Joe Rogan Experience #1410 - Ash Dykes

Joe Rogan 0:03 Do you think a salt lamp's real? Do you think that thing does anything?

Ash Dykes 0:06 I don't know. I don't know how much you'd need, hey?

Joe Rogan 0:08 Well, it, it keeps-

Ash Dykes 0:09 You'd need to be-

Joe Rogan 0:09 It's got a hat on it.

Ash Dykes 0:11 Yeah. (laughs) Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:11 So it's not being taken too seriously.

Ash Dykes 0:13 And that's actually a big one. You're getting a lot smaller than that, don't ya?

Joe Rogan 0:16 Yeah, I saw that one. That was the biggest one you could find on Amazon, so I got that.

Ash Dykes 0:19 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:19 'Cause I'm a glutton.

Ash Dykes 0:22 It's, uh-

Joe Rogan 0:22 I like big things. Big salt rocks.

Ash Dykes 0:25 Yeah. Why the hell not?

Joe Rogan 0:25 Yeah, why not?

Ash Dykes 0:26 Why not?

Joe Rogan 0:26 I'm like, "I want a big one."

Ash Dykes 0:27 Do it. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:28 It's very, uh, very flashy. Do you think that does anything though?

Ash Dykes 0:32 I don't know. Good question. It's, um ... What is it? It just lets the, the air off and you're just breathing in the natural salts, aren't ya? Helps with the sleep as well. Helps with the sleep.

Joe Rogan 0:39 But how is it doing that?

Ash Dykes 0:40 I don't know.

Joe Rogan 0:41 Just by, by being in the room?

Ash Dykes 0:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 0:42 Hmm. Maybe I should have them everywhere.

Ash Dykes 0:44 Well, isn't it the light underneath as well?

Joe Rogan 0:45 Is that good?

Ash Dykes 0:46 It just sets off-

Joe Rogan 0:46 So the light? The heat from the light?

Ash Dykes 0:47 The heat sets off ... Yeah, I believe so.

Joe Rogan 0:50 Sounds like horseshit, right?

Ash Dykes 0:51 I've studied it. Could be.

Joe Rogan 0:52 Could be. Could be a little bit.

Ash Dykes 0:53 Could be. Yeah. Hey, looks good though, right?

Joe Rogan 0:55 So you asked me before if, uh, if you were the first Welshman.

Ash Dykes 0:59 Yes.

Joe Rogan 0:59 I think you are. Is that the case, Jamie?

Ash Dykes 1:02 Really?

Joe Rogan 1:02 Do you know if that's the case? Somebody might've snuck in and didn't tell us.

Ash Dykes 1:06 There we go. Yeah. Yes, I could be the first.

Joe Rogan 1:07 What is this, uh, thing that you brought?

Ash Dykes 1:08 So I thought, if I'm the first Welsh person, I've gotta bring-

Joe Rogan 1:11 Keep this, try to keep this like a fifth from your face.

Ash Dykes 1:13 Sure.

Joe Rogan 1:13 There we go.

Ash Dykes 1:14 I gotta bring a Welsh dragon for ya.

Joe Rogan 1:15 A Welsh dragon?

Ash Dykes 1:16 A Welsh dragon. So this is on our flag in, in Wales.

Joe Rogan 1:19 Wow.

Ash Dykes 1:19 Goes back, uh, a l- a long time ago since we were, like, protecting ourselves and pride.

Joe Rogan 1:26 Wow. It's cool looking.

Ash Dykes 1:26 Don't really know the history, but there we go.

Joe Rogan 1:28 So this is a classic Welsh dragon?

Ash Dykes 1:30 Welsh dragon, yeah.

Joe Rogan 1:31 Oh, okay.

Ash Dykes 1:31 Give his name like one of the coolest flags in the world. You just got this big, big raging dragon on a flag.

Joe Rogan 1:37 That is pretty cool.

Ash Dykes 1:37 So I thought, if I'm the first Welshman, I gotta, I gotta bring you a, uh, the red dragon. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 1:43 Look at it right there. There's some, some images of it.

Ash Dykes 1:44 There we go. Yeah. Have you been to Wales before?

Joe Rogan 1:47 No.

Ash Dykes 1:48 No?

Joe Rogan 1:48 No. How badass is it? Should I go?

Ash Dykes 1:51 It's, yeah, beautiful. It is a good place. Lots of mountains. Right on the coast there as well, of course. Forests, lakes. Good for training. It's where I do all my training actually.

Joe Rogan 2:00 Yeah?

Ash Dykes 2:00 Yeah. Hardcore elements.

Joe Rogan 2:01 Speaking of training, Ash, tell everybody what you've done.

Ash Dykes 2:04 So I've recently, only five months ago now, five and a half months, came back from achieving, uh, my third world first record in walking the entire length of the Yangtze River in China. So it's the third-longest river in the world. Uh, the longest to run through a single nation. So it's 4,000 miles. It took 352 days. Um, and it's from the Tibetan Plateau in the west of China. Uh, so you're talking 5,100 meters above sea level, which is equivalent to Everest base camp, and, and yeah, 4,000 miles later, 352 days, you end up near the, near Shanghai where it pours out into the East China Sea.

Joe Rogan 2:42 You know what I thought when I heard that you did this? I thought two things. One, I thought, "This guy's insane." Like, where, what kind of willpower does it take to walk and hike 4,000-plus miles? But the other thing I thought is this kind of validates a lot of the ideas that people have always had about human beings migrating from Africa and through Siberia and-

Ash Dykes 3:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:01 ... through the Bering Strait. Like-

Ash Dykes 3:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:03 ... if you can do that, what you did, what you did is not dissimilar, you know?

Ash Dykes 3:08 That's it. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 3:09 It's-

Ash Dykes 3:09 You got trails all over the world, don't you?

Joe Rogan 3:11 And you're just doing it for a, a world record. Imagine if you were doing it because you were trying to stay alive.

Ash Dykes 3:15 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 3:15 You're trying to keep your family alive.

Ash Dykes 3:16 Yeah. Yeah. I tell you what, yeah, we would have had ... Oh, there's so much, so much history in journeys that mankind have, kind of taken on since-

Joe Rogan 3:25 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 3:25 Wah. I'm reading, um, Sapiens at the minute.

Joe Rogan 3:28 Oh, it's great.

Ash Dykes 3:28 I only just started.

Joe Rogan 3:29 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 3:30 But that's just mind-boggling with the numbers, you know?

Joe Rogan 3:32 Mm-hmm.

Ash Dykes 3:32 It takes you right back, and it's like, "Whoa. Whoa."

Joe Rogan 3:34 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 3:34 But, um, yeah, so the source of the Yangtze, it was actually only discovered in 2009, the true and scientific source.

Joe Rogan 3:42 Really?

Ash Dykes 3:42 So, yeah, that gives us ev- We had to do two ... It took over two years of planning. So it was a case of working heavily in China, um, finding out whether this had ever been done before. It took ... We had to get different teams involved, uh, globally. Um, and then we discovered that ... I was always, I was always preparing to go from the traditional source, which is most famous for, for the source of the Yangtze be- uh, Yangtze River being there. But then we only discovered about a year into the planning that actually there's a true and scientific source found by the same guy who mapped the traditional source, yet he partnered up with NASA, used all the satellite technology, was able to correct us wrong. It's slightly longer the tr- than the, uh, traditional source. And that was it. We're like, "Right, this, this gotta be the true and scientific source."

Joe Rogan 4:25 How much longer is it?

Ash Dykes 4:27 It's probably only a distance of 20 to 30 miles, which that's only really a day's trek, but it was s- more close to Tibet. It was more south, uh, southwest of China, so it was closer to the Tibetan border, which means it's a little bit more sensitive. So it, it was tougher to go from, from the true and scientific source for sure, but it's the longer one. If you're gonna walk that distance, you've gotta do it the proper way.

Joe Rogan 4:49 Yeah, I agree with you.

Ash Dykes 4:50 You know?

Joe Rogan 4:50 I'm glad you think that way.

Ash Dykes 4:51 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 4:51 But obviously a person that's willing to walk 4,000 miles would think that way.

Ash Dykes 4:55 Yeah. (laughs) That's-

Joe Rogan 4:55 Like, you wouldn't s- (laughs) you wouldn't skip on 20 miles.

Ash Dykes 4:58 Yeah, an extra day. Right.

Joe Rogan 4:58 Could you imagine if you skipped on 20 miles and everyone was like, "Well, you did a pretty good job."

Ash Dykes 5:02 Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:02 "But actually, Mike over here just did the whole thing."

Ash Dykes 5:05 Exact- yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 5:05 "The actual scientific one."

Ash Dykes 5:06 That's it.

Joe Rogan 5:06 "He's the real one."

Ash Dykes 5:08 Well, that's h- That happened towards the end as well, so coming up near Shanghai, there's an official s- uh, point of where the Yangtze pours into the East China Sea. And they're like, you know, "You only have to go to this, this point." I'm like, "No, I am walking to where the land ends."

Joe Rogan 5:22 Hmm.

Ash Dykes 5:22 So that took me an extra, only an extra couple of days, but could you imagine finishing and it's like, "Oh, you didn't quite make it, did ya? You were close."

Joe Rogan 5:28 Oh.

Ash Dykes 5:28 "But you didn't quite make it, so I'm walking-"

Joe Rogan 5:30 What is the feeling like when you know you only have two days left?

Ash Dykes 5:34 Oh, man. Well, we were hit by storm, Storm Nakima, so it was one of the biggest storms they've had in the past 30 years, uh, and that put me into hiding, you know? I had to shelter up after everything that I'd faced over 350 days, you know?

Joe Rogan 5:49 Mm-hmm.

Ash Dykes 5:49 Um, and that stopped me only a couple of days before I crossed into the East China Sea, before the finish. But at that point, it's almost I had visualized the completion over and over again in my head. I'd played it so many times of what it would be like, what it would feel like, what it's ... You know, everything to, to cross the finish line, that almost when that day happened and I did cross the finish line-... I almost over-visualized.

Joe Rogan 6:13 Hmm.

Ash Dykes 6:13 I didn't feel anything. It's just like, "Well, so it's about damn time." You know?

Joe Rogan 6:17 Wow.

Ash Dykes 6:17 Yeah. Uh, and I belie- you know, the law of attraction, visualization, I've always been a big believer in that, and same with Mongolia and Madagascar, which were my previous expeditions. Uh, I almost lost my life on both of those trips. By the time that I'm suffering, I'm just constantly visualizing. You know, I was focusing on recovering, getting better, but visualizing the finish, keep getting up, keep pushing on.

Joe Rogan 6:38 I wanna get to that.

Ash Dykes 6:39 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 6:39 I wanna, I wanna get to those. But I, I wanna, I wanna ask you, when you decide to plan this trip-

Ash Dykes 6:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 6:45 ... so y- how much had you learned from the first two crazy trips that you had, and how did you calculate, like, how much food you're gonna need, where you're gonna me- need pit stops-

Ash Dykes 6:55 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 6:55 ... were you gonna be able to ... Like, how did you do it?

Ash Dykes 6:57 So with that, we're always looking for communities along, on a long route. You know, if there's a community, there's food. And so, and actually that brings me back to the traditional and then the true scientific source. If we went from the traditional, we'd go maybe one week or one and a half weeks without coming across any locals, so we'd have to carry a week and a half worth of ration packs in our backpack.

Joe Rogan 7:18 Hmm.

Ash Dykes 7:19 But the s- true and scientific source sent us back, I think it was two or three weeks we couldn't find, um, any community along the way via satellite and via the people that we were ... They are my logistics managers.

Joe Rogan 7:32 That is-

Ash Dykes 7:32 So that meant we'd need to carry-

Joe Rogan 7:33 ... the craziest way to try to visit people.

Ash Dykes 7:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 7:36 Find them through satellite as you're trekking through a forest-

Ash Dykes 7:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 7:40 ... and then try to get food.

Ash Dykes 7:42 That's it. And we're always maximizing it as well, so we're saying, "Okay, if that's three weeks, so let's carry food for three and a half or four weeks."

Joe Rogan 7:49 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 7:49 Because if that community is now empty or abandoned, then we're out of food.

Joe Rogan 7:54 What, what are you carrying for food?

Ash Dykes 7:56 I would carry, uh, ration packs, so ... And the ration packs were pretty good. We had, like, chicken tikka masala, spaghetti bolognese, um, carbonara, and each ration pack was around 800 kilocalories.

Joe Rogan 8:08 And are you using, like, hot ... Are these dehydrated?

Ash Dykes 8:12 Yeah. That's it.

Joe Rogan 8:13 Okay.

Ash Dykes 8:13 So you just boil the water, boil the whole water-

Joe Rogan 8:14 And you pour it in there.

Ash Dykes 8:15 You wait about 15 minutes and it's good to go.

Joe Rogan 8:16 It's like a mountain house, like that kind of a deal?

Ash Dykes 8:18 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:19 Mm-hmm.

Ash Dykes 8:19 Yeah, similar. That's it. So, um-

Joe Rogan 8:20 Wow. You must be so looking forward to regular food by the time that's over.

