After successfully completing a 400-plus-mile extreme journey down the Sangha River in the Congo River Basin in an inflatable kayak, Ash Dykes is ready to continue with his "Project 6," in which he plans to complete six back-to-back intense expeditions.
He's been teasing his fans ever since he got back from the Democratic Republic of Congo and finally revealed the second location and how he plans to get around in an Instagram post. He'll try to cross Kyrgyzstan by trekking through the frozen mountains on horseback, but there's a catch: He has only a few hours on horseback under his belt.
With plans to start the new expedition on Nov. 14, the 36-year-old explorer will swap the threat of hippos, crocodiles and malaria for temperatures that drop
below 30 degrees Celsius and navigate remote mountain passes through wolf territory, all while learning to ride along the way.
Dykes's viral expedition along the Sangha River brought him newfound attention that he couldn't get on television alone.
In an interview with USA TODAY, he said he'd broken multiple world records on channels like the BBC, Discovery Channel and National Geographic, but those channels were inaccessible to many of his British fans, so he decided to bet on himself and start posting his journeys on social media.
That gamble quickly paid off as he amassed over 100 million views on teaser videos in the week leading up to his Congo River Basin trip alone. Additionally, at the end of September, he had fewer than 1 million followers across social media platforms, but now he's accumulated over 8 million.
"I've always loved going off the grid, pushing myself into some of the world's most extreme and remote environments, and Kyrgyzstan is going to test me in a completely different way," Dykes says in a press release shared with USA TODAY.
He continued, "Having only just returned from the heat and humidity of the Congo Basin, my body has barely had time to recover, let alone prepare for the brutal cold and physical demands of spending two to three weeks in the saddle. But that's exactly what Project 6 is about. Six completely different environments, six enormous challenges and very little time to adapt between them."
Dykes has learned many lessons that he'll carry with him on this new journey, he told USA TODAY, including bringing more power so he doesn't lose internet again for 16 hours, finding a way for his videographer and editor, Will, to be pulled out from the expedition and brought to the nearest village for him and then dropped back off with him because capturing and editing content is already demanding enough and finding creative ways to make the videos he posts more engaging and exciting.
"I'm bringing everything I've learned from years of exploring some of the world's toughest environments," Dykes said in the press release. "I'm not going there to simply follow someone else's path. I want to explore, challenge myself, and learn everything I can along the way."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ash Dykes reveals second 'Project 6' expedition – with a bonechilling twist
