As we were driving out of the minefield, another bang goes off, and their vehicle got blown up – again! To everyone’s surprise, they’d all been blown clear for a second time – and were all absolutely fine.
It just so happened that the vehicle they got into ended up being the lead vehicle for our exit. We got them into one of our vehicles, and slowly made our way out. Thankfully, all the three guys inside had been thrown out of the vehicle they were a bit dazed, but nothing was wrong with them, so they were very lucky. We drove up and then we saw that the vehicle had been completely blown up – and was upside down. I took my team off, we had three vehicles. They were from my unit and their vehicle had been blown up that’s all we knew. I was sent on a mission to rescue some soldiers who’d driven into a minefield. Which was the scariest moment in your Army career? So, you joined the military ending up in the famed Parachute Regiment. I knew what I was going to do from the age of about ten, that was it I’m going to go be an explorer. I wanted to travel and see the world beyond my immediate understanding, which not that many people get to do. I decided from a very young age that that’s what I wanted to do. There were all these tales he told me about these strange and curious places, and for me growing up in a bungalow in Stoke-on-Trent it all sounded very exotic. He was also stationed in Hiroshima after they dropped the atom bomb in Japan. I remember growing up on his stories of surviving in the jungle for six months at a time. My grandfather was a soldier in the Second World War he fought in the Far East, in Burma. It was moments like that, which really inspired me to push the boundaries even further. It’s those moments where you push yourself – it’s a cliché to say, ‘coming out of your comfort zone’ – but it’s only then that you will develop, you grow. My dad held my hand and we jumped off, and, of course, once I’d done it I was so excited I went straight back up and did it again. I remember standing on top of what I thought was a huge cliff, and being faced with this enormous challenge. It was probably only two metres high, but at that age I was absolutely bricking it. There was one time when I went kayaking with my dad – I was probably six or seven years old – and he decided to make me do a cliff jump.
Can you talk us through some formative moments… Your father and grandfather – both soldiers in the British army – were clearly big influences on your life. Because now his leg has healed and the world is opening back up, something tells us he won’t stay there for long… We caught up with him while he was still on UK soil. (Puts my post-pub Sunday walk up Box Hill in context.)īut it took a broken leg and a global pandemic to finally keep him down – long enough for him to reflect, take stock and write a book about all he’s learnt along the way. In 2017, he trekked 1,800 miles from Mexico to Colombia, including traversing the notorious Darien Gap.Īnd he recently returned from his most ambitious challenge yet – a 5,000 mile expedition through the Arabian Peninsula from Iraq to Lebanon. In 2015, he walked the length of the Himalayas from Afghanistan to Bhutan. In 2014, he became the first man to walk the 3,750 miles of the River Nile. The car rolled ten times, and that was it – I thought I was a goner Wood had spent the last 20 years travelling the world – ‘explorer’ top of his CV. (Paragliding with a giant propeller strapped to your back.) At least, he did, until he broke his leg doing it. Instead, he decided to take up paramotoring. His banana-bread tin remained in the cupboard, the garden shears stayed in the shed. His lockdown hobby was not the same as yours or mine. When it comes to facing your fears, Wood believes in diving straight at them headfirst, preferably at 150mph. So naturally, he opted to become a… paratrooper.
0 kommentar(er)
