FILM : DAVE CORNTHWAITE’S EXPEDITION 1000
A journey of 1000 miles does not start with a single step, it begins with an idea
Film by
DAVE CORNTHWAITE
Expedition 1000 is a long-term quest to take on twenty-five journeys, each one a minimum of 1000 miles (1600km), each one using a different form of non-motorised transport
By the time I cooked up the idea for Expedition 1000 I knew that I didn’t want to work in an office, and that I did want to live myself clever – in other words, everything I did had to be an investment, a reason to learn and practice the skills that would ultimately bring in enough money to survive as a nomadic type. Expedition1000 was a huge commitment, so I had to set my life up to be able to achieve it. There wasn’t time for a 9 to 5. I’d never have the money for grossly expensive challenges like climbing Everest or rowing an ocean, so I had to zero in on the right choices for me and my situation, which meant doing everything on a fairly low level.
Although some of my trips might seem a bit random individually, they each mean a little more because they’re part of something bigger. It’s a personal project with no competition, records, times or speeds at stake, which means they’re done for the right reasons. It makes my life better, brighter and richer, and keeps my soul happy. These journeys have changed and made me, and having started the first one as a twenty six year-old, I write now in my forties with ten more journeys still to complete, who knows what’ll happen, but as opposed to the start I now have a life outside of adventure which has come from these trips. I’ve a lot to be thankful for.
In 2012 I started sharing a personal motto. To me, for years, SayYesMore had been a life-affirming message, a reminder that small lifestyle changes can make a big difference as well as a gentle kick up the butt in those times where everything feels hopeless.
Since then SayYesMore has blossomed, not just into three words that easily slip into the daily vocabulary of positive people, but into a growing community based on helping its members redesign their lives for the better.
The YesTribe community has grown to over 15,000 people around the world. At the time of writing we’ve held five annual festivals (called, cheekily, Yestival) and we even converted a double decker bus into a community space designed to encourage people to spend more time in the countryside, at the same time as actively working towards their potential. Our community spaces are also spreading around the country, with seven acres of woodland in Southern Oxfordshire and a 14 acre renewables powered campsite in Lincolnshire.
The community is free to anyone who is looking to make life less restricted, more enjoyable, more interesting and more memorable. The aim: to make a culture of happy, kind, yes-people normal. To help foster dreams of living and working based around passions and hobbies. To make sure we all use our time as well as possible. To take on fear and turn it into potential.
To me, for years, SayYesMore had been a life-affirming message, a reminder that small lifestyle changes can make a big difference
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CONTRIBUTOR
Dave Cornthwaite
Dave has a habit of doing things differently.
As a record-breaking adventurer he is best known for Expedition1000, an ongoing mission to take on twenty-five different non-motorised journeys, each over 1000 miles in distance. He’s completed fourteen of these, so far.
In 2012 he founded SayYesMore, a life-fulfilling movement that helps nudge people towards finding out what they’re truly capable of. In 2015 Dave invited his Facebook followers to come camping, and the 19 people who turned up became the founding group of the YesTribe, an outdoors-loving community of doers which is growing globally. In 2018 Dave was selected as a Facebook Community Leadership Fellows in the inaugural Facebook Community Leadership Program.
Dave travels, speaks, writes, presents and films for a living. His ever-evolving keynote speech is a motivating and inspirational kick up the backside for anyone who ever wondered whether they were capable of doing more.
He has a passion for the endless serendipitous moments and meetings that occur on slow-moving journeys, and a love for discovering weird, natural and unique places to sleep and work.
When not travelling, he lives on a boat in London with his wife, Emma, who is ever so glad that Dave has finally made up for being a total loser in his early twenties.