Ash Dykes 8:24 Big time, yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:25 Oh.

Ash Dykes 8:25 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:25 What's the first thing you ate?

Ash Dykes 8:27 Uh, you know, the, the one that has protein ... Uh, the one that I was craving was just protein, so I was thinking of peanut butter.

Joe Rogan 8:33 Oh.

Ash Dykes 8:33 I was thinking of cheese on toast.

Joe Rogan 8:34 'Cause you had just mostly carbohydrates for your hydrant?

Ash Dykes 8:36 Yeah, exactly. So I was like-

Joe Rogan 8:37 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 8:37 Chicken as well was a big thing.

Joe Rogan 8:38 Hmm.

Ash Dykes 8:38 I was just craving all of this, big time.

Joe Rogan 8:41 That's funny.

Ash Dykes 8:41 But I don't know what the first thing I, I ate after.

Joe Rogan 8:43 It's funny how your body knows what you need.

Ash Dykes 8:45 Exact- yeah, you've gotta listen to your body, haven't you?

Joe Rogan 8:46 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 8:47 You've gotta listen.

Joe Rogan 8:47 It's hard to listen. I mean, it's hard to know. Wh- I don't ... I'm not really sure what I hear. (laughs)

Ash Dykes 8:51 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 8:52 You know, you get, uh, an odd craving. Sometimes I'm craving ice cream. Is that supposed to ... I'm supposed to listen?

Ash Dykes 8:57 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 8:57 Just have ice cream like that?

Ash Dykes 8:58 That's it, yeah, exactly.

Joe Rogan 8:59 That seems weird.

Ash Dykes 9:00 Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 9:00 Seems weird just listening to your cravings. That seems ridiculous. (laughs)

Ash Dykes 9:03 Yeah. I, yeah, and I think e- yeah. (laughs) No, you're right, it does. I think almost listening to ... You've gotta be stripped of all the, all of the protein and, and whatnot running through your, your body currently, haven't you? I think if you're full-

Joe Rogan 9:14 Mm-hmm.

Ash Dykes 9:15 ... you're craving ice cream, you know, if you're full, you want a dessert. But I think if you're now at the point of not starvation, but if you're really hungry and you know what's good, what's not good, you're ... I think your body gives a good tell sign of what you can ... Uh, the last month of Mission Yangtze, I was really bad. I was coming across cities every day 'cause you can imagine, like, towards Shanghai, you're coming across cities, you're coming across towns, communities, and so I was just craving protein. I was craving fats, and a lot of the time for that last month, I was just eating really unhealthily.

Joe Rogan 9:45 Hmm.

Ash Dykes 9:45 Just getting in stodgy foods, stodgy fats, protein. You know, there was fast food chains along the way, KFC, you know, that sort of month.

Joe Rogan 9:52 Really?

Ash Dykes 9:52 I had a bit. Yes. I was out of the wi- ... The wilderness was like six months worth. Once I'd finished the first half, it was gradual for then another two or three months, but the last three months, you're going through city after city, all really built up, high population there, um, and I found that my body was cr- so I was listening to my body.

Joe Rogan 10:09 Hmm.

Ash Dykes 10:09 I was craving fats, craving protein, and yeah, you're right, it did get ridiculous. I was going to these, you know, fast food re- ... And I, I ... The translation, I could speak Chinese a little bit. I could-

Joe Rogan 10:17 I was just gonna ask you that.

Ash Dykes 10:18 I could get by. But some-

Joe Rogan 10:19 Now, when you say Chinese, like which dialect?

Ash Dykes 10:22 Oh, there's over 100 dialects, yeah. So that's where it got difficult.

Joe Rogan 10:25 Oh, no. (laughs)

Ash Dykes 10:26 Uh, so even ... Yeah, oh m- it was nails. It was nails, really difficult. So order-

Joe Rogan 10:31 Do you speak Mandarin? What do you speak?

Ash Dykes 10:32 Yeah, basic Mandarin.

Joe Rogan 10:33 Basic Mandarin.

Ash Dykes 10:34 This is, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:34 Okay.

Ash Dykes 10:35 Enough to just about get by. But I w- I skipped all of the basics and went straight into the sentences, where are, w- "Are there bears here?"

Joe Rogan 10:44 Are there bears here?

Ash Dykes 10:45 "Where are the wolves?," uh, do you have water-

Joe Rogan 10:46 Where are the wolves?

Ash Dykes 10:47 ... food, you know, shelter?

Joe Rogan 10:48 Oh, my God.

Ash Dykes 10:49 So, yeah, I skipped a lot of the basics, went straight into the-

Joe Rogan 10:51 Dude, those are two questions I don't ever wanna hear.

Ash Dykes 10:54 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 10:54 Are there bears here and where are the wolves?

Ash Dykes 10:57 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 10:57 Not, not are there wolves here? Where are they?

Ash Dykes 10:59 Where are they?

Joe Rogan 11:00 Fuck, man.

Ash Dykes 11:01 That's it. We're hearing-

Joe Rogan 11:01 And you're out there walking.

Ash Dykes 11:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:04 For a year.

Ash Dykes 11:05 Yeah. That's it, um, for the first six months 'specially with the-

Joe Rogan 11:08 Ugh. So the first six months is mostly hiking in the woods?

Ash Dykes 11:11 It's hiking, yeah, in the wilderness on the Tibetan Plateau, you sort of-

Joe Rogan 11:15 Are you carrying your camp on your back?

Ash Dykes 11:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 11:18 So you have a bivy sack? Like, what are you sleeping in?

Ash Dykes 11:19 That's a tent. So we have this-

Joe Rogan 11:21 A tent.

Ash Dykes 11:21 ... really lightweight sort of Kailas tent.

Joe Rogan 11:24 Hmm.

Ash Dykes 11:24 We just get it up storm-proof so-

Joe Rogan 11:25 It's amazing how light they can get those damn things to now.

Ash Dykes 11:28 Oh, it was great. It was great.

Joe Rogan 11:28 It's incredible.

Ash Dykes 11:28 We needed it-

Joe Rogan 11:29 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 11:29 ... because I had to carry all of the, the f- we were filming for a documentary, so I had to carry electronics and got too heavy.

Joe Rogan 11:35 Now, do you, when you're f- when you're in this tent-

Ash Dykes 11:38 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 11:38 ... do you go with a double layer tent so you ha- provides more insulation and it's a little heavier? Or do you have, like, a really lightweight tent and just try to tough it out in the cold?

Ash Dykes 11:47 We have ... Uh, I had a double layer, but that's because the double layer was just so small and so light.

Joe Rogan 11:55 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 11:56 And it was a case of, yeah, you know, that's your comfort. That's your shelter.

Joe Rogan 11:59 Right, right, right.

Ash Dykes 12:00 And I'm gonna be facing some big storms.

Joe Rogan 12:02 Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

Ash Dykes 12:02 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:02 I was like you'd sacrifice probably the weight for just something that's gonna keep you insulated in there.

Ash Dykes 12:08 That's it, yeah, for sure. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:09 Do y- and do you have a pad that protects you from the ground?

Ash Dykes 12:12 Yeah. So I had a little sleep-

Joe Rogan 12:13 And then a mattress pad on top of that?

Ash Dykes 12:15 Uh, yeah, we've got the pad, like the waterproof pad on the ground from the tent.

Joe Rogan 12:18 Mm-hmm. Right.

Ash Dykes 12:18 And then we've got a sleeping mat.... uh, maybe about this, this thick-

Joe Rogan 12:22 Right.

Ash Dykes 12:22 ... about a, a half an inch to an inch thickness.

Joe Rogan 12:24 Mm-hmm.

Ash Dykes 12:25 Um, and then I had a minus 25 or minus 30 degree Celsius sleeping bag. I don't know what that is in, in Fahrenheit. Uh, but that was a n- you know, you got toasty inside. It could be minus-

Joe Rogan 12:37 What is the-

Ash Dykes 12:37 ... twen-

Joe Rogan 12:37 What is the issue with the ground though? Like, do you have to have an insulated pad to make sure-

Ash Dykes 12:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 12:43 ... that the ground cold doesn't get to you?

Ash Dykes 12:45 Yeah, for sure. That's what the, the sleeping mat is. So it's sort of you can roll it down and it's really small, really tight.

Joe Rogan 12:50 Mm-hmm.

Ash Dykes 12:50 Really lightweight as well. But once you roll it out, um, it's got, like, memory foam almost inside. Something similar.

Joe Rogan 12:56 Mm-hmm.

Ash Dykes 12:56 And then you have to, to, to blow in it, pump it up a little bit more.

Joe Rogan 12:59 Oh, I see.

Ash Dykes 12:59 Only takes 10, 20 breaths. Um, easy to pack away as well. Really convenient.

Joe Rogan 13:04 And it protects you from the cold of the ground.

Ash Dykes 13:05 And it protects from the ... 'cause that's what you need, you know?

Joe Rogan 13:07 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 13:08 The, uh, the, the ground just sucks all the body heat away.

Joe Rogan 13:10 Dude, I've never been comfortable camping. It's always just like, "Err."

Ash Dykes 13:14 Have you not ... Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 13:14 It's always like you wake up, like, popping and fuck. You're awake.

Ash Dykes 13:18 Yeah. That's it.

Joe Rogan 13:18 You made it, but still, you feel weird.

Ash Dykes 13:20 Yeah. You can do. You do get used to it.

Joe Rogan 13:23 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 13:23 But, um, and especially after the trekking. We were covering 50 kilometers some days. Well, we're covering about 20, 25 miles, especially in the Tibetan Plateau. So after that day's trek, only two ration packs per day.

Joe Rogan 13:36 Ugh.

Ash Dykes 13:36 So you're taking in 1,600 calories.

Joe Rogan 13:39 That's not a lot.

Ash Dykes 13:40 That's not a lot. We w- and we were carrying 30-

Joe Rogan 13:42 How much weight did you lose?

Ash Dykes 13:43 I probably about ... And I've still lost weight now at, uh, about 13, 12 to 13 kilograms-

Joe Rogan 13:49 Oh, okay.

Ash Dykes 13:49 ... I would say, in weight. Uh, which over the year was ... I lost the same amount in Mongolia.

Joe Rogan 13:54 Is that like 32 pounds? Isn't that right?

Ash Dykes 13:55 It's about 32, is it? 32 pounds. Yeah. So, um-

Joe Rogan 13:59 Wow. That's a lot of weight to lose. You're not a big guy.

Ash Dykes 14:02 Yeah, that's it. That's it.

Joe Rogan 14:03 Fuck, man. That must have been ... You must have been really drawn out at the end.

Ash Dykes 14:06 Big time.

Joe Rogan 14:06 Ugh.

Ash Dykes 14:07 Although it kinda worked itself out because towards the end I was coming across more food, didn't need my, my ration packs, of course. So I was coming across more, um, restaurants. I can collect food as I, as I go. It's not a solo and unsupported journey. Um, so I was just utilizing that. I was eating with the locals and I was, you know, taking as much calories down as I possibly could whilst I was trekking.

Joe Rogan 14:27 Did you pick, like, the k- the type of meals based on calories? Did you ... Like, when, w- I'm talking about, like, the Mountain House type deals or ... I don't know what company you used, what kind of-

Ash Dykes 14:35 Oh, well, yeah. Expedition Foods, I think it was that I used.

Joe Rogan 14:38 So they have different ones that are more nutrient rich and more-

Ash Dykes 14:41 That's it.

Joe Rogan 14:41 ... calorie rich.

Ash Dykes 14:42 Yeah. They have the smaller, lighter ones as well, which you get about 600 calories. Um, they are smaller. They are lighter, easier to pack, but I needed as much as I could possibly get, you know, especially with the mountain-

Joe Rogan 14:53 Yeah, they have a bunch of healthy options now 'cause a lot of-

Ash Dykes 14:55 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 14:55 ... Crossfitters are out there camping these days. (laughs)

Ash Dykes 14:57 Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 14:59 They wanna get that healthy paleo food while they're out there in the mountain.

Ash Dykes 15:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 15:03 But the, the ... What's undeniable has, has gotta be for you is that once you've made those steps-

Ash Dykes 15:09 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 15:09 ... the first steps for the first day, that you have this monumental thing in front of you.

Ash Dykes 15:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 15:14 Like, what, what was that like knowing when you started, like, "Here, ready? All right, bye, Ash. Bye."

Ash Dykes 15:20 Um, it was, it was-

Joe Rogan 15:21 "See you in a year." (laughs)

Ash Dykes 15:22 Oh, man. Da- yeah, it was exactly that. It was exactly that. It was daunting. It was, uh ... So before we got to the, before we got to the source of the Yangtze River, we lost, I think, four members. When I say lost, they survived, but they got altitude sickness. Um, they were fearing for their lives 'cause of the bears, 'cause of the wolves. So before we reached day number one, before we reached the start line, we've already got four members of the film crew, of guides, uh, evacuated, taken off the mountains, which brought me off the mountains as well 'cause I needed to regroup with a different team.

Joe Rogan 15:54 So everyone was scared and people also got altitude sickness and got fucked up?

Ash Dykes 15:59 That's it.

