Greatest Global Explorer Was Window Cleaner

A former window cleaner who became one of the world’s greatest explorers.

Former window cleaner turned global explorer links up with Royal Scottish Geographical Society: A former window cleaner who became one of the world’s greatest explorers will talk about his life and career in Perth.

Jason Lewis spent 13 years travelling around the world under his own steam — the first person ever to achieve the feat. Now the 47-year-old will be plotting a course for Perth to take part in a series of talks for the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. He will discuss his adventures and struggles at a presentation in the Station Hotel on January 13.

Society spokeswoman Gemma McDonald said: “We are very excited to have Jason speak for us. “He has had some crazy experiences, from arriving in countries only to discover a military coup, to spending two and a half weeks stuck in the doldrums in the Pacific. “We can’t imagine how he is going to pack everything into one hour.”

Mr Lewis said his goal as a 24-year-old window cleaner was to avoid settling for a “mediocre life” so he embarked on his global challenge, which saw him travel more than 46,000 miles. The idea of circling the planet was certainly not a new one but Mr Lewis was the only person to do it without motors or sails. His talk, which is part of the 130-year-old society’s Inspiring People season, will go some way to explain how he walked, cycled, skated, kayaked swam and pedalled through 37 countries, risking death on several occasions.

Jason Lewis was 26, broke and cleaning windows when he and a college friend decided to embark on an adventure around the world using only human power, one of the last great firsts to conquer.

A new record - around the world in 13 years, by muscle power alone: Traveller survives pirates, bandits, crocodiles and US drivers in epic journey. Jason Lewis's journey is almost better defined by the mishaps than by its scale. It almost came to a premature end when he was pursued by a salt water crocodile in Australia and again after he was knocked over by an elderly driver as he rollerbladed across the US and almost lost a leg.

He was questioned as a spy in north Africa and has dodged more pirates and bandits than he cares to mention. No yacht for him when he crossed oceans and seas - that feat was achieved in a cramped and battered pedal-powered boat. And it is in that craft, after an expedition spanning 13 years, two months and 23 days, that Lewis will today cross the meridian line at Greenwich in south-east London and become the first person to circumnavigate the world using only the power of his own muscles.

For most of the 46,000-mile journey through 37 countries, Lewis has refused to think about the finish line, but as he slowly pedalled the last few miles up the River Thames, he admitted he was allowing himself to become a little excited. "All these years, I've kept myself going at times with the adage that it's the journey not the destination that is important. Pedalling across the oceans I tried to immerse myself in the present but I can't deny that I'm excited to be at the destination."

He also admits to feeling a little melancholy. "This has been a huge portion of my life and I feel I'm closing the final chapter on this enormous project, and I wonder what there will be after it. Will there be a big hole now I'm not pedalling towards some geographical point?" The Guardian joined Lewis, lean and tanned, on the final leg of his journey. As on almost all of the stages, there were one or two hitches. The pedalo, Moksha (which means liberation in Sanskrit), almost came a cropper when it was pushed out through heavy surf in northern France. "That would have been a bit of a blow, so close to home," he said.

He then managed to avoid the French authorities, who were not keen on the eight-metre craft being pedalled across a busy shipping lane. Back on home soil, Lewis cycled across Kent while his back-up team towed Moksha to the banks of the Thames in Gravesend. There was another sticky moment when a suitable slipway to get the craft into the water could not be found, until the Port of London Authority helpfully lent him one of its cranes to hoist Moksha into the river.

And he was off again, pedalling past the belching Tilbury power station, the QEII bridge, teeming with cars and lorries, and through the Thames Barrier. Lewis, 40, said he had learned a lot about himself. "I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to find out who they are as a person to put themselves in a situation when you are on that narrow knife edge between safety and all things going south. It's at those moments when things are going wrong that you learn who you really are."

But Lewis, the son of a Dorset colonel, has also learned about other people and the world. One of the raisons d'être of the journey was to raise awareness of environmental and human rights issues - Lewis has given scores of talks and taken part in school projects across the globe. "I think I have a better grasp now of human nature. I was very idealistic when I started out but I've become a little more realistic. I've been to a lot of places where people aren't living together in a humane way and are exploiting the environment around them."

Lewis's belief in the goodness of human nature was also tested when a former travelling companion, Canadian Colin Angus, suddenly claimed he had already successfully circumnavigated the world by human power - using a different set of criteria. "I think the adventure community has accepted that I will be the first," said Lewis. The explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, no stranger to feats of endurance, has supported Lewis, describing his expedition as a remarkable feat.

As well as the run-ins with crocodiles and pirates, Lewis has lacked funding. It is only in the last year that a major sponsor has helped out. Before then it was a matter of raising cash on the hoof. He has worked as a cattle drover in the US and in a funeral parlour in Australia but is still up to £5,000 out of pocket. Now he is looking forward to getting on with the rest of his life. "I'm not sure what I'll do but I don't want to be talking about this in a year's time. I want to move on."