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Adventurer Dwayne Fields isn’t any stranger to pushing his limits in excessive environments. His journey started in turbulent interior London, however Fields has soared to a number of the world’s highest peaks by means of sheer laborious work, grit and dedication.
In his latest journey collection titled “7 Hardest days“, set to premier on 19 March on Nationwide Geographic, Fields tackles a number of the world’s most difficult areas, together with Gabon, Oman, and Kyrgyzstan.
With simply seven days to information himself and his digicam operator to security, he should overcome epic bodily and psychological challenges. I had the chance to talk to the inspiring adventurer about his humble beginnings and the challenges forward.
In South Africa, we imagine that kids will usually tackle the meanings of their names. I don’t know if it’s any totally different rising up in Jamaica, however your identify is Dwayne Fields. You appear to have been destined for the nice outdoor.
[Laughs] I used to be born in a really rural a part of Jamaica, so round my home had been woodlands and timber. I by no means thought my identify made or impacted me, however now that you simply introduced it up, who is aware of? I do know my early years performed an element in what I needed to do, and I believe I used to be destined to do what I do.
You moved from Jamaica to London at a younger age. Which a part of London did you develop up in?
So I grew up in North London in a spot referred to as Hackney. Most individuals will know Hackney due to the 2012 Olympics. I do know Hackney as a result of, at one stage, it was one of the vital violent components of London. In areas of excessive deprivation, there was quite a lot of crime and road violence of their earlier days. It’s a world away from the place I grew up in Jamaica.
Are you able to describe the way it was totally different?
The place I used to be born in Jamaica, it was an actual group sense. The homes weren’t shut collectively. Most locations didn’t even have electrical energy, working water or fuel. We nonetheless used wooden fires and charcoal to prepare dinner our meals. So it’s a wholly totally different world, though they’re worlds that moulded me.
Throughout his developmental years, he was wrapped up within the interior London road gang tradition. Nevertheless, following a taking pictures incident, he resolved to remodel his life and flee into the wilderness. He launched into a collection of challenges, starting with a 400-mile trek to the magnetic North Pole. Dwayne’s accomplishment is noteworthy as he’s solely the second Black man, after Matthew Henson in 1909, to have reached the Pole. He has challenged the widespread notion of what a younger Black Londoner can obtain and is devoted to motivating others to pursue comparable paths.
The town can usually really feel isolating, significantly for folks like us who got here from pastoral areas. Adapting to extra chaotic environments can take time. However I believe you have got a greater grasp on that than I do as a result of, from London, you went the place few people ever will. The North Pole. Why?
It made good sense to do one thing as summary and on the market as attainable. When I discovered myself with a gun pointed at my face, I realised I had been pretending to be somebody for thus lengthy. I wanted to return to who I used to be. One of the simplest ways to try this was to throw myself again into the deep finish, returning to nature and the outside. In doing that, I got here throughout some folks planning an expedition to the North Pole and wrote them a passionate letter to affix them. This journey could be a problem of resilience and would present me what I used to be product of.
How did you mentally put together your self to take this vital step and enterprise into the chilly unknown?
My preparation concerned dragging quite a lot of tyres round Hackney. I used to be laughed at whereas doing that. I googled how one can practice for the arctic, and also you get all these guys sitting in chilly baths and ice buckets. However I noticed this man pulling tyres on a seashore. I didn’t have a seashore, so I figured I’d pull a number of down Victoria Park in Hackney. I bear in mind strolling down the canal, and there was a gaggle of eight or 9 boys. They laughed and referred to as me each identify underneath the solar whereas I used to be strolling previous dragging these tyres. That was in all probability my lowest second in coaching.
Regardless of all of the discouragement from his London surroundings, with folks utilizing racial stereotypes to dampen his targets of defining his future, he went off to coach in Norway. Snowboarding, strolling, working and climbing whereas carrying weights on his again for 7 to eight hours day by day to strengthen his legs. However what actually motivated Dwayne was understanding he longed for a greater life than he had beforehand identified. And if he was ever going again, it was to his genuine self.
Your new present with Nationwide Geographic known as 7 hardest days. May you inform us a bit extra about it and what to anticipate?
The present lives as much as its identify. It’s me dropped into a number of the hardest environments on Earth on the hardest time of the 12 months. So within the desert, it’s on the hottest time of the 12 months, within the mountains in the course of winter. Within the rainforest, it’s exactly that. And I’ve to search out my approach out utilizing all my expertise. And this isn’t to indicate my talents however to take the viewers with me on a journey as I navigate the surroundings, be taught what works, and apply issues I’ve learn or skilled.
Why these three locations: Gabon, Oman and Kyrgyzstan?
Oman is likely one of the most forested international locations in the whole world. Greater than 80% of it’s a jungle, like a extremely darkish jungle. Kyrgyzstan has the Tian Shan mountains and actually chilly. The folks there nonetheless stay a nomadic life-style for probably the most half. Oman is likely one of the hottest locations on the planet. Temperatures can soar as excessive as 50 levels in the course of summer time. And people are a number of the causes we selected these locations.
With all of your success, you don’t have any cause to look again, however as a co-founder of the #WeTwo basis, you appear solely to look again to lend a serving to hand to individuals who grew up in difficult circumstances much like yours.
This basis is strictly what I’d have wanted as an adolescent. And together with considered one of my expedition teammates, I created a help system for younger individuals who would’ve by no means thought to go on expeditions like this. It’s about permitting folks to see and expertise journey, which I imagine will make them fall in love with nature, the outside and their work to guard it.
Wonderful, Dwayne; I hope your basis can attain the form of youngsters who laughed at you and expose them to all these new worlds. Thanks in your work and time, and wishing you extra success in your adventures
[Laughs] Thanks a lot, and do tune in when the present airs this coming March.
7 Hardest days, hosted by Dwayne Fields, premiers on 19 March and ends on 2 April, Sundays at 21:00 on Nationwide Geographic (DStv 181).
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