Joe Rogan 15:59 How high are you up there?

Ash Dykes 16:00 We are just over 5,000 meters-

Joe Rogan 16:03 Oh my god.

Ash Dykes 16:03 ... at this point. Yeah. So it's equivalent to Everest base camp, I'd say-

Joe Rogan 16:06 Oh my god.

Ash Dykes 16:07 ... which you can get altitude sickness from. One of the guides did that-

Joe Rogan 16:09 That, that's really fucking high. That's 15,000 feet, right?

Ash Dykes 16:12 That ... it's about that, yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:13 Ugh.

Ash Dykes 16:13 Yeah. So it's, uh, it's-

Joe Rogan 16:15 Ugh. And there's wolves up there?

Ash Dykes 16:16 There's wolves, yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:18 Ugh.

Ash Dykes 16:18 There's, there's bears, yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:19 You can't even run.

Ash Dykes 16:20 That's it. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 16:20 You got no air.

Ash Dykes 16:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:22 What ... How helpless would you feel at 15,000 feet when you see a pack of wolves? You're like, "Uh, uh."

Ash Dykes 16:27 Oh, man. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:29 And they're looking at you like-

Ash Dykes 16:30 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 16:30 ... "Hey, you don't look too good, buddy."

Ash Dykes 16:31 Yeah. It's the bears that scared me the most.

Joe Rogan 16:33 Oh, they should scare you the most.

Ash Dykes 16:34 You can't do anything against a bear, can you?

Joe Rogan 16:35 You can't do anything against a wolf.

Ash Dykes 16:37 Yeah, you can't do anything against a wolf either.

Joe Rogan 16:38 Especially at 15,000 feet-

Ash Dykes 16:39 Exactly.

Joe Rogan 16:40 ... where you can barely tie your shoes. "Uh, uh."

Ash Dykes 16:41 And a, and a pack of them as well.

Joe Rogan 16:43 Oh my god.

Ash Dykes 16:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:44 Yeah, f-

Ash Dykes 16:44 And we can't carry any weaponry. It's illegal there.

Joe Rogan 16:46 No?

Ash Dykes 16:46 So you're literally-

Joe Rogan 16:47 Oh, great.

Ash Dykes 16:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:48 Oh, sitting duck. Really?

Ash Dykes 16:50 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 16:50 You can't carry any weaponry?

Ash Dykes 16:52 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 16:52 You can't even have a knife?

Ash Dykes 16:54 Uh, I tried. I took a knife out. Um, did I take ... Yeah, I took a knife out, but I was ... It was taken from me in security-

Joe Rogan 17:02 Oh.

Ash Dykes 17:02 ... flying out to the west, so I bought another one in Yushu. Yeah, I did have a knife for the first month or two. Yeah. But again, a pack of wolves.

Joe Rogan 17:11 Yeah, you ain't gonna do shit with a little-

Ash Dykes 17:12 You know?

Joe Rogan 17:12 ... baby ass knife.

Ash Dykes 17:14 Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:14 (laughs) They're gonna rip your ankles apart.

Ash Dykes 17:15 That's it. That's it.

Joe Rogan 17:16 They tear your legs apart.

Ash Dykes 17:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 17:18 Wolves are the, the nastiest hunters.

Ash Dykes 17:20 Big time.

Joe Rogan 17:21 Um-

Ash Dykes 17:22 And we had a close encounter as well with a, with a pack. There was a-

Joe Rogan 17:25 Really?

Ash Dykes 17:25 Yeah, there was a, uh, a Tibetan. He was trying to warn us. He was trying to say ... Well, this is m- this was my angle. We were just talking to him. He looked a little bit worried, he looked a little bit stressed. We're high on the mountains and he keeps pointing down at a valley, talking to us in, to Tibetan. We didn't understand. We just sort of waved, "Oh, thank you. Bye." Big smile, off we go.So it was me and my friend, also a videographer, Kyle. We cracked on, but Kyle filmed all of that conversation, and four months later, we found out that from a g- a girl from my editor team in, uh, Beijing who could speak Tibetan, that he was saying right ahead, right down that valley, is a pack of wolves and only yesterday they had killed a, a local lady and trying to ... You know, they were trying to get us not to, to go down there, saying, "Don't go."

Joe Rogan 18:06 Whoa.

Ash Dykes 18:07 But we didn't know, so we're like, "Oh, yeah. All the best, thanks. See ya." And we cracked on. And for the next two days, we were followed. We believed we were followed by or stalked by a pack of wolves. You could hear howling.

Joe Rogan 18:17 Oh my god.

Ash Dykes 18:17 And they, they cover bigger distance than, than humans cover, you know? And for two days, they were just howling the same proximity, same distance away.

Joe Rogan 18:25 Fuckity, fuck, fuck, fuck.

Ash Dykes 18:25 Just on the other side of the hill. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:27 How do you go to sleep at night? What's that like?

Ash Dykes 18:29 Yeah, it was ... Luckily it was windy.... the wind would pick up at nighttime, so it'd rattle your tent so you couldn't hear the howling. You could only hear it during the day.

Joe Rogan 18:35 Oh, my God.

Ash Dykes 18:35 But yeah, you're still stood there, your knife's there, your torch is there. You're constantly shouting over to your buddy, like, "Are you okay?" And-

Joe Rogan 18:40 A- aren't you worried that you're just gonna become a burrito in the middle of the night?

Ash Dykes 18:42 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 18:43 A tent burrito.

Ash Dykes 18:45 It was scary. I felt vulnerable, really vulnerable up there.

Joe Rogan 18:48 Oh. Fuck, bro.

Ash Dykes 18:49 And the locals were-

Joe Rogan 18:49 How many days were you doing this, with the wolves?

Ash Dykes 18:52 S- uh, so it was two days that they were following us, but we were in sort of Wolf County, if you like, for the best part of two or three months, I would say.

Joe Rogan 18:59 Ugh.

Ash Dykes 19:00 With the bears as well. And the bears became an issue because I sort of went out there with a healthy mindset, "As long as I leave the bears alone, the bears are gonna leave me alone," right? But the locals were telling me otherwise. And they would start showing me photos, start showing me videos. Uh, and sending me clips saying, "This happened only one, two kilometers away from you are, from where you are now."

Joe Rogan 19:19 Where people were killed by bears?

Ash Dykes 19:20 People were killed just running into, um, huts, killing families.

Joe Rogan 19:24 Oh, geez.

Ash Dykes 19:24 And they were trying to say that they're coming off the mountains 'cause it's too cold. They're looking for calories before they go into hibernation. So we were there in the wrong season. Um, and it's that, that terrified us the most. It was the-

Joe Rogan 19:36 Wow.

Ash Dykes 19:36 ... stories of the locals. And, you know, if the locals panic, then you should definitely be panicking as well, I always say.

Joe Rogan 19:41 But there's a lot of parts of the world where you have to be really worried about wild animals all the time.

Ash Dykes 19:46 Yeah, I see.

Joe Rogan 19:47 We here in America-

Ash Dykes 19:48 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 19:48 ... for whatever reason, we've forgotten that. I think everybody that lives in a big city has basically kind of forgotten that.

Ash Dykes 19:54 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 19:55 But when you make that trek, you realize like, oh, there's no rules out here. They're, they'll eat you.

Ash Dykes 20:00 That's it.

Joe Rogan 20:01 They'll eat everything.

Ash Dykes 20:01 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:01 They'll eat a caribou, they'll eat a moose. Why wouldn't they eat you?

Ash Dykes 20:04 They don't care, yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:04 What do they think, you're special? They don't even know what the fuck you are.

Ash Dykes 20:07 Yeah, yeah, that's it.

Joe Rogan 20:08 It's probably the only thing that keeps you alive is they haven't eaten a person lately.

Ash Dykes 20:11 Yeah. And they take, like you said, caribou. They can take the bears big enough to just ta- car- caribou, like moose.

Joe Rogan 20:17 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 20:17 Moose are huge as well. Take down moose, don't they?

Joe Rogan 20:19 My friend watched a moose kill a-

Ash Dykes 20:22 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:22 ... or excuse me, watched a bear kill a moose on a spotting scope. He was looking through his spotting scope and he saw a bear swat down the back-

Ash Dykes 20:31 Whoa.

Joe Rogan 20:31 ... of a moose, just break its back.

Ash Dykes 20:32 Snap its back. Terrifying.

Joe Rogan 20:34 And it, he said the, the grizzly hit the moose so hard it snapped its back.

Ash Dykes 20:38 Geez.

Joe Rogan 20:39 I'm like, "What?"

Ash Dykes 20:40 The power, the sheer strength-

Joe Rogan 20:41 A moose-

Ash Dykes 20:42 ... in a bear. And they are big, aren't they? The, the moose are huge.

Joe Rogan 20:44 Moose are huge.

Ash Dykes 20:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:46 This bear swatted that thing and broke its back.

Ash Dykes 20:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 20:48 And he said he, he watched it go down. He watched this chase. There's like this altercation between this bear and the moose, and he stayed on it.

Ash Dykes 20:55 Wow.

Joe Rogan 20:55 And the bear gets ahold of the moose and just fucking swats it.

Ash Dykes 20:58 Wow. Terrifying.

Joe Rogan 20:58 The moose is like, "I gotta get the fuck outta here."

Ash Dykes 21:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:00 And the bear's like, "Bitch, you're going nowhere."

Ash Dykes 21:01 Yeah. (laughs) Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:03 (laughs) Yeah. Those animals are up there in China too.

Ash Dykes 21:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:05 They're ve- very similar type of bear, right? It's a type of brown bear, isn't it?

Ash Dykes 21:09 That's it, a type of brown bear, yeah. Slightly... You've got the big ones here, haven't you? The, the proper grizzlies-

Joe Rogan 21:13 Ooh.

Ash Dykes 21:13 ... in Alaska where they're the biggest, aren't they?

Joe Rogan 21:13 Not here. Well, they killed them all in California. Everything that they had-

Ash Dykes 21:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:17 ... that was here in Californ- it's on our f- our flag. It's our state flag.

Ash Dykes 21:21 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 21:21 If you look at the California state flag-

Ash Dykes 21:22 Right.

Joe Rogan 21:22 ... there's a giant grizzly bear in the middle of the California state flag.

Ash Dykes 21:25 No way.

Joe Rogan 21:26 Yeah, because it used to be an issue here.

Ash Dykes 21:27 Got you.

Joe Rogan 21:28 They killed so many people that we just killed all the bears. Not we, I wasn't here.

Ash Dykes 21:31 Got you, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:33 But yeah.

Ash Dykes 21:33 Wow. B- I didn't know that. Yeah. So they're further north now, are they?

Joe Rogan 21:36 So yeah, there's a ... That's it right there. Yeah, they're-

Ash Dykes 21:38 There you go, yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:39 They're nowhere near here. You gotta go up into, like, Vancouver. British Columbia has them.

Ash Dykes 21:44 Towards the Rockies?

Joe Rogan 21:44 British Columbia has a lot of bears.

Ash Dykes 21:46 Got you, yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:46 They have, uh, Montana has them. Montana has grizzlies.

Ash Dykes 21:49 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 21:49 Wyoming has grizzlies. Colorado may or may not. My friend Adam saw them there.

Ash Dykes 21:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:53 But, uh, they're not in California anymore. And it's just because they killed them.

Ash Dykes 21:56 Geez.

Joe Rogan 21:56 There's actually a town named after the last guy who died.

Ash Dykes 21:58 Oh, really? Yeah.

Joe Rogan 21:59 La- Le Veque, California. The last guy who got killed by a grizzly bear.

Ash Dykes 22:03 Just out, out hunting was it, or ...

Joe Rogan 22:04 Just probably being a dude that was alive back then.

Ash Dykes 22:07 Geez.

Joe Rogan 22:07 (laughs)

Ash Dykes 22:07 Yeah, man. Terrifying.

Joe Rogan 22:09 So you experienced this in China. You're, you're-

Ash Dykes 22:11 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 22:12 What are, what are your precautions? Are you allowed to bring bear spray?

Ash Dykes 22:15 So we had an air horn, we had a whistle. That's, that's-

Joe Rogan 22:19 Oh, Jesus. A whistle?

Ash Dykes 22:20 A whistle, yeah. So they say that the mo- the biggest attacks happen from where a Tibetan's out farming, doing their business in the mountains. They, they, they're in the forest and they surprise. They come up the top of the hill.

Joe Rogan 22:31 Right.

Ash Dykes 22:31 There's a bear there. And obviously the bear's shocked, it's scared, and it just attacks.

Joe Rogan 22:35 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 22:35 You know, 'cause-

Joe Rogan 22:36 That does happen with bears in America as well.

Ash Dykes 22:37 That's it, yeah. So they were saying pretty much take a whistle, take an air horn, make yourself aware, well, w- make the bear aware that you're, that you're present, you're approaching.

Joe Rogan 22:46 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 22:46 And normally they would be s- they would, you know, scare off, they'd run away. But there was a local that told me that, so they have these big Tibetan mastiffs. Have you seen the Tibetan mastiffs, like the-

Joe Rogan 22:54 Yes.

Ash Dykes 22:54 ... the dogs that guard the, the livestock?

