The call of the wilderness leads Stuart to his ultimate challenge

THREE days a week, Stuart Lee sets off for work at 5.30am.

That may not sound that unusual, but Stuart walks the 10 miles from his home, in Whixley, to Harrogate, carrying a 33kg rucksack.

It is all part of his training for a gruelling expedition to the Skeleton Coast of Namibia next month.

The expedition will see the dad of one walking 250 miles (400km) across sand and rocky terrain while carrying a rucksack weighing about five-and-a-half stones.

It equates to around 16 miles a day, walking for about eight hours every day.

The 12-strong team aims to be the first to complete the trek unsupported.

This means they will also have to run hundreds of litres of seawater through a desalinisation unit for four or five hours every night so they create enough drinking water for the next day.

“There is no access to fresh water on the Skeleton Coast, so to do it unsupported means we have to carry everything we need with us,” explains Stuart, 34.

“The desalinisation unit will give us three or four pints of water a day each, so we will have to watch our water consumption.”

As well as walking to work Stuart is spending a lot of time at the gym to build up his general fitness levels for the three-week trip, which will also see the team camping on route – which brings with it other dangers.

“Apparently, there are hyenas along the way, but it is really hard to prepare yourself; no-one has ever done it before, so you don’t know what to expect.”

Stuart says the thing he fears most is missing his three-year-old-son, Wilfred.

“When I applied for the expedition, Wilfred was only one, and my wife said go for it, but I don’t think for a moment she thought that I would get through, but I did.

“Because the trip is totally unsupported, we are not allowed to make contact with home at any stage, and that is going to be one of the hardest things. We do have a satellite phone that we can use in an emergency to call for a helicopter, but it would have to be something very major. If not, then we would be disqualified.”

Stuart had just turned 30 when he decided he wanted to take on a challenge.

“I’d always fancied going to the North Pole, and I got in touch with a company that takes expeditions.”

The North Pole trip proved too expensive but then the company contacted him to see if he wanted to apply to join the Skeleton Coast expedition, led by renowned explorer Mikael Strandberg.

“I had to put together a video and write about myself, never really thinking that I would be chosen.”

But the e-commerce manager was lucky and for the last 18 months has been building up his training régime.

One of the hardest challenges has been putting on the extra weight he needs to be able to complete the trek.

“It is estimated that I will lose around two stone on the trip, so I am busy trying to bulk up a bit.”

Stuart is standing the cost of the expedition himself, but is hoping to raise £5,000 for charities Help for Heroes and Sparks.

“Sparks is a children’s charity, and when I applied Wilfred was still very little and so I thought I would really like to raise money for a children’s charity.”

He is already well on the way to his target, thanks to sponsors Phil Burgan and the Maria Mallaband Care Group, on of the UK’s leading care-home providers.

A television documentary is being made of the expedition – a member of the team is an experienced National Geographic film-maker.

Stuart is making a blog of his training schedule and is hoping more people will come forward to sponsor him.

He leaves for Africa on May 14 and is starting to feel apprehensive about the trip.

“I am not much of a worrier so I am really quite looking forward to it, but it is not really knowing what to expect which is the hardest part – and leaving my family, of course.”

For more information, or to sponsor Stuart, log on to www.mmcgcarehomes.co.uk/Skeleton-Coast

BARREN AND BEAUTIFUL

The Skeleton Coast is the northern part of the Atlantic Ocean coast of Namibia and south of Angola, from the Kunene River south to the Swakop River.

The Bushmen of the Namibian interior called the region “The Land God Made in Anger”, while Portuguese sailors once referred to it as “The Gates of Hell”.

The “World’s Oldest Coastline”, is an unexplored, rugged and restricted 300 miles of nothing but sand and sea with not a drop of fresh water from start to finish.

The coastline is beautiful but barren, with massive sand dunes leading right down to the sea.