16 thousand kilometers in 352 days to cross Africa from end to end

Just over 16 thousand kilometers between the southernmost point of South Africa to the northern end of Tunisia. Or the equivalent of about 386 marathons. That’s the distance you set out to run. Russ Cook, crossing 16 countries, enormous tropical jungles, savannahs, mountains and the Sahara, the largest hot desert in the world, to become the first person to travel on foot the entire length of the African continent. What was her motivation? The first, her love for extreme challenges. But also the chance to take advantage of the experience – which he shared on social networks and on his YouTube channel – to raise money for some charity organizations.

The journey, baptized “Africa Project”began on April 22 of last year in Cape Needleslocated 170 kilometers southeast of Cape Town. The original plan was to complete the route in 240 days and reach Cape Angelaabout 90 kilometers north of the city of Tunisia, for Christmas. But along the way he encountered more than one setback and the trip took quite a while. However, Cook never gave up and on Sunday, 352 days after putting on the shoes for the first time, he reached the finish line and accomplished the goal.

“It’s an honor to have the opportunity to try this challenge. It’s crazy. I’m a working class guy from England. Being here doing this is incredible,” he commented on one of the first days of the adventure in a chat with The Mirror.

“Project Africa is about many things. About giving everything in life and seeing how far I can go. About learning and sharing cultures. About showing people that dreams do not have to remain dreams. And about creating an impact that go beyond a race across a continent,” he added.

Cook -nicknamed “The Hardest Geezer” (something like “The Toughest Man”) – discovered his passion for running and the challenges that require him to push his body to the limit almost by chance. Born in Worthing, a coastal town in West Sussex, 27 years ago (he turned 27 in mid-March), throughout his teenage years he struggled with mental health issues and struggled to find his way in life. He spent his free time drinking and gambling. Until one day, a friend challenged him to run a half marathon in his city.

The Englishman, then 19 years old, completed those first 21 kilometers and a few weeks later he was encouraged to try a marathon, which he also managed to finish, despite not being in good physical condition. Those experiences had a great impact on him.

“For the first time in a long time, I felt confident in myself,” he confessed a few months ago in an interview with the CNN. “Through that whole process of achieving something that before seemed like I couldn’t do, that process of running a marathon, I learned the values ​​of running, discipline and believing in yourself. That gave me confidence and I was able to apply it in other aspects of my life”.

And he added: “I was in an ugly moment. I hadn’t exercised for a long time. It took a few years of hitting rock bottom to start thinking ‘The only way out of this is to take full responsibility for the situation I find myself in.’ “Trying to improve myself and then putting more positive energy, trying hard, working on myself and, little by little, moving up the ladder.”

After those first races, Cook became more and more encouraged.

He ran a marathon on crutches and another towing a car weighing more than 700 kilos. He also completed a 42,195-kilometer test, stopping for a beer after each mile completed. And he buried himself alive for a week, with the sole goal of seeing how long he could last “doing absolutely nothing.” All with the goal of becoming one of the best endurance athletes in the world.

In 2019, he also ran from Istanbul until Worthing the distance equivalent to 71 marathons in 66 days, becoming the first to complete that journey in that way. His most important challenge was yet to come.

During a pleasure trip to Africa, he visited Food, a Kenyan village that is home to some of the world’s best long-distance runners, and also met an Italian cyclist who was cycling around the world. And that inspired him to plan “Project Africa,” sponsored by an energy drink and other companies. The challenge proved to be far from easy.

The difficulties began before the tour: problems obtaining visas or transporting the vehicles that accompany him (and in which the small group of friends who make up his team travel) to the need to replan the entire tour, which was initially going to take place From north to south. But the biggest setbacks began after the departure, just under a year ago.

Quite quickly he had to abandon his idea of ​​completing the very tough challenge without days of rest, because the physical effort and the harsh conditions of the African continent quickly took their toll on him.

“The first day of rest was on the 45th day of the trip. I went to see a doctor. I had some tests done and they showed that there was blood and protein in my urine for the fourth day in a row. The doctor told me that I had to relax. I tried to find a logical reason to ignore it. At first I said ‘No rest days, no way, we’re going to do this in a burst’. But I realized that in the long term it was going to hurt me more. Getting humbled about that was a lesson learned. I’m not Superman, right? “She said in one of the videos he shared during the journey.