Joe Rogan 22:56 200 plus pounds, they're huge.

Ash Dykes 22:57 Terrifying. More of a problem than the, the wolves they were for me, um, 'cause they can scare away the wolves, they scare away snow leopards, the bears. But this one local was telling me that he wasn't living in his ger, which is like a white felt tent, like a, a yurt. He was living in a concrete hut and he had a courtyard with a fence. The fence was open, but just outside the fence is a Tibetan mastiff chained up. And he said that this bear wasn't phased about the Tibetan mastiff. It walked straight past it into the courtyard and was scratching at his steel door whilst he was hiding in one of his empty cupboards. And it lasted about 30, 40 minutes when he was telling me this story.

Joe Rogan 23:32 Oh.

Ash Dykes 23:33 And I'm like, "I'm in a tent."

Joe Rogan 23:35 Oh my God.

Ash Dykes 23:35 And it's scratching against this steel door while I'm just in a tent in the wilderness.

Joe Rogan 23:39 Fuck, man. They're monsters.

Ash Dykes 23:40 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:40 If they weren't a real thing, if grizzly bears or brown bears weren't real-

Ash Dykes 23:44 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 23:45 ... and then they were in a movie, you'd be like, "What?"

Ash Dykes 23:47 Yeah, you would.

Joe Rogan 23:47 "Imagine, that poor guy." And imagine you, you, like, you, someone would ask someone like you, like, "Why in the world-"

Ash Dykes 23:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:54 ... if you know they're there, would you gonna, wanna walk-

Ash Dykes 23:58 Mm.

Joe Rogan 23:58 ... for that long-"

Ash Dykes 23:59 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 23:59 "... in bear country?"

Ash Dykes 24:01 Yeah. Well, that's, that's it. That's part-

Joe Rogan 24:02 How many people were with you?

Ash Dykes 24:04 Um, towards the start, so it was myself, it was two guides that I had, Tibetan guides. So we couldn't even communicate.

Joe Rogan 24:10 Oh.

Ash Dykes 24:11 Um, but safety in numbers. Um, we took a horse for the film crew, but the film crew got altitude sickness and left us with the horse, which I, I named Kasta Choy. Have you ever seen the movie Face Off?

Joe Rogan 24:22 Yes.

Ash Dykes 24:23 ... the, the badass, Castor Choi. I've got-

Joe Rogan 24:25 Oh, that's hilarious.

Ash Dykes 24:26 I've got this thing where I name, like, my bicycles or, like, carried a chicken, we'll get to that, carried a chicken in Madagascar. And I've been giving them old, crazy, ridiculous granny names. And I was like, "This horse is the last one standing," whilst my, my crew, my, my guides are suffering with altitude sickness and, and being taken off the mountains. You've got this horse still suffering with altitude sickness, never knew that, but apparently horses can... Animals can suffer with altitude sickness. But he's there like a badass, still going. So it's just me and him and I'm like, "Um, can't give you a granny's name like Elder or Dot or Gertrude."

Joe Rogan 24:56 (laughs)

Ash Dykes 24:56 "I'm giving you Castor Choi." (laughs)

Joe Rogan 24:58 From Face/Off.

Ash Dykes 24:59 From Face/Off-

Joe Rogan 24:59 That's hilarious.

Ash Dykes 25:00 ... yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:01 We've made fun of that movie multiple times.

Ash Dykes 25:03 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 25:03 Like, the preposterous nature of switching faces.

Ash Dykes 25:06 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 25:06 You look exactly like Nicholas Cage now. (laughs)

Ash Dykes 25:10 (laughs) Man.

Joe Rogan 25:11 So these people come with you in the beginning and then-

Ash Dykes 25:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 25:14 ... do they stay with you the entire trip?

Ash Dykes 25:16 Yeah, we, we hope so. Uh, no, sorry. So it'd be... So the first two guides that I had got altitude sickness as well as the film crew. I came off the mountains, uh, I found two new guides who were willing to, to join me. About 50% now of the UK team and the China team were saying, you know, "Abandon the expedition, start against, uh, start again next year because-"

Joe Rogan 25:36 Start again?

Ash Dykes 25:37 So yeah. Try again next year 'cause it was getting too close into-

Joe Rogan 25:39 How, how-

Ash Dykes 25:39 ... winter season.

Joe Rogan 25:40 ... how many days had you already walked?

Ash Dykes 25:42 We hadn't reached the start point yet.

Joe Rogan 25:44 Oh.

Ash Dykes 25:44 So we had tr- we... I think it was four days it took for us to get to the start point, but just before we reached the start point, that's when the film crew got altitude sickness. We sent them home, and then the next day, my guide, he was vomiting, he had a nosebleed. We had to get him off the mountains too, so we left the horse with some local nomads, got him off the mountains, regrouped with a different team, and tried again. So our first-

Joe Rogan 26:06 Oh.

Ash Dykes 26:06 ... attempt towards the source was a, was a fail. Um, we regrouped. It was myself, it was two guides, it was the horse, and we eventually finally made it to the source.

Joe Rogan 26:16 Wow.

Ash Dykes 26:17 It was just be- it was on that, that gap in a nearby city of regrouping with a new team, uh, with new guides that my team in the UK and, and China were, like, saying, "I think it's best if you, if you hold back and we try again, uh, next year 'cause you'll be in the ma- in the Tibetan Plateau during the depths, uh, the, the depths of winter, which drops to about -30, -40 degrees Celsius, which was a worry." Um, but I believed that we could get off the mountains, it was the altitude that was the problem, down into lower altitude before the depths of winter.

Joe Rogan 26:47 And for people who don't know the conversion, I think that's where it meets in the middle, at -40 is where Celsius and Fahrenheit is the same.

Ash Dykes 26:55 Right. Okay.

Joe Rogan 26:56 So, so people in this country use Fahrenheit. A lot of us-

Ash Dykes 26:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 26:58 You say Celsius, we're like, "Um, what?"

Ash Dykes 27:00 Yeah, -40 degrees Celsius. Yeah, so it's-

Joe Rogan 27:02 I think -40 and -40 Fahrenheit are the same.

Ash Dykes 27:04 Oh, yeah, really?

Joe Rogan 27:05 I think that's, I think that's where it hits the button.

Ash Dykes 27:07 Got ya.

Joe Rogan 27:07 What does it say there, Jamie?

Ash Dykes 27:08 So minus...

Joe Rogan 27:10 -22 Celsius, -22 Fahrenheit? You're right. Go to -40.

Ash Dykes 27:13 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:13 I think -40 is right where it is. No, not -40. Yeah, yeah, see? That's-

Ash Dykes 27:19 Got you. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:20 That's where it's exactly the same in Celsius and Fahrenheit.

Ash Dykes 27:23 There we are. Minus-

Joe Rogan 27:24 It's a weird thing, right?

Ash Dykes 27:25 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:25 It's like how the fuck does that happen?

Ash Dykes 27:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:27 How is it the same thing?

Ash Dykes 27:27 Mm.

Joe Rogan 27:28 Like, you're never the same thing.

Ash Dykes 27:29 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:29 Like, how you become the same thing? Like, who's got the wonky system-

Ash Dykes 27:32 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 27:32 ... is that -14, or -40 it becomes the same?

Ash Dykes 27:36 There we go.

Joe Rogan 27:36 Very weird.

Ash Dykes 27:37 -40 Fahrenheit, yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:39 Right, because it showed, like, 40 Celsius is very hot, right?

Ash Dykes 27:44 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:44 It's like 100 plus degrees, right?

Ash Dykes 27:46 Oh, yeah. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:47 But-

Ash Dykes 27:47 40 plus, 45, you're melting.

Joe Rogan 27:49 Right.

Ash Dykes 27:49 That's a struggle.

Joe Rogan 27:50 But -40 is the same.

Ash Dykes 27:51 Is the same, yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 27:52 What the fuck is going on here with... Who's got the wacky...

Ash Dykes 27:55 What's, what's 40 degrees Celsius in Fahrenheit, then? (laughs)

Joe Rogan 27:58 Um, four degrees Celsius is probably 100.

Ash Dykes 28:01 'Cause we will come to that.

Jamie Vernon 28:02 104.

Joe Rogan 28:03 What is it, 104?

Jamie Vernon 28:03 I'd say 104, yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:04 104.

Ash Dykes 28:04 104.

Joe Rogan 28:05 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 28:05 Oh, yeah. 104 Fahrenheit. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:06 Yeah, it's hot.

Ash Dykes 28:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 28:08 Weird.

Ash Dykes 28:09 Melting. Melting.

Joe Rogan 28:10 Now, what kind of gear are you guys, uh, taking with you in terms of, like, are you taking, uh, um, a Jetboil? Are you taking just matches? Are you hoping to find wood? Are you trying to stay light? Do you have a lightweight stove? Like, what are you-

Ash Dykes 28:24 Mm. So we took a, a lightweight stove along with us. We took flint with us as well. Uh, matches and a lighter. Um-

Joe Rogan 28:31 No, no, um, Jetboil or anything like that? 'Cause you wouldn't be able to refill them probably, right?

Ash Dykes 28:35 Yeah. What we had actually, we had a, uh, um, a bottle that connects to the stove, and with that bottle you can either fill it up with gasoline, but you can also use vodka or whiskey-

Joe Rogan 28:45 Really?

Ash Dykes 28:45 ... and you can run off the vapors. You get pumping up, uh, pump the bottle, the vapors leak out, sparks a flame, and you're good to go.

Joe Rogan 28:52 Really?

Ash Dykes 28:53 Yeah. So that's what I took, especially in Mongolia.

Joe Rogan 28:56 Oh, 'cause you can just get hammered everywhere.

Ash Dykes 28:57 Um, with the nomads. Get ha- your Russian, Russian vodka, uh, so you've always got access to-

Joe Rogan 28:59 Oh, that's wild. So you're drinking vodka just to... Like, people think you're a drunk. You're really just trying to stay alive out there in the wilderness.

Ash Dykes 29:06 Yeah, you're not drinking it and using it to fuel. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 29:07 How much does it, how much does it... Like, is it efficient? Like, you, the use of vodka? Like, how much vodka does it take to cook your meal?

Ash Dykes 29:14 Um, well, luckily I didn't, I didn't need to try it. That was just a precaution that we took.

Joe Rogan 29:18 Oh, okay.

Ash Dykes 29:18 I always carried enough gasoline with me because by using the, the vodka or the whiskey, um, it does ruin the stove.

Joe Rogan 29:27 Oh, I see, I see.

Ash Dykes 29:28 It, it, like, blocks the, the small hole that sparks the, sparks the flame-

Joe Rogan 29:32 Hmm.

Ash Dykes 29:32 Um, and you don't want that when you're in the middle of the wilderness.

Joe Rogan 29:35 Isn't that funny? You would think that, like, if anything, the gasoline would be more fucked up-

Ash Dykes 29:39 Yeah, you would. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:39 ... than the vodka. The vod-

Ash Dykes 29:40 That's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:42 (laughs)

Ash Dykes 29:42 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:42 It's probably because-

Ash Dykes 29:43 So, um-

Joe Rogan 29:43 ... it's not all alcohol, right?

Ash Dykes 29:45 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:45 There's a bunch of other shit in there.

Ash Dykes 29:47 For sure. It's gotta be. It's gotta be.

Joe Rogan 29:48 I bet if you had rubbing alcohol, like pure rubbing alcohol, it'd probably burn even better, right?

Ash Dykes 29:51 Yeah, potentially. Hey, you would've thought so.

Joe Rogan 29:53 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 29:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 29:54 This whole idea that you, you had, um, to do this-

Ash Dykes 29:58 Mm.

Joe Rogan 29:59 ... um, how much encouragement did you get from people that you told the story to and how many people were like, "You can't do this. You're gonna die up there"?

Ash Dykes 30:06 Uh, I'd say a, a healthy mix. For those who had seen the previous adventures that I'd done-They had a, um, they had hope. They held hope and-

Joe Rogan 30:15 They had faith in you.

Ash Dykes 30:16 Yeah, they had faith. "Come on, surely he's got this." They were like-

Joe Rogan 30:18 They knew you'd already accomplished two amazing things.

Ash Dykes 30:20 That's it. And it was never done recklessly. First, it was never really done for the record. There was always environmental angles, sustainability, awareness, et cetera. Um, but it's also the planning. So, it's no- n- I used to do really reckless stuff, we'll get to that, but now it's meticulous planning, it's the details. Looking at what can go wrong, but also learning how you can possibly overcome it-

Joe Rogan 30:41 I love a-

Ash Dykes 30:41 ... to make it back home.

Joe Rogan 30:42 ... a good cliffhanger. I'm glad we're gonna get to that.

Ash Dykes 30:44 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 30:44 Reckless stuff.

Ash Dykes 30:45 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:45 Let, let that sit for a second.

Ash Dykes 30:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:47 But when you're, um, walking, what kind of equipment are you using? Are you using a GPS? And if so, do you have, uh, solar panels that you're using to gather electricity?

Ash Dykes 30:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 30:57 Like, what are you... Is that what you're doing?

