking at this block like you're

742
00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:11,839
Speaker 3: going to put something in there.

743
00:36:12,280 --> 00:36:14,560
Speaker 1: I love that you you go out there with with,

744
00:36:14,800 --> 00:36:18,200
Speaker 1: so it's almost like a revisiting of exploration.

745
00:36:18,320 --> 00:36:19,719
Speaker 2: But now you've got a partner with you.

746
00:36:19,840 --> 00:36:22,360
Speaker 1: What's that like to have someone there that's going to

747
00:36:22,440 --> 00:36:24,440
Speaker 1: keep you grounded that, you know, you can bounce off

748
00:36:24,480 --> 00:36:27,480
Speaker 1: of that. You can really really, you know, sort of

749
00:36:27,520 --> 00:36:29,680
Speaker 1: spend the rest of your life with what's that like?

750
00:36:29,719 --> 00:36:34,880
Speaker 1: Because you two jump into jump, you know you're all in, right, Yeah.

751
00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:37,960
Speaker 3: Mate, We do pretty much everything together now. The only

752
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:40,840
Speaker 3: two things my wife doesn't enjoy was at the base jumping,

753
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:42,839
Speaker 3: so I did that myself pretty hard for a few

754
00:36:42,920 --> 00:36:45,680
Speaker 3: years before I wizened up and pulled back. And she

755
00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:47,800
Speaker 3: doesn't like the ocean stuff, so no big ocean. So

756
00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:49,479
Speaker 3: I do the ocean rows and all the other stuff

757
00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:51,040
Speaker 3: by myself. That's what it lasts.

758
00:36:52,320 --> 00:36:55,600
Speaker 1: The land mammalor and you're that you're a fish, and

759
00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:58,760
Speaker 1: then and the bird right and yeah, yeah, I get.

760
00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:01,359
Speaker 3: That great in the defense, straight in the deep end.

761
00:37:01,360 --> 00:37:05,160
Speaker 3: Her first ever expedition was dragging a cart across the

762
00:37:05,239 --> 00:37:08,600
Speaker 3: Gobi Desert in Mongolia fifty seven days. Her cart started

763
00:37:08,600 --> 00:37:10,839
Speaker 3: at one hundred and sixty kilos and she blitzed it

764
00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:13,400
Speaker 3: because after that one, I knew, right, we've got a

765
00:37:13,400 --> 00:37:16,600
Speaker 3: good expedition partner here. We're gonna push now. So we've

766
00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:20,040
Speaker 3: done so many mounds together. She's paragliding all the rock

767
00:37:20,080 --> 00:37:23,040
Speaker 3: climbing staff. She loves it all, cycling across Australia, New

768
00:37:23,120 --> 00:37:26,239
Speaker 3: Zealand all that fun stuff. It is amazing to have

769
00:37:26,760 --> 00:37:28,960
Speaker 3: someone that you love and can trust before your deepest

770
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:31,920
Speaker 3: dark as demons, but also who is a rock solid

771
00:37:31,960 --> 00:37:36,360
Speaker 3: expedition partner and help you with those critical decision making points.

772
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:39,560
Speaker 3: Hallua high up on Ama Dublin made another mountain that

773
00:37:39,640 --> 00:37:42,720
Speaker 3: you know, and we had to make a critical decision

774
00:37:42,760 --> 00:37:46,399
Speaker 3: on that last summit stretch, that last hour for your

775
00:37:46,400 --> 00:37:48,600
Speaker 3: top out. We had our film guy and he got

776
00:37:48,680 --> 00:37:51,040
Speaker 3: in frostbitten fingers and a Lease was quite exhausted at

777
00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:52,840
Speaker 3: that point. This is her first big mountain, so she

778
00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:55,040
Speaker 3: got thrown straight in the deep end on Umma Dublin.

779
00:37:55,680 --> 00:37:58,000
Speaker 3: But we had to make that decision to turn around,

780
00:37:58,320 --> 00:38:01,640
Speaker 3: rescue everyone down, get back, say, instead of topping out.

