Category: Next Challenge Grant
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Why Giving Away All My Advertising Revenue Was The Best Thing I Ever Did
I set up this website to help people go on adventures. I hope that it’s been doing that in some way for each of the seven years that I’ve been running it. But, even if it hadn’t been useful for all of that time, I know for a fact that in 2015 it helped at…
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For Want of a Nail on The Great Wall of China
We recently wished good luck to Richard Fairbrother, winner of a 2015 Next Challenge Grant, who set off to hike a remote stretch of the Great Wall of China in winter. He had some difficulties out there in the snow but he’s made it back to civilisation in one piece and shares his story below.…
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Could You Walk the Length of Every National Trail in the UK?
Some of my earliest adventures were on the UK’s long distance trails: the Ridgeway, the South West Coastal Path, the West Highland Way. They’re such a great way to have a real adventure and physical challenge but without the organisational faff and planning involved in making up your own route. They’re often historical, (like the…
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‘Wow, it was hard’ – The first grant winner reports back
I’m delighted to have the first report from a winner of our expedition grant who has completed their expedition. Teenagers George Kefford and Jaxson Samuels successfully walked the length of North Stradbroke Island, off the coast of Australia. Below, George reports on burns, blood blisters and Bluebottle jellyfish… Walking Across North Stradbroke Island by…
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Walking the Great Wall in Winter
First: Hi Tim, Happy New Year! I just got back from Australia last night, and I plan to head off tomorrow morning for my trek…” Then: I’ve just taken a closer look at the weather forecast and it’s meant to snow and hit -20C overnight at the nearest weather station (meaning it’ll be closer to…
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Two Teenagers Cross Stradbroke Island
From the hundreds of applications we received for our expedition grant last year, perhaps my favourite came from George Kefford. His idea was wonderfully simple: take a boat to a desert island off the coast of Australia and then walk across it. Apparently it’s the second largest sand island in the world and, apparently, no…
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‘I’ve never won anything this exciting in my life!’ – Meet the 2015 Grant Winners
I recently announced the winners of The Next Challenge Expedition Grant. Below are some introductions to them all. I love the broad spectrum of people we have: They range from 14 to 48 They hail from England to Australia, China to Scotland They are students and teachers, marine conservationists and forest engineers Their trips will…
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From Never Having Run a 5k to Running 5,000 Miles
Last month we awarded a series of small grants to some people with great adventure ideas. Over the coming months, we’ll hear more about each of those adventures in the winners’ own words as I host guest blogs from them all. One of the winners was Elise Downing. She started her challenge of running around…
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This is What People Said When I Told Them They’d Won/Not Won My Grant
Over the last few weeks I have sent a lot of emails. 1,300 people applied for our expedition grant and I’ve been in contact with them all. Crudely, my emails have either said ‘Congratulations, you have won’ or ‘I’m very sorry but your application wasn’t successful’. And, as you’d imagine, I’ve had quite a range of responses.…
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And The Winner Is… Announcing The 2015 Next Challenge Expedition Grant Winners
I have just finished sending emails to all of those who were shortlisted for our expedition grant. I had 32 responses from the short list and I would have happily funded them all if I could. But we only had limited funds. And, as such, we’ve chosen one big winner and nine smaller winners. I’ve got to…
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Email Sent to those Unsuccessful in Applying for My Expedition Grant
Dear applicant, I am afraid your application for The Next Challenge Grant has not been successful. We had over 1,300 applications and it just wasn’t possible to support them all. As someone who has been rejected by many grant applications myself, I know how disappointing it can feel… But it shouldn’t. In dreaming something big…
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The Shortlist for the 2015 Next Challenge Expedition Grant
I am delighted to reveal the wonderful adventure ideas that have made it onto our shortlist for the expedition grant. We had over 1,300 applications and I’ve had the unenviable task of narrowing that down to less than 50. They’ve all now been invited to fill out a more detailed application form (the initial one…