Ash Dykes 30:58 So, yeah. We would take solar panels. So we had solar panels, we had the, uh, a couple of power banks. So we'd use the solar panel to charge the power bank, and then that would charge, like, the, the GPS, the, um, the cameras, uh-

Joe Rogan 31:09 Can I ask you how you do that? Are you, are you putting it on the back of your backpack as you walk?

Ash Dykes 31:13 That's it, yeah.

Joe Rogan 31:14 Okay.

Ash Dykes 31:14 We would just strap it to the top of the rucksack.

Joe Rogan 31:16 Okay.

Ash Dykes 31:16 Um, and you know, it's... Mongolia especially is known as the Eternal Land of Blue Sky.

Joe Rogan 31:21 Mm-hmm.

Ash Dykes 31:22 Um, and where I was wasn't too far, so we did have a lot of blue sky with decent sunrays. I was able to charge the power bank, and that power bank could last up to about a week and a half of charging, depending on how I use it-

Joe Rogan 31:34 Really?

Ash Dykes 31:34 ... and when I'm charging.

Joe Rogan 31:35 S-

Ash Dykes 31:35 So it was really, really useful.

Joe Rogan 31:36 That's incredible.

Ash Dykes 31:37 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 31:37 So, when you're walking, like how, how much does it take to... Like, what is the milliampere hour in the-

Ash Dykes 31:42 So what is it? Um, I think, I think I studied it by how many charges I can get from the iPhone, so I think it was seven or eight or eight charges from 0% on the iPhone-

Joe Rogan 31:53 Mm-hmm.

Ash Dykes 31:54 ... to 100%. Seven to eight straight charges.

Joe Rogan 31:56 Okay.

Ash Dykes 31:57 Uh, and that sometimes requires quite a bit. Sometimes I was just charging the GoPro or the little satellite, um, satellite phone.

Joe Rogan 32:03 And you're able to get that full charge just from that solar panel in how long?

Ash Dykes 32:07 Just from the power bank, yeah. The solar panel would take a good while to charge up the, the power bank. So what I did is I took-

Joe Rogan 32:15 Like a good while, a couple of days?

Ash Dykes 32:16 I'd say a couple of, uh, a couple of days to get to 100%. Yeah, for sure, for sure. 25 to 30% per day I think it was.

Joe Rogan 32:23 That's interesting. So it seems like you could almost get everything you need just in while you're walking every day.

Ash Dykes 32:29 That's it, yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:30 Like, you're right there.

Ash Dykes 32:31 If the days are good, you know?

Joe Rogan 32:32 Right.

Ash Dykes 32:32 If we've got access to blue sky. But I took, um-

Joe Rogan 32:35 Does it work at all when it's cloudy?

Ash Dykes 32:37 It does, but painfully slow. Pa- Like, maybe after an hour you've bumped up a percent.

Joe Rogan 32:43 How crazy is the idea, though, of they're, them s- they're stealing energy out of the sky?

Ash Dykes 32:48 Amazing. Yeah, isn't it?

Joe Rogan 32:49 'Cause the sun, the energy of the sun-

Ash Dykes 32:51 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 32:51 ... is powering your phone.

Ash Dykes 32:52 That's it. That's it.

Joe Rogan 32:54 I'd wanna do it that way just to do it that way.

Ash Dykes 32:55 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 32:56 It just sounds so badass. (laughs)

Ash Dykes 32:57 Yeah, and that's there... Exactly, exactly. That's the way the world's moving as well, isn't it, really?

Joe Rogan 33:01 Y- yeah, the energy of the sun powering your phone. I mean, it just, uh, the world just needs more efficient, uh, ways to use solar-

Ash Dykes 33:07 Yeah, 100%.

Joe Rogan 33:07 ... and they're gonna get better at it, for sure.

Ash Dykes 33:09 Yeah, big time.

Joe Rogan 33:09 It's far better than it used to be.

Ash Dykes 33:10 Yeah. I was shocked to see it all over China as well, actually. With their phones and-

Joe Rogan 33:13 So, you... I, I would imagine, right?

Ash Dykes 33:15 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 33:15 There's a lot of rural places in particular that don't really have too much access to the grid.

Ash Dykes 33:19 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:20 So when you are, um, you're traveling around, you've got, uh, f- oh, do you... Are you using the phone as your GPS or do you have a standalone GPS unit?

Ash Dykes 33:28 So with China I was using, like, the, the GPS and that would keep me, it would, y-

Joe Rogan 33:34 Like a Garmin or something?

Ash Dykes 33:35 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:35 Is it more sophisticated?

Ash Dykes 33:35 I've got an in-, an InReach DeLorme.

Joe Rogan 33:37 InReach?

Ash Dykes 33:38 It was.

Joe Rogan 33:38 Okay.

Ash Dykes 33:38 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 33:38 Uh, that's the one you can communicate with people, right?

Ash Dykes 33:41 With that one you can send text only.

Joe Rogan 33:42 Right.

Ash Dykes 33:43 Yeah. But I did, I took a Navirino, um... (smacks lips)

Joe Rogan 33:46 Satellite phone?

Ash Dykes 33:47 ... sat phone.

Joe Rogan 33:48 Mm-hmm.

Ash Dykes 33:48 And that would allow for, for calls. And that got me out of a lot of, a lot of difficult situations many times.

Joe Rogan 33:54 Were you, were you ever in a situation where you're like, "I think these people are gonna rob us"?

Ash Dykes 33:59 Um, I was robbed in Mongolia, but in China, no. I wasn't-

Joe Rogan 34:03 You got robbed in Mongolia? What happened?

Ash Dykes 34:05 They stole my solar panel.

Joe Rogan 34:06 Really?

Ash Dykes 34:07 Uh, yeah, they did it so politely, so nicely. They just came over, they were visitors. I was just chilling with them, eating my ration pack, we... They brought some food and some tea over. Um, we were all sat out in the sun, and at one point they would have slid my solar panel under my tent, and I didn't see it. So when it came for me to pack everything back into my tent, which I did, I put my head down, fell asleep, and then I all of a su- f- uh, all of a sudden felt like, nudging on the tent, and something was yanked from underneath it. And I just shouted, "Hello." And then someone was just running away, and I thought, "Oh, maybe he came to say hi and I've just scared him off," not realizing. But then the next morning I realized the solar panel's missing, and then whilst I was trekking I clicked and thought, "Oh, okay, very clever."

Joe Rogan 34:47 Ah.

Ash Dykes 34:47 They'd hidden under the tent. Came back the ne- um, (smacks lips) few hours later at dark, took it from underneath and ran. So now-

Joe Rogan 34:54 So now what do you do without a fucking solar panel?

Ash Dykes 34:56 Um, yeah, what... I had a spare.

Joe Rogan 34:58 Oh.

Ash Dykes 34:58 'Cause at that point I took a trailer, and the trailer weighed about 120 kilograms of everything that I had in it, which is about 260 pounds. Uh, and so yeah, I... With that journey I made sure I had backups.

Joe Rogan 35:09 How are you moving the trailer?

Ash Dykes 35:12 So yeah, (laughs) so with Mongolia, it's just strapped with me. It's like a four-point harness.

Joe Rogan 35:17 What?

Ash Dykes 35:17 On wheels.

Joe Rogan 35:18 So you're not just walking 4,000 miles, you're walking 4,000 miles with 260 pounds behind you?

Ash Dykes 35:22 No, so, so this, this is a whole different expedition.

Joe Rogan 35:25 Oh.

Ash Dykes 35:25 Yeah, so this takes... I, I... When it came to robbing, there was nothing in China, so I went to Mongolia.

Joe Rogan 35:29 Okay, this is the, that's what... Okay.

Ash Dykes 35:31 So that's there. But in China, no. I had difficult situations with the authorities, with the police.

Joe Rogan 35:39 They were trying to get bribes?

Ash Dykes 35:40 No, they were just... I was in a sensitive area, you know, to get to the source... The planning, it took over two years, so I needed government support, I needed national park access, I needed, um, um, an, a green development foundation, which is like an organization, to make me ambassador, uh, to make me doctor for a year, to be able to get all of this access that when, when I went through the motions of getting these different organizations on board, that would give me access to the authorities and allow me to get to the source. It was, uh, it was mi- it was, blows my mind now. It was really, really difficult to get off the, off the ground, um, but we did that, but still, we were so close to Tibet that the Tibetan police would, would come over, uh, and threaten to, you know, get rid of us.

Joe Rogan 36:25 Oh.

Ash Dykes 36:25 ... uh, deporters and whatnot, so that came as a worry. But again, I carried 13 different documents, all stamped, all official, all signed. So I had to show them that. I had to use the satellite phone, call into the Beijing team, use as translation. Uh, I think that one time, they made me delete all of the information, all of the tracked information that I needed for Guinness World Record. They made me delete that, but luckily-

Joe Rogan 36:45 Why?

Ash Dykes 36:45 ... it was backed up, 'cause they didn't want to have me seen walking this region. It was quite sensitive there. So, but I was definitely in China and definitely in Qinghai Province. Um-

Joe Rogan 36:56 Sensitive how so?

Ash Dykes 36:57 Just because you've got Tibet and you've got China, and they're very close to each other. So I needed to make sure that I was always in, in China. But sometimes you'd get the police to come over too.

Joe Rogan 37:06 Did they think that you were a spy or something? Like, what did they think?

Ash Dykes 37:10 I had, yeah, no idea what they thought, but, uh, it came as a shock to them. They were also very worried for my safety. So there was that angle as well, that they were saying once they found out it was official, it was legit and they had apologized, they, they'd actually followed me on the, the Chinese social media, you know, followed the journey. So that was great. But after that, they did say, "We are just, you know, bringing you in for your protection. There's bears, there's wolves. We've not seen a Westerner out here in I don't know how long."

Joe Rogan 37:35 Oh, right.

Ash Dykes 37:35 So that got tricky, and there was one stage where they, they said, "Y- you need to be on the other side of the river." So they drove us 40 miles back on ourself to a bridge, dropped us off on the other side, and we had to do those 40 miles all over again. That was day six into the journey.

Joe Rogan 37:49 Wow.

Ash Dykes 37:49 And we were desperately trying to get off the mountains, and now we were just dropped back 40 ... We had to walk those 40 miles again. No way around it. Nightmare. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 37:57 Fuck, dude. Fuck.

Ash Dykes 38:00 So yeah, it was really tricky. The, the source around that area, really sensitive. And it was just ... Uh, and then we found that the locals would call the police as well. They would radio to the next ger, to the next ger, to the next ger, until eventually there was s- phone signal and they would call the police. And the police would often rock up at 2:00, 3:00 in the morning, just at our tent. They had the location bang on. They rocked up, like, "What are you doing here?" Um, so we found out that the locals were amazing, very hospitable, but they were worried and they didn't know if they'd seen a Westerner, do, do they report it? Would there be trouble if they don't report it? So they did. So it came... It pretty much went from Mission Yangtze to almost mission escape and evade. We had to escape this sensitive region that we were in, but we had to evade the locals 'cause we realized that it was them calling the, the police. That went on for about three weeks.

Joe Rogan 38:46 I would think they would maybe think that you were an escaped fugitive. Right?

Ash Dykes 38:49 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 38:50 'Cause if you think of a fugitive from America-

Ash Dykes 38:52 Could be.

Joe Rogan 38:52 ... or the UK is trying to get away.

Ash Dykes 38:54 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 38:55 Like, what better way to just jump into the middle of nowhere in China and walk?

Ash Dykes 38:59 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 38:59 I would think.

Ash Dykes 38:59 Yeah, that's it.

Joe Rogan 39:00 That's it.

Ash Dykes 39:00 Yeah, potentially. Or just, again, a threat from-

Joe Rogan 39:03 You look like you could be a fugitive.

Ash Dykes 39:04 (laughing) Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:04 You do.

Ash Dykes 39:04 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:05 You could, yeah, maybe some sort of bank robber type character.

Ash Dykes 39:07 I'd say. (laughs) That's it.

Joe Rogan 39:08 Like a Guy Ritchie movie.

Ash Dykes 39:09 There we go. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 39:10 (laughs) So y- you are, um, avoiding this sensitive area, so this-

Ash Dykes 39:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:15 ... sensitive area that's close to the Tibet and Chinese border.

Ash Dykes 39:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:17 Did you anticipate any of these things beforehand? Like, did you guys sit down with the team, like, when you were-

Ash Dykes 39:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:23 ... and you say, "Okay, this could go wrong, this could go wrong."

Ash Dykes 39:26 That's it. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:26 How many things did you figure could go wrong that didn't?

Ash Dykes 39:28 So many things that could have gone wrong that luckily didn't.

Joe Rogan 39:31 Like-

Ash Dykes 39:31 This was really sketchy. Um, just the Yangtze is just known, it cuts through a lot of diversity. It's a beautiful, stunning part, one of the beautiful places that I've been. But, you know, there are sensitivities. There is the, the el- elevation, there is the, the wildlife, there's the, uh, temperatures as well. And the Yangtze-

Joe Rogan 39:49 Did you ever see that video of, uh-

Ash Dykes 39:51 What's-

Joe Rogan 39:51 I don't know if the girl's from China or from Japan.