It wasn’t the only time he urinated with blood in the almost twelve months he was running. Nor was it the only health problem she suffered. Various food poisonings, blisters on his feet and severe back pain, which complicated things in mid-November, forced him to slow down several times and spend a few days without running.

And it wasn’t just his own body that was responsible for creating obstacles that made his path more bumpy. In June, when he was going through Angola and had completed only about 2,800 kilometers in 64 days, he was assaulted with a firearm.

“Nothing like a gun pointed at your face to let you know you’re alive,” he said in a post on Instagram. “I met the guys for lunch. We were chatting in the truck like any other day when a couple of guys opened the door and asked us for everything we had. Desperate guys with guns pointed at us.”

Cook explained that their team’s cameras, phones, passports and cash were stolen, but that no one was injured. Although when they lost their documents, they had to stop the adventure for almost six days.

“We lived to tell the tale. Spirits have suffered a little, but the only way is to keep going. The relentless nature of this mission is too much. Trouble from every angle. No respite. Tough times? Yes, sir. Shall we return? for more? Of course. Until the bitter end,” he commented.

A few months later, on day 102 of the journey, he was kidnapped in Angola, after becoming separated from his team while running on “impassable roads on the planned route.” He himself reported it on his networks.

“In an attempt to find the boys, I stumbled upon a rural settlement where the boss told me I had to give him money. I had nothing. Very soon I found myself surrounded by a bunch of guys with machetes. They escorted me into the bush. “I emptied my bag to show that I had nothing but a half-eaten cookie. I gave it to him and ran. I spent the next few hours walking along overgrown trails. Trying to get away from any trails until I was far away,” he said.

“Exhausted and dehydrated, I was still looking for the truck and suddenly two men on a motorcycle who didn’t speak English appeared,” he continued. “What happened next was a seven-hour motorcycle ride deep into the jungle. In my head I thought this was it. I, the self-proclaimed ‘toughest man’, was about to be torn limb from limb and devoured.”

Finally, he arrived at a village, where he tried to negotiate with the chief and ended up communicating with his team, who within a couple of days organized and paid a ransom. “They were the hardest days of my life,” Cook admitted.

The challenge that put a damper on the entire project was a visa problem (although not the first of its kind). It’s just that while I was going through Senegal In January, with some 12 thousand kilometers traveled, the Briton said that they had not been able to obtain permits to enter Algeriacountry to which he had to enter after passing through Mauritania. “If we don’t get them, the Africa Project ends here”he lamented.

Six days later, and after the intervention of the British Parliament and the Algerian ambassador to Great Britain, Cook and his companions received the news that they would be granted “courtesy visas in situ” to be able to “continue their charitable mission.” And also advice for traveling across the border between Mauritania and Algeria, an area so dangerous that crossing it is inadvisable, which is why their permits had not been approved at first.

Before crossing that limit, the Englishman faced the most challenging section of the trip: crossing the rural area of ​​the Sahara, without asphalt roads, with very high temperatures and violent sand storms. The conditions were so harsh that he decided to change his routine and run at night, to avoid the harsh sun.

“What a tough couple of weeks. The Sahara lived up to expectations. The sandstorms were so strong that any progress seemed momentous. There were no roads or signs on this stretch, so I was often just setting coordinates and navigating in a straight line through everything that stood in my way, mostly endless sand. The toughest conditions of the mission so far. The body is absolutely destroyed. Constant pain. But we made it. I’m alive and I’m in Algeria. The asphalt is back and we are going to finish this project on April 7,” he said at the beginning of March on day 319 of the adventure.

None of those adversities stopped him. Cook ran and ran. Sometimes during the day and sometimes at night. Almost always alone – “I can spend entire days alone with my head. For me, part of the journey consists of becoming a fairly peaceful person with myself,” he said – but at other times accompanied by a member of his team or by some local runner who joined his adventure and followed in his footsteps. And he managed to complete the challenge.

It was exactly 16,294 kilometers in 352 days. He toured 16 countries: South Africa, Namibia, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Cameroon, Nigeria, Benin, Toho, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Senegal, Mauritania, Algeria and Tunisia. And it raised more than £600,000 (around $750,000), which will be shared between three charities, The Running Charity, Sandblast and Water Aid.

Cook had invited those who wanted to accompany him for the last leg of the journey, between the Tunisian city of Ghezala and Cape Angela, the northern tip of the continent. Many of the people who followed the challenge on social media joined in – even his compatriots who traveled especially from the United Kingdom – and gave him the last push of energy he needed to cross the finish line and make history in running.