When it comes to roughing it, almost no one matches Riaan Manser. He was the first person to cycle around Africa – 37 000km. During his trip in 2006, he was arrested in Equatorial Guinea and taken hostage in Liberia by drug addicts. He’s also climbed Mount Kilimanjaro (the highest peak in Africa) and travelled to Lake Assal (the lowest part of Africa).
He’s the first person to solo kayak around the island country of Madagascar, in 2009. He and his partner, Dan Skinstad, who lives with mild cerebral palsy, kayaked around Iceland in a two-person kayak, in 2011. And Riaan took his now-wife Vasti from Africa to North America in 2013… also in a little boat. It was the first row from the African continent to North America, and Vasti became the first woman from Africa to row across any ocean. For their honeymoon, they rowed from California to Hawaii, a 4 000km journey, and broke three world records on the way.
Riaan isn’t just doing these adventures for fun. It’s to educate viewers and society, and to bring about change in the world – even if it’s one person at a time. He’s also an author (his 2006 book Around Africa On My Bicycle is a bestseller), as well as a film producer and editor. And after all his adventuring, Riaan has learned one very important lesson about life:
If you are not sure about why you are doing something or what the end goal is, then you are going to have more problems than the more determined person. They know why they are doing this, and they are going to have an easier time sticking it out.
Riaan Manser
The episodes available for streaming include adventures in Madagascar, Iceland and a 5500km trip from the Canary Islands to Barbados.