Ash Dykes 39:53 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 39:53 It's, uh, turned out to be fake. But she's, uh, snowboarding-

Ash Dykes 39:56 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 39:56 ... and behind her you see a bear running.

Ash Dykes 39:58 Yeah, I did see that video. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:00 Yeah. Is that possible? It's not ... The video's fake.

Ash Dykes 40:03 Where, where is that? In Japan, you said?

Joe Rogan 40:04 It's a good question.

Ash Dykes 40:05 China and Japan?

Joe Rogan 40:05 I'm not sure. I think it's Japan, isn't it?

Ash Dykes 40:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:07 Might be China.

Ash Dykes 40:07 I did see that.

Joe Rogan 40:08 They, they exist in Japan as well, right?

Ash Dykes 40:10 They do. I believe so.

Joe Rogan 40:12 Can you, uh ... Jamie, I'm sorry, I'm double Google asking you.

Ash Dykes 40:16 Yeah, bring that up if you can.

Joe Rogan 40:18 Can you ... Uh, yeah. It's a fun video to watch.

Ash Dykes 40:20 Mm-hmm. Terrifying. Imagine.

Joe Rogan 40:20 After that I wanna see a picture of that Yangtze running.

Ash Dykes 40:22 So she was oblivious. She looked back at her camera-

Joe Rogan 40:24 I don't think it's real.

Ash Dykes 40:25 ... and then she-

Joe Rogan 40:25 I don't think it's real. I think someone just did some cool shit with CGI, but it looks pretty good.

Ash Dykes 40:29 Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:29 It looks, uh, uh ... It looks like if it was in a movie, you'd be like, "Oh fuck, oh fuck."

Ash Dykes 40:33 Man.

Joe Rogan 40:33 Because the girl's got headphones on, she's just fucking-

Ash Dykes 40:36 Oh, terrifying. Terrifying.

Joe Rogan 40:36 ... rocking out.

Ash Dykes 40:37 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:37 Did you see this-

Ash Dykes 40:38 We shot a tiger as well recently. It was India. Just sprints across the road. I don't know how fast it was going, 30, 40 miles an hour.

Joe Rogan 40:43 See, here it is.

Ash Dykes 40:43 Here we go.

Joe Rogan 40:43 So it's really well-made, whoever did it. It's like she's got her GoPro.

Ash Dykes 40:48 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 40:48 It's on the ground. And then as she's going down the hill in her snowboard, at a certain point in time, you look and you see a fucking bear and she has no idea.

Ash Dykes 40:58 (laughing)

Joe Rogan 40:58 And she's laughing and everything's cool. And then watch, it turns to the side again.

Ash Dykes 41:03 No way.

Joe Rogan 41:03 Yeah. I think you see the bear more than once.

Ash Dykes 41:05 Oh, terrifying.

Joe Rogan 41:06 There it is.

Ash Dykes 41:06 I'm imagining.

Joe Rogan 41:07 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 41:07 What did you-

Joe Rogan 41:08 See, I-

Ash Dykes 41:08 What you ... Yeah, that's-

Joe Rogan 41:09 The second one is where I'm skeptical, because it seems like this ... Well, fuck, it looks pretty goddamn realistic.

Ash Dykes 41:16 It looks pretty damn good, doesn't it? That would be hard to do, being able to edit that.

Joe Rogan 41:19 Yeah, like the bear just gave up at that point.

Ash Dykes 41:21 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:21 Damn, that chick is flying. I have never snowboarded. From what I've heard from my friends, when you snowboard-

Ash Dykes 41:27 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:27 ... it's easier to break your head. (laughs) Like, 'cause they see your feet go up in the air and your head goes down.

Ash Dykes 41:33 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:33 It's easier to break your head. This girl doesn't even look like she's-

Ash Dykes 41:34 It's difficult actually to snowboard. I've tried, I've tried it.

Joe Rogan 41:37 It is supposed to be Japan. Supposed to be Japan? Yeah.

Ash Dykes 41:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:39 I don't go to sports.

Ash Dykes 41:39 I've got that tiger one. That tiger one, uh, is the one recent-

Joe Rogan 41:43 Oh.

Ash Dykes 41:43 It's from like a couple weeks ago.

Joe Rogan 41:43 Well, did you, did you ever see the one where the dude's ... I think he's in India.

Ash Dykes 41:47 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:47 And they're on a bike. Like, rrrr, like a motorbike.

Ash Dykes 41:49 That's the one I'm talking about.

Joe Rogan 41:50 And the tiger's chasing behind them.

Ash Dykes 41:51 The ... Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:52 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 41:52 Have you seen that?

Joe Rogan 41:52 Oh my God.

Ash Dykes 41:53 Oh, it's at the speed-

Joe Rogan 41:54 It almost gets him. It almost gets him.

Ash Dykes 41:56 That's ... Yeah, it does. That's definitely not edited, that's-

Joe Rogan 41:57 It's chasing him too.

Ash Dykes 41:58 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 41:59 Dude, that's-

Ash Dykes 42:00 Petrifying. That's-

Joe Rogan 42:01 That is fucking horrific.

Ash Dykes 42:03 Here we go.

Joe Rogan 42:03 Here it is. So these guys are on ... Look at this tiger-

Ash Dykes 42:06 Oh.

Joe Rogan 42:06 ... just going for it. Almost got him. Almost got him.

Ash Dykes 42:09 No way.Oh, man.

Joe Rogan 42:11 Right about then-

Ash Dykes 42:12 Imagine the-

Joe Rogan 42:12 ... that dude-

Ash Dykes 42:12 ... adrenaline right there.

Joe Rogan 42:14 ... is wishing he had the cash for a bigger engine. (imitates engine revving)

Ash Dykes 42:18 Geez.

Joe Rogan 42:18 Just right there, right there is when you... Oh, my God. What a killing machine. And s- so beautiful.

Ash Dykes 42:23 Amazing. Beautiful.

Joe Rogan 42:23 What a fucked up way to die from, like, the most beautiful thing nature's-

Ash Dykes 42:26 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:26 ... ever created.

Ash Dykes 42:27 Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 42:28 (laughs) Like, if a t- if a tiger wasn't, um, a murderous, hor- horrific predator that definitely eats people, you would look at it and go... It was in a movie, like Avatar or something like that. A tiger doesn't even look like a real creature.

Ash Dykes 42:39 That's it.

Joe Rogan 42:39 It's so beautiful.

Ash Dykes 42:40 They are stunning. They are beautiful creatures, aren't they?

Joe Rogan 42:42 Beautiful and spectacular and murderous.

Ash Dykes 42:45 And terrifying at the-

Joe Rogan 42:46 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 42:47 ... same time. Yeah. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 42:47 Chasing you on a moped.

Ash Dykes 42:48 Oh.

Joe Rogan 42:48 Wee!

Ash Dykes 42:48 The speed as well.

Joe Rogan 42:50 Oh.

Ash Dykes 42:50 Same with a bear. You think they're gonna be slow, but they can run, oh, man.

Joe Rogan 42:52 Oh, they run way faster than people.

Ash Dykes 42:54 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 42:54 They run faster than Usain Bolt.

Ash Dykes 42:55 Crazy about it, isn't it?

Joe Rogan 42:56 He can't even get away from a bear. And if he touches-

Ash Dykes 42:58 That weight as well.

Joe Rogan 42:58 ... you, all they need is one little ankle pick.

Ash Dykes 43:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:00 One little... Just kick that ankle. Woo!

Ash Dykes 43:02 Done. Done.

Joe Rogan 43:02 You go flying through the air.

Ash Dykes 43:03 That's it.

Joe Rogan 43:04 Headfirst.

Ash Dykes 43:05 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:05 They tear you apart. It's fucked up. There you go.

Ash Dykes 43:06 We came across bear footprints, and we believe that the bear footprints were fairly fresh. Maybe, maybe past our c- exact track that we were on in West China. About-

Joe Rogan 43:15 Show me with your hand how big it was.

Ash Dykes 43:17 Maybe about this big.

Joe Rogan 43:18 Oh, fuck. That.

Ash Dykes 43:18 Even got a picture actually on the Instagram.

Jamie Vernon 43:20 Check it out. One second.

Joe Rogan 43:20 That's big, dude.

Ash Dykes 43:21 You got a video, actually. Uh-

Jamie Vernon 43:23 Yep, yep.

Ash Dykes 43:23 Tibetan Mastiffs as well.

Joe Rogan 43:25 Oh, dude.

Ash Dykes 43:25 We got a T- Tibet Mastiff running up to me, trying to attack me.

Joe Rogan 43:28 Really?

Ash Dykes 43:28 And the guy just steps in, throws the stone. You don't see that bit, but the Tibetan Mast-... Uh, yeah, there you go.

Joe Rogan 43:34 Um, that's a pretty good size. That's-

Ash Dykes 43:38 That's-

Joe Rogan 43:38 That's not as big as I was thinking, but that's pretty big.

Ash Dykes 43:40 So that's its, its front paw, isn't it?

Joe Rogan 43:42 Yeah, I think.

Ash Dykes 43:43 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:44 I'm not a bear tracker.

Ash Dykes 43:44 And then it's, and then it's like the back paw is almost like a human footprint, isn't it?

Joe Rogan 43:48 Well, the big brown bears-

Ash Dykes 43:50 Mm-hmm.

Joe Rogan 43:50 ... they have... There's a photograph, a famous photograph of a woman-

Ash Dykes 43:53 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 43:53 ... who is a, uh... She's a wildlife biologist, and they had tagged this grizzly-

Ash Dykes 43:57 Right.

Joe Rogan 43:57 ... to like, to put a collar on it or find its location or something like that-

Ash Dykes 44:00 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:00 ... or maybe do a test on it. And she's holding its foot up, and it is literally like a huge dinner plate.

Ash Dykes 44:07 Whoa.

Joe Rogan 44:08 The foot's... So see if you can find that picture of, uh-

Ash Dykes 44:10 Uh, you know what I've s-

Joe Rogan 44:10 ... a biologist holds up-

Ash Dykes 44:12 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:12 What-

Ash Dykes 44:12 Yeah, I saw that one actually. It was a massive one. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:14 ... holds up grizzly's paw. Yeah.

Ash Dykes 44:15 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:15 It is fucking huge. It's-

Ash Dykes 44:16 And the claws on it.

Joe Rogan 44:17 Yeah, it's like as wide as my chest. That's what the, the bear's-

Ash Dykes 44:21 Wow.

Joe Rogan 44:21 ... foot looks like. And she's hold... Look at that.

Ash Dykes 44:22 There we go.

Joe Rogan 44:22 Look at that.

Ash Dykes 44:22 That's it.

Joe Rogan 44:23 Look at that.

Ash Dykes 44:23 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:23 Look at the fucking size (laughs) of that paw. It is-

Ash Dykes 44:25 You don't, you don't stand a, a chance, do you?

Joe Rogan 44:27 That's so crazy.

Ash Dykes 44:29 (laughs)

Joe Rogan 44:29 It's so crazy that nature created that.

Ash Dykes 44:32 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:32 Just a cleanup system for the fucking woods.

Ash Dykes 44:35 It's terrifying.

Joe Rogan 44:35 Anything with a limp-

Ash Dykes 44:36 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 44:36 ... anything that's sh- fucking around in places it shouldn't be, "You're having too many babies. Oh, I smell 'em. Coming to get 'em."

Ash Dykes 44:42 Done. Done.

Joe Rogan 44:43 Fuck.

Ash Dykes 44:44 I'm screwed here sometimes.

Joe Rogan 44:45 So y- here you are, and you're, you're out there with these things, and you just have a little tent and no weapons.

Ash Dykes 44:49 Little tent, yeah, and no weapons. Just had to stay-

Joe Rogan 44:51 And there's three of you. Three of you or four of you?

Ash Dykes 44:53 There was three for the first three weeks, and then there was two of us for four days. Then from then on, it was pretty much solo most of the way, um-

Joe Rogan 45:01 Oh.

Ash Dykes 45:01 ... for the first sort of half of the expedition. And then the second half was super interactive. Opened it up. People would join in, organized-

Joe Rogan 45:08 Oh, so people knew about it?

Ash Dykes 45:09 Yeah, it was pre-... It went pretty big in, in China. We would have journalists. We'd have Chinese celebrities. We'd-

Joe Rogan 45:14 And they'd walk with you?

Ash Dykes 45:15 And they would trek with us, yeah.

Joe Rogan 45:17 Ooh. That's weird.

Ash Dykes 45:17 We'd sometimes organize events where it'd be rock climbing, we'd be teaching them how to belay off the cliff and-

Joe Rogan 45:22 Were, like... Do they have Instagram in China?

Ash Dykes 45:25 No, so I had to get all of the different social media, uh, platforms for... There you go. That's pig's liver.

Joe Rogan 45:30 Whoa.

Ash Dykes 45:30 So they ma- marinate it in vodka and chili, and you blow it up.

Joe Rogan 45:34 And you're drinking it? No, you're blowing it up?

Ash Dykes 45:35 Blowing it up. That's pasha worm. So that's like a rare delicacy. You can eat it raw straight from the Yangtze River.

