Adventurer completes 400-mile expedition after losing contact with team

An adventurer has completed the first leg of his latest challenge after losing contact with his UK team for almost 24 hours.

Ash Dykes, 35, from Old Colwyn, Conwy, holds five world records but his most recent quest was the first of six back-to-back expeditions he will take on in extreme environments.

Dykes encountered elephants, gorillas and was chased by "killer" bees as he rowed more than 434 miles (700 km) along rivers in the Congo Basin, central Africa.

Towards the end of the journey, Dykes' portable satellite kit lost power. He said: "My parents and fiancée were worrying but as soon as I had a bit of signal I made sure I got in touch".

In his latest Project 6 challenge, Dykes will attempt six expeditions in very different locations.

He has previously walked 4,000-miles (6,437km) along the length of China's Yangtze River in 2019 and kayaked the length of the Coppename river in Suriname from source to sea in 37 days

On "going missing", Dykes said his "power bank just shut down".

"We were underneath the jungle canopy, because we were staying with a small community, and then it took me about 20 hours before I could get out the first message," he said.

As the adventurer is sharing expeditions "live", he said he had learned lessons from the experience going forward.

He said: "I don't think the world's ready for a truly live expedition so I've learned from that...

"If I lose contact again with the team, we have to keep it within the team because I do know that that hit alarms and a lot of people were stressed and panicked. So it's important to make this as live as possible, but moving forward, it can't be that live anymore."

During the adventure, Dykes said his biggest fear was not the danger posed by wildlife or disease, but the extreme heat during many hours of kayaking in rivers home to crocodiles and hippos with no shade.

He said: "We took the warnings seriously. Experience means listening to local advice, reading the conditions and making the decisions that get your team through safely."

For the explorer, the main highlight was spending time with the Baka tribe, a semi-nomadic indigenous ethnic group.

They demonstrated their hunting prowess which involves trapping animals in netting set up around the jungle.

"They were amazing, they took us under their wings, they showed us how they survive, how they hunt, how they gather," Dykes said.

"They took us to an area where we saw a group of gorillas within Sanga National Park. I was about five metres away from silverback."

Dykes was joined on his trek by local guide Obed Temba Tuyumvire as well as videographer Will Perez, who has been helping chart the journey with regular social media posts.

His popularity on TikTok has soared following his latest adventure.

Dykes said: "It felt like the world was on the river with us."

But he added some followers were disappointed in the lack of drama.

"Everyone wanted that excitement, that danger, but if something was to happen, I'd be criticised: 'this is dangerous'.

"Now that I've made it unscathed, everyone's like: 'It's easy, there were no crocs'.

"So there's no true winning when you go that viral."

He said he lost 11lbs (5kg) during the trip, as he was relying mostly on ration packs of food.

In a social media post to mark the end of the first stage of Project 6, Dykes said: "It's been a lot. We've faced ups and downs - seen some crazy wildlife, but more importantly we've survived."

Dykes said he would reveal the second stage of Project 6 next week, and hinted it would be somewhere "a lot colder" than the Congo Basin.