781
00:38:01,880 --> 00:38:05,000
Speaker 3: But from my lessons on Elbers, it wasn't even nowhere

782
00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:06,680
Speaker 3: near of failure at that time, Mate, it was the

783
00:38:06,760 --> 00:38:09,879
Speaker 3: right call, judge. All the information of us coming here

784
00:38:09,960 --> 00:38:11,440
Speaker 3: was the only thing that we were going to do.

785
00:38:11,520 --> 00:38:14,359
Speaker 3: We'll go back and summon another time. So having someone

786
00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:17,920
Speaker 3: write that on those trips is an absolute gift made

787
00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:18,640
Speaker 3: and quite rare.

788
00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:21,520
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, I think from that first journey, Mate

789
00:38:21,640 --> 00:38:24,000
Speaker 1: is either going to seal the bond for life or

790
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:27,200
Speaker 1: she was going to run a million miles like that. Yes,

791
00:38:27,239 --> 00:38:30,640
Speaker 1: see you later. I'm getting a plane well away from you, Luke.

792
00:38:32,920 --> 00:38:35,719
Speaker 1: But mate, you talked about your base jumping. That's you know,

793
00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:40,359
Speaker 1: and again just getting into your headspace, into your mindset. Now,

794
00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:42,720
Speaker 1: base jumping, that's that's probably.

795
00:38:42,360 --> 00:38:46,480
Speaker 2: The most extreme sort of freedom.

796
00:38:46,560 --> 00:38:49,360
Speaker 1: Let's call it freedom that you can you know, experience

797
00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:51,839
Speaker 1: apart from I would say climbing and being up you know,

798
00:38:52,719 --> 00:38:55,759
Speaker 1: in these in serious altitude where no one's going to

799
00:38:55,800 --> 00:38:59,480
Speaker 1: come up and get you your self sustainable, your self reliant.

800
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:04,360
Speaker 1: But base jumping. Did you do that to satisfy a demon?

801
00:39:04,520 --> 00:39:07,719
Speaker 1: Or did you do that because you're just extreme and

802
00:39:08,040 --> 00:39:10,160
Speaker 1: you thought right, listen, let's let's give that a go.

803
00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:13,520
Speaker 1: What was the thinking behind base jumping? Because you know

804
00:39:14,400 --> 00:39:15,840
Speaker 1: that's super extreme.

805
00:39:16,960 --> 00:39:19,279
Speaker 3: It is, Mate, It's it's one of those sports that

806
00:39:19,320 --> 00:39:23,839
Speaker 3: I described to people as probably the most unbelievable, amazing,

807
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:27,960
Speaker 3: euphoric moment you'll ever experience. But I don't recommend it

808
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:31,759
Speaker 3: to anybody because it is so so dangerous. It first

809
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:34,279
Speaker 3: popped up on my radar with another military mate. He

810
00:39:34,360 --> 00:39:37,680
Speaker 3: transitioned out and got into base hard, pushed it hard.

811
00:39:37,920 --> 00:39:40,120
Speaker 3: So I started seeing his videos and I was still

812
00:39:40,160 --> 00:39:42,280
Speaker 3: quite young. I was still in my twenties when I started,

813
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:45,760
Speaker 3: so I didn't have my prefrontal cortex, my long term

814
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:49,160
Speaker 3: risk evaluation fully intact at that stage. So I thought,

815
00:39:49,200 --> 00:39:51,759
Speaker 3: bloody good idea. I'll go learn off Jimmy. You know,

816
00:39:51,800 --> 00:39:54,239
Speaker 3: he'll show me the Army way, and so he put

817
00:39:54,280 --> 00:39:56,239
Speaker 3: together a mini course mate, so we didn't do any

818
00:39:56,239 --> 00:39:58,960
Speaker 3: first jump courses. He structured it just like the Army

819
00:39:59,040 --> 00:40:02,560
Speaker 3: days like this that let's take you from zero, so