Joe Rogan 45:41 How sick did you get?

Jamie Vernon 45:42 Mm-hmm.

Ash Dykes 45:42 Yeah, I-

Joe Rogan 45:43 You had to have some serious stomach bugs going around, eating that stuff.

Ash Dykes 45:45 Yeah, I tell ya, over the past decade, I've eaten all sorts. The, the lot. So there's, like, the... Towards the east. So it was super interactive as well. It was-

Joe Rogan 45:53 So these kids all knew that you were doing this?

Ash Dykes 45:55 Yeah. Yeah. There's a news channel there as well.

Joe Rogan 45:58 Oh.

Ash Dykes 45:58 And we were creating a documentary.

Joe Rogan 46:00 Oh, that's pretty cool. And-

Ash Dykes 46:01 At one point, it got pretty-

Joe Rogan 46:02 ... good hospitality?

Ash Dykes 46:02 Yeah, amazing hospitality. They were so friendly. At one point, Adidas got wind of it, and they invited me out to launch... Do you know Jet Li?

Joe Rogan 46:09 Yes.

Ash Dykes 46:10 He had a, a co-branded range between himself and, and Adidas. So it was like a photo shoot, GQ, Adidas, and Jackie Huang, who's like a big movie star. Uh, and I just jumped at the chance. It was one day off, one day in, in Shanghai, then straight back into the wilderness. And that was crazy contrast. One minute in the wilderness, next minute, flying out to Shanghai. Got all of these stylists, makeup artists. Like, whoa. Photo shoot. Boof. Straight back.

Joe Rogan 46:33 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 46:33 And that was g-... They wanted, like, a face of the East to re- represent the, the brand but also a face from the West. So I came from nowhere. So it was great, you know. Lots of people started getting wind on it. A- again, I had to start, I think, eight to nine different social media channels in, in China 'cause they have their own platforms. They don't have Google. Instagram's banned YouTube, et cetera. So yeah, I had a great team, 100 Films in Beijing, who, who really helped support, set all of this up when we were translating and getting-

Joe Rogan 46:58 Was, was there a certain point in time though when these people going with you, they're like, "Hey, bro, I'm done. You're on your own"? And was that kinda weird, like when the crowds-

Ash Dykes 47:05 Yeah. Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:05 ... like, when they-

Ash Dykes 47:05 It was-

Joe Rogan 47:05 Now you're back to being yourself again?

Ash Dykes 47:07 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:07 By yourself again? In there?

Ash Dykes 47:09 That's it. It... The second half of the expedition, it was okay 'cause I was coming across many people. But the first half... Oh, man, the first half, it got quite difficult. Yeah. It was lonely at times. It was boring. Like, though hiking, I don't really... It sounds funny. I don't really particularly enjoy the, the hiking, the trekking-

Joe Rogan 47:23 (laughs)

Ash Dykes 47:23 ... the walking. I can get-

Joe Rogan 47:24 But that's what you chose to do for a whole year. (laughs)

Ash Dykes 47:25 I know. I know, right? That can get pretty boring. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 47:28 Well, if you eat porridge-

Ash Dykes 47:29 It's like-

Joe Rogan 47:29 ... every day, you're like, "I don't really like porridge."

Ash Dykes 47:31 That's it.

Joe Rogan 47:31 You know?

Ash Dykes 47:32 It's, it's actually, it's the survival, it's the challenges, and it's the people you meet along the way, you know?

Joe Rogan 47:36 So did you ever have a point where you had large groups of people, but then not?

Ash Dykes 47:40 Yeah, quite often.

Joe Rogan 47:41 Yeah?

Ash Dykes 47:41 I think the, the largest we had was about 35 or 40 people.

Joe Rogan 47:44 And then afterwards they went away?

Ash Dykes 47:46 Afterwards they went away. I was like-

Joe Rogan 47:47 And then you're by yourself again.

Ash Dykes 47:47 ... back, back on the grind, yeah, pushing forward.

Joe Rogan 47:49 That must, that must be the weird part.

Ash Dykes 47:50 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:50 When a bunch of people join in with you-

Ash Dykes 47:52 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 47:52 ... and then they're gone.

Ash Dykes 47:53 That's it.

Joe Rogan 47:54 And then you're just still trudging.

Ash Dykes 47:55 Yeah. And you've gotta, you know, keep going, get some-

Joe Rogan 47:57 And you're like, "Come on."

Ash Dykes 47:57 ... Joe Rogan podcast on the earphones, isn't it? Right? Come on. (laughs)

Joe Rogan 48:00 You're like, "There's only 290 days to go. Look on the bright side."

Ash Dykes 48:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 48:03 Tr-

Ash Dykes 48:04 That's it. And, and the first part was more so 'cause th- the second half, there was lots of people. It was very interactive. The first half, like, I had a UK photographer fly out, um, Martin Lyons, and he joined me. He was supposed to join me for two weeks, but there was a, a, a terrifying landslide pretty much w- was... It just blocked the way, and there was only two options to cross. And again, you know, this isn't his profession. That's not what he does. He's a photographer, so he's, he's come into my world and he's, you know, seeing these two options. Either one could go terribly wrong. You, you're dropping a hell of a distance and you're straight into the Yangtze River. So, he was supposed to join me for two weeks, but he ended up going back on day number one after six hours just 'cause the, the danger of trying to cross it. And so, that, for my mindset, having company for two weeks of a good friend of mine, as well, from the UK I could speak, I can converse and communicate with, to then having no one and back to my own in still-

Joe Rogan 48:53 Hmm.

Ash Dykes 48:53 ... in the wild side of, of China, still bears, still wolves, and I'm solo. So, that hit me hard. I was like, "Damn." I had to crack on-

Joe Rogan 48:58 Are you keeping a journal in your tent at night?

Ash Dykes 49:01 Yeah. I would actually stick to... I did on the previous expeditions. With this one, I stuck to voice memos 'cause it would capture my, my thoughts, my feelings, my emotions.

Joe Rogan 49:09 Hmm.

Ash Dykes 49:09 Um, and so I was cap- especially for the book, um, I was capturing as much as we possibly could.

Joe Rogan 49:13 And you're doing this with your phone?

Ash Dykes 49:15 Doing this with the phone, yeah.

Joe Rogan 49:16 Were you worried about dropping your phone and losing everything?

Ash Dykes 49:18 I was.

Joe Rogan 49:19 Fuck.

Ash Dykes 49:19 I was. I would try... Each city I came across, I just tried to back everything up.

Joe Rogan 49:23 Hmm. With Wi-Fi?

Ash Dykes 49:23 And especially with like the... Uh, yeah, when... Yeah, Wi-Fi.

Joe Rogan 49:27 What are you allowed to use over there? Do you have to use an Android phone on their system, uh, Chinese system?

Ash Dykes 49:31 No. No, we were okay. I just took my, my iPhone.

Joe Rogan 49:34 You were allowed to use an iPhone?

Ash Dykes 49:34 I was connected to all of their social, social media, of course. I had my own, like, bank account, transactions, all of that, with China, so I was very much on the system.

Joe Rogan 49:41 Right. You can't use Twitter or Instagram-

Ash Dykes 49:45 No, you can't.

Joe Rogan 49:45 ... over there?

Ash Dykes 49:45 You gotta get a VPN.

Joe Rogan 49:47 What is that? Oh, virtual private network.

Ash Dykes 49:48 That's it, yes. That-

Joe Rogan 49:49 So... But I thought it meant... Was, like, one of their apps. So, what are their apps that you're allowed to use? What's their social media apps?

Ash Dykes 49:54 So, they have, like, Weibo, which is kind of like an Instagram.

Joe Rogan 49:57 Okay.

Ash Dykes 49:58 They have a WeChat, which is kind of... WeChat's clever. It's kind of like a WhatsApp merged into Facebook.

Joe Rogan 50:03 So, are you having to translate all of their, their comments, like, when they write things?

Ash Dykes 50:08 Oh, when they write, yeah, I can. But sometimes there's just too many, you can't... You've got to get-

Joe Rogan 50:12 Right.

Ash Dykes 50:12 ... open it up, go on the VPN, open up the Google, translate it.

Joe Rogan 50:15 Right.

Ash Dykes 50:15 I would just send it to the team, and the team would actually do most of the posting for me.

Joe Rogan 50:19 Hmm.

Ash Dykes 50:19 I'd send it to, to the UK team to post on the international social media website.

Joe Rogan 50:23 Oh, so they-

Ash Dykes 50:24 Then the China team.

Joe Rogan 50:24 You can send them that post, and then they can put it on Instagram or Twitter?

Ash Dykes 50:27 That's it, yeah.

Joe Rogan 50:28 Facebook? Oh.

Ash Dykes 50:28 I would send them, like, a, a voice memo or a message of text, what to, what to say, give them an update.

Joe Rogan 50:32 Was there ever an issue with the Chinese government that you were doing that through a third party, that you were somehow or another getting the information out into the real internet?

Ash Dykes 50:39 Um, not so much. No, 'cause even the satellite that we had to carry, I carried like, a, a Navarino satellite, um, beacon system, if you like. And that, we had to register with the government, and he had to sign off, so they knew what I had with me.

Joe Rogan 50:51 Mm-hmm.

Ash Dykes 50:52 Uh, and it was with that satellite that I was able to send to the Beijing team. They would forward onto the UK team. And from there, we were able to make it one of the world's most interactive firsts.

Joe Rogan 51:01 Did they have any concern at all about you, you using the regular internet? Like, instead of just using the Chinese approved-

Ash Dykes 51:07 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 51:07 ... social media sites, that you were also using the other ones that were international?

Ash Dykes 51:10 That's it, using international and the, in-China, in-house ones.

Joe Rogan 51:14 Did they have, did they have an issue with that at all, the Chinese people?

Ash Dykes 51:16 No, not that I'm, uh, I'm aware of, no. A lot of the Chinese are also on Instagram as well.

Joe Rogan 51:20 Really?

Ash Dykes 51:21 Yeah. They get in-

Joe Rogan 51:22 How do they do that?

Ash Dykes 51:23 VPN.

Joe Rogan 51:24 Of course.

Ash Dykes 51:24 Yeah, so a lot of them still try to-

Joe Rogan 51:25 So, and the Chinese government tolerates that?

Ash Dykes 51:27 Yeah, I think there's a, a s- only a certain amount of lockdown that they can, they can have.

Joe Rogan 51:31 That's interesting.

Ash Dykes 51:32 Um, there's a lot of Chinese travelers as well, so they go to these foreign countries. They have-

Joe Rogan 51:36 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 51:36 ... you know, get the Instagram, the Twitter, the Facebook.

Joe Rogan 51:38 They get woke. They get woke-

Ash Dykes 51:39 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:39 ... when they go to foreign countries. So, that i- that's got to be weird using their government approved social media. Did it-

Ash Dykes 51:46 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 51:46 ... feel weird while you're using it?

Ash Dykes 51:47 Yeah. Y- You know, I got so used to it. I think there was 10 or 11 different social networks that I was on.

Joe Rogan 51:52 Really?

Ash Dykes 51:52 It was mainly my team sort- there was just too much, you know. I-

Joe Rogan 51:56 Do they have more over there than we do over here?

Ash Dykes 51:58 Yeah, I'd say so. Oh, and they're well-connected. Their phone is just like a- an extension.

Joe Rogan 52:02 Is it different?

Ash Dykes 52:02 Everything's... Um, in, in what way, you mean?

Joe Rogan 52:05 In terms of y- like, do they have different apps they use more often or different-

Ash Dykes 52:09 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 52:10 ... things in their phones that they use?

Ash Dykes 52:10 They have their own apps, so they have everything that we have, but converted. Just, just different-

Joe Rogan 52:15 Oh.

Ash Dykes 52:16 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 52:17 Now-

Ash Dykes 52:17 Like, we... Go on.

Joe Rogan 52:19 Look, we have an issue in this country with, um, w- with Huawei and a- a lot of these, uh, Chinese companies.

Ash Dykes 52:25 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 52:25 They, they... You can't even buy a Huawei phone anymore over in America.

Ash Dykes 52:29 Right.

Joe Rogan 52:29 But the ones that they sell over in China are super sophisticated.

Ash Dykes 52:32 Yeah, that's it.

Joe Rogan 52:33 They're, they're like the top-of-the-food-chain phones right now.

Ash Dykes 52:35 Yeah, big time. Big time. And the cameras as well.

Joe Rogan 52:37 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 52:37 They're great 'cause that's what all of the Chinese love as well, to be able to take good photos, good videos. Um, and that is just an instant sell with the camera that's come with that phone.

Joe Rogan 52:46 Yeah, they blocked them from Google, though. This is where it gets really interesting with me.

Ash Dykes 52:50 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 52:50 It's why I'm asking. Google no longer lets them use Google apps.

Ash Dykes 52:53 That's it.

Joe Rogan 52:54 So, you can't use the Google Play Store.

Ash Dykes 52:55 No.

Joe Rogan 52:55 So, you have to either sideload apps, you could sideload some apps, or you have to get the Huawei version of these apps.

