A near death experience on a trip to Kyrgyzstan turned Tim Moss into a challenge seeker: “It was an experience we really enjoyed and it opened my eyes to do all the stupid things that followed,” Tim said. During a food-poisoning delirium, Tim had one of his most famous adventures - travelling around the world in 80 ways.
The first challenge was a mountaineering trip to Bolivia, with his mate Thom. They didn’t reach any mountaintops, but had a great deal of fun trying to.
Starting in London on a human powered hovercraft, Tim confesses: “We didn’t go very far because it was only a prototype and didn’t work very well.”
In a wheelbarrow they carried each other throughout Central London. Reaching the south coast of England, they then took a hovercraft towards the Isle of Wight. The target was Asia.
Their aim was to visit different continents without using the same form of locomotion more than once. They weren’t restricted to this rule, but took it as far as they could. They hitchhiked to Paris, and in different cities used a pogo stick. Jumping around they managed to catch the Trans-Siberian crossing to Russia and then onto China.
In China they took a rickshaw, before they flew to California. Running out of methods of transport, they took a rental car, drove to the east coast and jumped into a cargo ship that eventually took them back to England.
Challenge for charity
Tim quit his full-time job at youth development charity British Schools Exploring Society (BSES) to carry out his challenges. It wasn’t a selfish decision, as every trip taken has been for fundraising purposes.The list is long but a few samples are worth a mention.
There is the trip from Tim’s to Thom’s - a triathlon of a 100km cycle, 5km swim and a 20km run - from London to his friend, who lives on the Isle of Wight. The Everest run challenge followed, seeing Tim run up 50,000 steps, the equivalent of the height of Mount Everest.
The Triathlon and the Everest run were fundraising challenges for the BSES and the ‘80 ways’ expedition was taken in aid of the Tree House Trust, a charity that works with autistic children. Tim’s current challenge is to raise money for the British Lung Foundation, by running the length of every London Underground line, and has already completed the Victoria and Northern lines.
For more adventures visit Tim’s blog, The Next Challenge.
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Tim Moss roamed the world in 80 ways ran up Everest and climbed mountains in Kyrgyzstan. He did it for the fun of having a life filled with adventures.
by Murielle Gonzalez Oisel
published on: 13 April, 2010
Around the world in 80 ways
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