820
00:40:02,640 --> 00:40:07,120
Speaker 3: from just your skydiving experience to a base jumper. So

821
00:40:07,200 --> 00:40:09,800
Speaker 3: I was fortunate that I had Jimmy because we started

822
00:40:09,840 --> 00:40:12,879
Speaker 3: on the bridges to learn, which is very important because

823
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:14,960
Speaker 3: that's where you'll make all your mistakes and you'll have

824
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:17,640
Speaker 3: lots of offheadings. If you have an off heading as

825
00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:19,440
Speaker 3: you've jumped off a bridge, you're not going to hit

826
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:22,680
Speaker 3: anything so you can land safely. Then we transition to

827
00:40:22,719 --> 00:40:25,480
Speaker 3: the cliffs. We're doing all this in America where it's legal,

828
00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:28,439
Speaker 3: so we transition to cliffs in Moab in Utah, then

829
00:40:28,480 --> 00:40:31,399
Speaker 3: transition to buildings in Antenna and everything else from there.

830
00:40:31,440 --> 00:40:33,920
Speaker 3: So I had this sort of step by step procedure

831
00:40:33,920 --> 00:40:37,359
Speaker 3: with Jimmy the whole way. The biggest thing I learned

832
00:40:37,360 --> 00:40:40,520
Speaker 3: about the base jumping world made is something you know

833
00:40:40,640 --> 00:40:43,080
Speaker 3: all too well about is the fear. And I thought

834
00:40:43,120 --> 00:40:45,319
Speaker 3: I'd get over the fear. But the fear was there

835
00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:49,560
Speaker 3: every single jump from my first to my last, I'd

836
00:40:49,640 --> 00:40:52,480
Speaker 3: be standing on the edge and my bloody hand it

837
00:40:52,520 --> 00:40:57,319
Speaker 3: would just shake, fear just pumping through me. And the

838
00:40:57,360 --> 00:40:59,359
Speaker 3: only way I could learn to overcome that was to

839
00:40:59,440 --> 00:41:02,279
Speaker 3: just go through the militant checklist mate of everything that

840
00:41:02,400 --> 00:41:05,440
Speaker 3: I had done to make sure that jump is safe.

841
00:41:05,719 --> 00:41:08,680
Speaker 3: How do I feel? I'm good, I'm hydrated, cool, how's

842
00:41:08,680 --> 00:41:11,160
Speaker 3: the landing here? Yet there's no wind. I'll do my

843
00:41:11,200 --> 00:41:13,319
Speaker 3: little spit check off the side, and you check the

844
00:41:13,320 --> 00:41:16,359
Speaker 3: saliva on the way down. If it's moving forward back

845
00:41:16,400 --> 00:41:19,239
Speaker 3: toward from the face, you got headwind. If it expands,

846
00:41:19,239 --> 00:41:21,400
Speaker 3: you got up drafts. So you're watching all this data.

847
00:41:21,960 --> 00:41:24,120
Speaker 3: Once I go through it all and I've done everything

848
00:41:24,160 --> 00:41:28,120
Speaker 3: in my ability to make it safe, that fear it'd

849
00:41:28,160 --> 00:41:31,200
Speaker 3: go away, and then I would want to jump out

850
00:41:31,200 --> 00:41:34,880
Speaker 3: into that void. So I'd learned that lesson through the

851
00:41:34,920 --> 00:41:39,040
Speaker 3: base jumping. Unfortunately not Jimmy, but I had another mate

852
00:41:39,040 --> 00:41:41,239
Speaker 3: that died in Italy jumping and that was really the

853
00:41:41,320 --> 00:41:44,400
Speaker 3: last thing for me because I had two bad openings

854
00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:46,719
Speaker 3: that nearly got me on cliffs where I had a

855
00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:49,800
Speaker 3: full one eighty racing back at the cliff and managed

856
00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:51,759
Speaker 3: to just turn this thing and get away with it

857
00:41:51,800 --> 00:41:55,160
Speaker 3: twice and then my mate died. So right, that's it.