Ash Dykes 53:03 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:03 So, I'm like, I wonder if what ha- like, from the United States trying to stop them from taking over-

Ash Dykes 53:10 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 53:10 ... and they're worried that it's a branch of the government and they're gonna get their hands in all these different enterprises and businesses-

Ash Dykes 53:17 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:17 ... and they'll be able to spy on everything and extract information because they can-

Ash Dykes 53:20 Hmm.

Joe Rogan 53:20 ... do that with their Huawei devices.

Ash Dykes 53:21 I think that's how it... Yeah.

Joe Rogan 53:22 But it's interesting that... I wonder if leaving them out of the system will make them create a system that's better and they don't even need our system anymore. It's almost better to, like-

Ash Dykes 53:33 Yeah. Do you know what? I think that's the way it's going. You know, you, they don't have Google, but they have Baidu. Baidu's just like Google.

Joe Rogan 53:39 But they can control it more.

Ash Dykes 53:40 They won't have Wikipedia. They'll have whatever their version is-

Joe Rogan 53:42 Right.

Ash Dykes 53:43 ... of, of Wikipedia.

Joe Rogan 53:44 But it's all government-controlled-

Ash Dykes 53:46 It's... That's it.

Joe Rogan 53:46 ... information now.

Ash Dykes 53:47 They got so many good a- they g- I think they've got an app as well, like a delivery app, where if the guy is, like, one minute late, you can throw a complaint in and then it's free delivery. Costs pennies as it is anyway.

Joe Rogan 53:58 (laughs) One minute?

Ash Dykes 53:58 Yeah. So, sometimes they'll, "Oh, I'm gonna be one, a minute late. Is it okay? Can you not pho- phone in?" 'Cause he won't get paid then.

Joe Rogan 54:03 Oh, wow.

Ash Dykes 54:04 It's, um-

Joe Rogan 54:05 Ruthless.

Ash Dykes 54:05 ... deadline. Yeah. And, like, even the bullet trains, they're so advanced. The bullet trains are like, leaving on the second, let alone the minute, couple of seconds before the minute, if anything. Uh, they're just so sufficient. And you see that there, everything's in-house. They got things cogging over there. Everything's made in China. They, uh, it's almost like they don't need the rest of the world. That's the scary thing, you know? It's, uh, it's real... But it's, again, a pleasant place to be. Um-... I had my, I had my friend, Martin Berrington, who's here as well, say that ... 'cause he joined me on Mission Yangtze and he had this idea that maybe it might be a little bit more suppressed. And when he joined me, it was like, "Wow, everyone's happy. Everyone's doing their Tai Chi, dancing. Everyone's active."

Joe Rogan 54:41 Really?

Ash Dykes 54:41 There's a strong sense of community.

Joe Rogan 54:43 And what part of the, what part of China was this?

Ash Dykes 54:45 All over.

Joe Rogan 54:46 All over?

Ash Dykes 54:46 Yeah, all over.

Joe Rogan 54:47 So, so do you think that we, in America, have a misconception of what it's like to be Chinese?

Ash Dykes 54:50 Yeah, yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:51 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 54:51 Not, not just in the US. UK as well.

Joe Rogan 54:53 Everyone.

Ash Dykes 54:54 I think, I, I think most countries, yeah.

Joe Rogan 54:56 Do you think it's because we don't communicate? Or because their language is so different, th- they-

Ash Dykes 55:00 Mm.

Joe Rogan 55:00 ... it seems so different because they're, you know, they're all the way over there? Like, what is it?

Ash Dykes 55:04 Yeah, I think it's just because it's so locked off, isn't it?

Joe Rogan 55:07 Uh-huh.

Ash Dykes 55:07 You know? It's they're locked off the grid. They don't really shout about what they're doing. Like, right now, the, the, like we were saying before, the amount of solar panels, wind farms. They sent, like, I think 19,000 soldiers out to plant trees. But all of that, they're not shouting to get attention. They're just doing it.

Joe Rogan 55:22 Mm.

Ash Dykes 55:22 Uh, and so I sometimes see that. "Oh, China aren't doing enough." But on the inside, when I'm over in China, I see it all, you know. Like, "Whoa, we didn't know about this."

Joe Rogan 55:29 Mm-hmm.

Ash Dykes 55:30 So, I, I, you know, I'm to, to blame as well. Before I went to China, I thought maybe it's gonna be the same. But that's why I go to these places, you know, really get out there, explore its interior, meet the people of the country. And, uh, yeah, it's a pleasant place to be, for sure.

Joe Rogan 55:43 That's pretty badass, man, to get a totally different view of, uh, a country than what most people do.

Ash Dykes 55:48 Mm.

Joe Rogan 55:49 And to, to do it for a full year. Do you think that's gonna be a place you'll go back and visit now?

Ash Dykes 55:53 Yeah, 100%. I think it, it took off so well and had such immense support there, that, uh, it'd be a shame not to, to continue it. So I will be going back. You know, there're me and the teams out there already, uh, looking at next ideas and, yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:07 I'm sure you are.

Ash Dykes 56:08 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 56:08 So that, is that how it works? Like, how much time do you take when you're done walking for a year? How much time do you take before you go, "Okay, now what?"

Ash Dykes 56:15 Barely, you barely note. So as soon as I got back from Mission Yangtze, I had an, an Asia tour, so I was straight back out there. Korea, Singapore, uh, Myanmar, and back out to China doing lectures. I've been out there four times already. It's gonna be aired on CCTV, the documentary. And yeah, I'm just at TEDx talks as well. So I'm al- I've been back four or five times already since I finished only four or five months ago.

Joe Rogan 56:37 Wow.

Ash Dykes 56:38 So it's every month I'm pretty much back out there.

Joe Rogan 56:40 When did you do the first one? W- the first one ... Was the first one Mongolia?

Ash Dykes 56:44 So the first, yeah, was Mongolia. That was 2013, 2013.

Joe Rogan 56:49 And how long did that take?

Ash Dykes 56:51 That took 78 days. So it all, so it all pretty much started, you know, living in, in Wales there, you know. I went from high school, I went on to college to do an outdoor education course. Uh, I was working various different ... So my first job, what was it? 14, 15? Fish and chip shop, $4 an hour, you know, grinding away. And then I went into waiting on, then I went into lifeguarding 'cause I heard that the lifeguarding money, for a young teenager, well, 16, 17 is pretty well paid. And then it was from there that I started to save up as much money as I can. Got rid of my little, um, jalopy of a car, bought myself a little bicycle, cycled to and from work just saving the pennies, and eventually left at age 19. And the first place I went was China, uh, Great Wall. I was only there for two weeks. I left China. When I look back on the map, I thought, "China's a big place. I've barely even touched the surface, you know. I need to get myself back there." But after that, it was just various reckless, l- extremely low budget adventures held around Southeast Asia. When I say low budget, it's like buying a bicycle for $10, finding string on the side of the road that we would use to strap the rucksack onto the back with. No pump, no pu- no puncture repair kit, and we're about to cycle over Cambodia-

Joe Rogan 58:00 What?

Ash Dykes 58:00 ... Vietnam, over 1100 miles.

Joe Rogan 58:02 Why wouldn't you get a puncture repair kit?

Ash Dykes 58:04 No map. Just saving the pennies. We actually got a tent that was about-

Joe Rogan 58:06 Oh, my God.

Ash Dykes 58:06 I know, man. Uh, we got a tent that was $5. Found out the hard way it wasn't waterproof. Just reckless l- silly things.

Joe Rogan 58:13 You made it on the bike, though?

Ash Dykes 58:15 Made it. The bikes broke-

Joe Rogan 58:15 No punctures?

Ash Dykes 58:16 ... 17 times in total. I was with my friend, Matt Norman, you know, both ... I, I named mine Little Elder. Uh, ridiculous. And I think the bike's maybe on my Instagram. Ridiculous little bicycle. Basket on the front, a little pink bell. Off we went, both of us. Uh, bikes broke 17 times in total.

Joe Rogan 58:32 How'd you get them fixed?

Ash Dykes 58:34 We would rock up at, at local, at the locals' and just rock up, see if they can help, and they would fix it. Really hospitable. Um-

Joe Rogan 58:40 Did somebody have to translate to you then? Were ... Did, did you have a translator with you?

Ash Dykes 58:44 No.

Joe Rogan 58:44 No.

Ash Dykes 58:45 So we were just out there. We were just, you know, rock up with a smile. I think smiling is the biggest, um, communication sign, isn't it?

Joe Rogan 58:52 Sure, sure.

Ash Dykes 58:52 They don't see you as a, as a threat. The barriers are down. I'd point at the problem and then they would help me, help me fix it.

Joe Rogan 58:56 Right. If you walk in like a dick with a flat tire-

Ash Dykes 58:59 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 58:59 ... that's not good. (laughs)

Ash Dykes 59:00 Yeah, that's it. Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we'd just r- rock up, they would sort us out.

Joe Rogan 59:04 Wow.

Ash Dykes 59:04 We'd be chased by dogs, hit by mopeds, dodged by lorries. So that was the first away-from-home adventure. I'd say that that was the catalyst.

Joe Rogan 59:12 You said dodged by lorries?

Ash Dykes 59:14 Yeah.

Joe Rogan 59:14 What does that mean?

Ash Dykes 59:15 That the roads were extremely sketchy.

Joe Rogan 59:18 Oh, okay. Okay.

Ash Dykes 59:18 Enough only to-

Joe Rogan 59:19 I had to translate that.

Ash Dykes 59:20 And they would be r- you know, like, coming straight down the, uh-

Joe Rogan 59:22 Oh.

Ash Dykes 59:23 ... at the mountain pass.

Joe Rogan 59:24 Oh.

Ash Dykes 59:25 And the horse on the brakes w- weren't working properly and we're squeezing and it's going past us. We're like, "We need to get off this road, man."

Joe Rogan 59:30 Oh, geez.

Ash Dykes 59:30 We're panicking, trying to get cycle faster. And, but that ... You know, after that, we just found my niche, found my passion. Thought, "Wow, this is great. It's cheap, it's reckless." But after that, we were in Thailand. We hooked up with a local guy that said we can cross the border into Myanmar, uh, to a community that's like a, a Burmese hill tribe and we can learn jungle survival. So we did. We went there and it's this group, um, living out there in the mountainous jungle region, um, on the border of Tibet and Myanmar. They were teaching us berries that act as a mosquito repellent. Like, you can pop them, rope them in your skin, it'll repel the mosquitoes. Teachings, teachings how to hunt, uh, how to gather, uh, what berries or what leaves were edible, what plants weren't edible. Uh, how to build rafts and shelters using natural resources. You know, normally bamboo, banana leaves as a bed, or as a slanted shelter to, for the rainwater to run off. It was amazing. We just continued these s- sort of adventures around Southeast Asia. Hopped over to Australia.... found some work as an Australia Power and Gas, I think it was, uh, knocking on people's doors. I thought, "This isn't me. This is wha- not what I'm traveling for. I'm in a suit now and," you know. Um, I remember I was shadowing a, my boss. We walked up to this drive and there was this guy at the end of the drive doing all of these pull-ups. At that point, I'd become quite unhealthy, put a bit more weight on. I wasn't sticking to the training, I wasn't sticking to a, to a good diet. And he jumped down, he wasn't interested in the Australia Power and Gas, but he mentioned something like, "Yeah, I respect you guys out here, 40 plus degrees Celsius, 108 Fahrenheit, um, knocking on people's doors in your suits trying to sell them a good deal." And one of them, my boss replied something cringe-worthy. He said something like, "Yeah, but we get paid a lot of this. You know, I drive a Skyline." So unnecessary. And the guy replied, the guy who was doing the pull-ups, "It's not all about the money, it's the lifestyle too." And all of a sudden that was a slap in the face for me, that's why I started to travel. So the next day, I quit the job, got myself a little bike with my friend again, and we just carried on, cycled, uh-

Joe Rogan 1:01:29 So you think by your-

Ash Dykes 1:01:30 ... southern Australia.

Joe Rogan 1:01:30 ... your boss saying something douchey, that sort of leaned you in the right direction?

Ash Dykes 1:01:34 Yeah. I was th- I was thinking for a while, "This isn't, this isn't me." You know?

Joe Rogan 1:01:37 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 1:01:37 "This isn't..." You know?

Joe Rogan 1:01:38 It's foolish.

Ash Dykes 1:01:40 Yeah. Yeah. I was doing something that it wasn't, wasn't in my-

Joe Rogan 1:01:44 Right, right.

Ash Dykes 1:01:44 You know?

Joe Rogan 1:01:44 But his behavior is foolish.

Ash Dykes 1:01:45 Yeah. Oh, and knowing his behavior, that was the sort of-

Joe Rogan 1:01:48 Yeah.

Ash Dykes 1:01:48 'Cause I was looking at this guy, and I was like, "I'm not stood on his side."

Joe Rogan 1:01:50 Mm-hmm.

Ash Dykes 1:01:51 "I'm stood with my... This is the way that I'm going, this is my boss."

Joe Rogan 1:01:54 Right.

Ash Dykes 1:01:54 And he would eat, like, fast food every single morning, you