Two men. Five islands. One aim. Louis Nethercott and Anthony Lambert served together as Royal Marines Commandos in Afghanistan in 2011 where they were involved in fierce combat.
Now, they are putting their training to use in Expedition 5 – with the aim of setting a new world record for crossing the five biggest islands on Earth, unsupported and only using human power.
Louis was medically discharged due to post traumatic stress, and developed the challenge with his friend Anthony as a way of raising awareness of the mental health problems faced by military personnel.
The veterans began their record attempt with a gruelling 40-day, 870 mile (1,400km) trek across Borneo in November-December 2016. In April-May 2017 they took on the jungles, swamps and crocodile-infested rivers of Papua New Guinea, finishing up the year in Madagascar, where desperately short water supplies made their 405-mile (653km) march particularly brutal. In 2018 they swapped the heat of the jungle for the debilitating cold of Greenland in a 350-mile (565km) journey across the ice sheet. They evaded the polar bears but nearly fell foul of a hidden crevasse.
Which just leaves Baffin Island, the largest island in Canada, as the final frontier yet to be conquered.
Expedition 5 is raising money for the Royal Marines Charity and Help for Heroes.
For much of the time on their expeditions, the two men are isolated, coping with extremes of temperature and terrain – jungle, desert, mountains, rivers and ice caps.
Anthony and Louis carry all the essentials for each trek in backpacks weighing up to 35kg. Along with food, water, shelter, medical supplies and clothing, they always pack an IsatPhone 2 satellite phone each and a compact IsatHub terminal to use with their own smartphones and apps.
The robust IsatPhone 2 handset has been engineered to cope with the extreme conditions they experience along the way, and offers unrivalled battery life, excellent voice clarity and the reassurance of operating over the reliable satellite network.
This essential satellite communications kit means they can alert the authorities in an emergency, conduct media interviews, update social media and their website with reports and images, and also keep in touch with family and friends back home.