858
00:41:55,239 --> 00:41:58,480
Speaker 3: Three red flags. Time to move on, sold all that kit,

859
00:41:58,880 --> 00:42:02,000
Speaker 3: bought some mountain bikes, some paragliders. Time to go on

860
00:42:02,040 --> 00:42:04,319
Speaker 3: to the next mission, the next course. So moved on

861
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:08,400
Speaker 3: from it, but made in my life. I learned a

862
00:42:08,440 --> 00:42:09,440
Speaker 3: lot from and loved it.

863
00:42:10,080 --> 00:42:11,799
Speaker 2: Count your lucky stars, don't you, mate?

864
00:42:12,280 --> 00:42:15,759
Speaker 1: That was me after my third tour of Afghanistan, super kinetic,

865
00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:19,600
Speaker 1: and I'm just like, you know, it's you do those

866
00:42:19,719 --> 00:42:23,239
Speaker 1: red flags. You have to take them into account, you

867
00:42:23,320 --> 00:42:25,359
Speaker 1: have to you acknowledge them.

868
00:42:25,760 --> 00:42:28,040
Speaker 2: And you know, because one too.

869
00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:31,279
Speaker 1: Many red flags it could be your final one make

870
00:42:31,320 --> 00:42:34,040
Speaker 1: you an author as well, you know. You know again

871
00:42:34,080 --> 00:42:36,440
Speaker 1: it's why I laugh, mate, and I'm smiling as I'm

872
00:42:36,480 --> 00:42:39,080
Speaker 1: talking through this because I might as well to be

873
00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:45,680
Speaker 1: looking at my resume almost and I'm just like you know, mate,

874
00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:47,680
Speaker 1: I don't think you can throw any hair looking at

875
00:42:47,719 --> 00:42:51,640
Speaker 1: your mate. But that's why I've got my cap on.

876
00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:52,680
Speaker 2: I'm going that way, mate.

877
00:42:52,840 --> 00:42:55,240
Speaker 1: But you you wrote a book and you recent book

878
00:42:55,400 --> 00:42:57,160
Speaker 1: is five Years to Live?

879
00:42:58,719 --> 00:42:59,560
Speaker 2: What's the book about?

880
00:42:59,560 --> 00:42:59,759
Speaker 3: Mate?

881
00:42:59,760 --> 00:43:00,600
Speaker 2: Why the title?

882
00:43:01,880 --> 00:43:05,160
Speaker 3: Make this? That's the new one? So this title comes

883
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:08,000
Speaker 3: about from a question that my wife and I ask

884
00:43:08,040 --> 00:43:11,399
Speaker 3: ourselves every year. Every couple of years, we'll sit here

885
00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:13,080
Speaker 3: on this couch right next to me. We'll get a

886
00:43:13,080 --> 00:43:14,840
Speaker 3: good bottle of whiskey and a couple of caps, and

887
00:43:14,880 --> 00:43:18,520
Speaker 3: we sit down and we'll ask ourselves, Okay, what if

888
00:43:18,960 --> 00:43:21,799
Speaker 3: we dine in five years time? Now, it's easy to

889
00:43:21,840 --> 00:43:23,440
Speaker 3: ask that question, but you've got to go through the

890
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:26,160
Speaker 3: mental gymnastics and actually believe it. And it's pretty relevant.

