The 7 Deserts Run

#Run4Water

BY 2030, GLOBAL WATER DEMAND WILL BE 40% GREATER THAN SUPPLY. 

To share this message with the world, I undertook one of the most challenging feats of my life…

I ran 40 Marathons across 7 Deserts, On 7 Continents in 7 weeks for 1 reason: 

to raise awareness of the global water crisis.

The battles of yesterday were fought over land, they warn. Those of the present center on oil. But those of the future — a future made hotter and drier by climate change in much of the world — seem likely to focus on water, they say.

- The Route -

The Deserts

  • Desert 1 - The Tabernas, Spain

  • Desert 2 - The Arabian, Jordan

  • Desert 3 - The Antarctic, Antarctica

  • Desert 4 - The Simpson, Australia

  • Desert 5 - The Richtersveld, South Africa

  • Desert 6 - The Atacama, Chile

  • Desert 7 - The Mojave, USA

The Tabernas, Spain

  • WHAT DOES WATER MEAN TO YOU? ”El todo (everything). I own a small olive farm and rely on water from the local well to feed my trees. Without this farm I don’t have anything. I hope to pass this land onto to my daughter one day.”

    — Juan Jose, Olive farmer, Almeria

  • “I think that in cities people are not as aware of how essential water is to humanity. I imagine there are some people who are water conscious, but the majority don’t realize how essential water is”

    — Salvador Mainar - Councilor in Tabernas, Spain

The Arabian, Jordan

  • "The question isn’t if the water will run out in Jordan, it is when. Perhaps it will be in my lifetime, definitely be in my children’s lifetime"

  • “For us, water is life. Everyday we look up to the sky and wonder whether rain will come”

    - Yusuf

  • "Every year we had less and less water. You either go thirsty today, or you go thirsty tomorrow."

    — Basem Telfah, General Secretary of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation in Jordan.

The Antarctic, Antarctica

  • A piece of ice that was part of a core of up to 1.2 km deep into the earth’s surface - 60,000 years of air and history in my hands!

    — With Taz Van Ommen, Senior Scientist at IMAS.

  • "I’m not doing this for myself. I’m doing this for our planet and the generations to come. I’m running for every person who uses water."

    - Mina Guli

The Simpson, Australia

  • “It is like an absolutely boiling hot furnace. It is the valley of death!”

    — Kelvin Trautman, the photographer's comment on the fact that they had hoped for easy, flat running and the conditions... well, not a whisper of a breeze and the ambient temperature in the mid 40.

  • "Water is life. It is our medicine."

    — Aboriginal woman at the Titjikala Art & Craft Centre

  • The flies are totally out of control now that the days are so hot.

    — Nothing can quite prepare you for Australia's extraordinary fly population. They don't seem to get quite the same amount of publicity as koalas and 'roos.

The Richtersveld, South Africa

  • “Water is life. I know, because I provide water to my town. Without it, there is no school for our children, no hospital for the elderly and sick, and no work for any of us.”

    — Justice Farmer, a borehole manager from Eksteenfontein

  • “Our biggest problem is that we don’t include ourselves in nature. We exclude ourselves as something different from nature and we’re not. We’re part of nature. That is the loss of us as humans. We’re missing out the joy of what it should be like to live on earth. “

    — Pieter v Wyk, Conservation Manager in the Richtersveld National Park.

The Atacama, Chile

  • "My family have spent weeks without water. Having no water, it’s not something I would wish on anyone. What can we do without water? Nothing."

    — Homero Gomez, Fisherman from Chanavayitas

  • "Water is everything. I moved to this small fishing village from the south of Chile. I used to have regular water supply. But living here in Caramucho, we rely on water getting trucked in. We only get 1mm of rain per year. This is not an easy place to live."

    — Alejandro Benjamin, a seaweed collector in Caramucho.

  • "I hope people can see this, and realise that this works."

    — Hugo Cortez, a 67 year old local to the town of Chanaral and resident fog catcher. He started collecting fog in 2001 by building a series of nets high up in the hills overlooking his town. He now collects almost 500L of water a day from the pacific borne sea fog.

The Mojave, USA

  • “As we seek to create our own environments, and to find our own comfort, we forget that it is always at the cost of something else. I think most people will change their habits if they knew the cost at which we demand them. Our natural resources provide life to us. And if we destroy them, we destroy ourselves. “

  • When Mina completed 5-day, 200km ultra-marathons in 2013 and 2014, her feet were covered in blisters. So what’s the difference?

    — Brock Healy - What is more incredible than running 1,688km run in 49 days? Doing it without getting a single blister or losing any toenails!

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