891
00:43:26,160 --> 00:43:27,799
Speaker 3: In our careers. We've seen a lot of death in

892
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:29,759
Speaker 3: the mountains from the army days and all the rest

893
00:43:29,760 --> 00:43:32,279
Speaker 3: of it. So you know what mortality is and you

894
00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:35,560
Speaker 3: have a good relationship with that. But we ask that question,

895
00:43:35,680 --> 00:43:38,439
Speaker 3: what if five years is all we've got. We sit

896
00:43:38,480 --> 00:43:41,680
Speaker 3: there and then we'll write down whatever comes out. Now,

897
00:43:41,719 --> 00:43:44,120
Speaker 3: typically whatever comes out when you really ask that question

898
00:43:44,280 --> 00:43:47,719
Speaker 3: is the stuff that's value and meaningful to you. It's

899
00:43:47,719 --> 00:43:49,960
Speaker 3: the stuff you've been putting off forever. It's that thing

900
00:43:50,000 --> 00:43:52,480
Speaker 3: you've always wanted to do but never taken the step

901
00:43:52,520 --> 00:43:54,920
Speaker 3: towards doing. That's what typically comes out on that bit

902
00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:58,080
Speaker 3: of paper. The problem is with most people they never

903
00:43:58,160 --> 00:44:01,959
Speaker 3: action it, whereas we straight away. So when we asked

904
00:44:01,960 --> 00:44:04,160
Speaker 3: that question about four and a half years ago, twelve

905
00:44:04,239 --> 00:44:09,160
Speaker 3: things came out, twelve adventures of variety, some massive, some small,

906
00:44:09,239 --> 00:44:12,040
Speaker 3: everything in between, and we went executed all of them

907
00:44:12,040 --> 00:44:14,080
Speaker 3: and it became the twelve chapters of the new book.

908
00:44:14,120 --> 00:44:16,960
Speaker 3: So the new book is just a collection of expeditions

909
00:44:17,200 --> 00:44:20,360
Speaker 3: that we've gone out and conquered together or someone myself

910
00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:22,680
Speaker 3: in Australia and the rest of the world. But that

911
00:44:23,280 --> 00:44:25,960
Speaker 3: gained all that thing that asking that question is something

912
00:44:26,000 --> 00:44:28,600
Speaker 3: everyone should do mate every now and again. But you

913
00:44:28,680 --> 00:44:31,279
Speaker 3: have to do it and really answer it honestly. Then

914
00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:33,799
Speaker 3: whatever comes out, it doesn't mean you've got to run away,

915
00:44:33,840 --> 00:44:35,799
Speaker 3: live in the bush and wear a bloody hairshirt. This

916
00:44:35,920 --> 00:44:39,240
Speaker 3: means you have to action that stuff, splice it into

917
00:44:39,280 --> 00:44:41,440
Speaker 3: your life because that is what's going to make it

918
00:44:41,840 --> 00:44:44,319
Speaker 3: meaningful and valuable to you.

919
00:44:44,320 --> 00:44:46,000
Speaker 1: You've also got a couple of other books having you

920
00:44:46,040 --> 00:44:48,640
Speaker 1: won Life, one Chance, and I love the title of

921
00:44:48,680 --> 00:44:55,000
Speaker 1: the one of them, Vodka and Sandstorms. That one speaks

922
00:44:55,000 --> 00:44:57,880
Speaker 1: for itself made which one is? What's been your favorite book.

923
00:44:57,680 --> 00:44:58,240
Speaker 2: That you've written?

924
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:02,840
Speaker 1: And how you know does it go? One Life, one Chance,

925
00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:07,080
Speaker 1: Fodkuen status sounds Storms, and then five five years to live.

926
00:45:07,840 --> 00:45:09,560
Speaker 3: As you know from your writing mate, it was probably

927
00:45:09,560 --> 00:45:12,600
Speaker 3: similar to mine. It's definitely changed over the years. So

928
00:45:12,680 --> 00:45:15,799
Speaker 3: my first book, One Life, One Chances has the chapter

929
00:45:15,840 --> 00:45:18,279
Speaker 3: of the Demon Days in it, so that book was

930
00:45:18,440 --> 00:45:21,040
Speaker 3: almost like a bit of therapy as well. Found my

931
00:45:21,200 --> 00:45:24,239
Speaker 3: upbringing the Demon Days, all the army stuff and then

932
00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:27,640
Speaker 3: transitioning into this adventure life. So that's my I guess

933
00:45:27,719 --> 00:45:32,239
Speaker 3: foundation story, the Seventh Summits, rowing the Atlantic, getting into

934
00:45:32,239 --> 00:45:34,319
Speaker 3: the base jumping world, all that sort of stuff's in

935
00:45:34,320 --> 00:45:36,879
Speaker 3: book one. Then I met my wife a book who

936
00:45:36,880 --> 00:45:39,200
Speaker 3: comes around, so she's in nearly all of the chapters

937
00:45:39,239 --> 00:45:41,800
Speaker 3: in that one. So Vodkin Sandstorms is from the Gobi

938
00:45:41,880 --> 00:45:44,759
Speaker 3: Desert trip. Because in the Gobi in Mongolia, on the

939
00:45:44,760 --> 00:45:48,440
Speaker 3: Mongolian side, it's a heavy Russian employence. So these buggers

940
00:45:48,440 --> 00:45:50,200
Speaker 3: they drink vodka like it's water.

941
00:45:50,480 --> 00:45:52,440
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

942
00:45:52,640 --> 00:45:55,319
Speaker 3: No matter where we were in that desert, whether it

943
00:45:55,360 --> 00:45:57,560
Speaker 3: was eight in the morning or eight pm, if you

944
00:45:57,680 --> 00:46:00,000
Speaker 3: ran into anybody, a nomad or someone in a four

945
00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:02,680
Speaker 3: by four, they crack a bottle. You got one cup

946
00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:05,240
Speaker 3: and it goes round the group until it's all gone,

947
00:46:05,680 --> 00:46:09,799
Speaker 3: iron lit, dehydrated, midday sun, not having a great time

948
00:46:09,840 --> 00:46:12,040
Speaker 3: off the but that's how they roll over there. So

949
00:46:12,080 --> 00:46:15,360
Speaker 3: that's what of what comes from. And the desert itself, mate,

950
00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:17,239
Speaker 3: is it's a bit of a unique one because in

951
00:46:17,360 --> 00:46:20,480
Speaker 3: winter the goby can be minus forty degrees, but then

952
00:46:20,520 --> 00:46:23,319
Speaker 3: in summer it's plus forty degrees. And we wanted to

953
00:46:23,360 --> 00:46:25,480
Speaker 3: try and sort of tag onto the end of winter,

954
00:46:25,640 --> 00:46:29,080
Speaker 3: but get through it before the really hot summer temperatures

955
00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:30,880
Speaker 3: kicked off. So that's what we ended up doing. We

956
00:46:30,920 --> 00:46:33,640
Speaker 3: started it was about minus six degrees most days, then

957
00:46:33,719 --> 00:46:36,760
Speaker 3: warmed up rapidly and that is when the big sandstorms

958
00:46:37,080 --> 00:46:39,759
Speaker 3: come in that sort of inversion period. So that's where

959
00:46:39,760 --> 00:46:41,479
Speaker 3: the other part of the title comes from.

960
00:46:41,719 --> 00:46:44,720
Speaker 1: May I love it, And you know we've just generalized

961
00:46:44,760 --> 00:46:48,040
Speaker 1: on your sort of life here, but you know, if

962
00:46:48,080 --> 00:46:50,240
Speaker 1: you want to dig deep, guys, go and get these books,

963
00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:53,200
Speaker 1: because you know, I'm looking at Luke for a screen.

964
00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:55,040
Speaker 2: I can feel his energy for a screen.

965
00:46:55,080 --> 00:46:57,000
Speaker 1: He's one of these rare people that you can actually

966
00:46:57,080 --> 00:46:58,600
Speaker 1: feel the energy through the screen.

967
00:46:59,160 --> 00:47:02,040
Speaker 2: But what is next for you? Buddy?

968
00:47:02,400 --> 00:47:05,040
Speaker 1: We spoke about, you know, never being able to stop,

969
00:47:05,120 --> 00:47:07,759
Speaker 1: and now I'm very much in that mindset as well,

970
00:47:07,800 --> 00:47:10,160
Speaker 1: and I'm excited for the future I've got. You know,

971
00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:12,600
Speaker 1: I don't plan too far ahead, but I know where

972
00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:14,960
Speaker 1: my next steps are, my next couple of steps.

973
00:47:15,600 --> 00:47:16,880
Speaker 2: What's your next step? Mate?

974
00:47:17,320 --> 00:47:18,960
Speaker 3: And I look at that calendar and I see those

975
00:47:19,000 --> 00:47:21,880
Speaker 3: two months that are empty. And I was planning a

976
00:47:21,880 --> 00:47:24,160
Speaker 3: little trip up in far North Queenslane on this silly

977
00:47:24,160 --> 00:47:27,040
Speaker 3: electric boat that I've got, but I think I need

978
00:47:27,040 --> 00:47:28,160
Speaker 3: to do a bit of work on the body, so

979
00:47:28,200 --> 00:47:30,919
Speaker 3: I'm just going to get myself rock solid. Early next

980
00:47:31,000 --> 00:47:34,480
Speaker 3: year we've got a kayak expedition planned for the Bass Straight,

981
00:47:34,520 --> 00:47:36,960
Speaker 3: which is a g Nali stretch of water between Australia

982
00:47:37,000 --> 00:47:40,080
Speaker 3: and Tasmania. So we'll kayak that one. I'll be off

983
00:47:40,120 --> 00:47:42,399
Speaker 3: to the Himalay as well. Man, I think you're heading

984
00:47:42,400 --> 00:47:44,160
Speaker 3: over again early next year. We'll have a look at

985
00:47:44,400 --> 00:47:47,839
Speaker 3: Hemlong Himmel for a climate why we're doing a lot

986
00:47:47,840 --> 00:47:50,000
Speaker 3: of expeditions with the paradlning now try and get off

987
00:47:50,000 --> 00:47:52,719
Speaker 3: the summits, and then at the end of the year,

988
00:47:52,760 --> 00:47:54,080
Speaker 3: we've got a few other balls in the air, but

989
00:47:54,120 --> 00:47:55,399
Speaker 3: we just have to wait and see.

990
00:47:55,760 --> 00:47:59,040
Speaker 1: I have no doubt that our paths will cross met

991
00:48:00,200 --> 00:48:02,880
Speaker 1: some stage and then we'll bump into each other along

992
00:48:02,920 --> 00:48:05,799
Speaker 1: these adventures that we do. It sounds like that you've

993
00:48:05,840 --> 00:48:09,000
Speaker 1: got a legend of a partner with you that is there.

994
00:48:09,160 --> 00:48:13,680
Speaker 1: You know, your soulmate going through and sharing these experiences

995
00:48:13,719 --> 00:48:17,759
Speaker 1: and these emotions, and you know these these ways of

996
00:48:17,840 --> 00:48:21,279
Speaker 1: living with mate. So hats off to her mate, you know,

997
00:48:21,719 --> 00:48:25,600
Speaker 1: give her a big hug from me, mate, and listen,

998
00:48:25,840 --> 00:48:27,120
Speaker 1: best of luck with everything you do.

999
00:48:27,200 --> 00:48:30,440
Speaker 2: Luke's been an absolute pleasure. Thanks for coming on and

1000
00:48:30,520 --> 00:48:33,560
Speaker 2: hopefully I will see you along your travels.

1001
00:48:33,960 --> 00:48:35,440
Speaker 3: Thank you, mate, look after yourself.

1002
00:48:36,160 --> 00:48:39,880
Speaker 1: Luke's three books are available now. I'll put the details

1003
00:48:39,920 --> 00:48:42,839
Speaker 1: on how to grab them in the show notes. Thanks

1004
00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:45,359
Speaker 1: for joining me on this episode of head Game. If

1005
00:48:45,400 --> 00:48:48,440
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this episode, please leave me a review.

1006
00:48:49,120 --> 00:48:51,920
Speaker 2: I'm Att Middleton. See you again next time.