Gaz Lloyd

Finding Purpose in the Wild - My Journey as an Expedition Leader and Survival Instructor

Gaz, a childhood adventurer, became an expedition leader and survival instructor, inspired by figures like Ed Stafford. He describes the allure of travel, purpose, and human connections, while acknowledging challenges like managing people as an introvert. He shares a memorable Costa Rican expedition, highlighting the importance of setting realistic expectations. Gaz's story is a testament to pursuing one's passions and embracing challenges, leaving us with a message to embrace the unknown and find adventure and personal growth.

Early Life and Influences:

I was born in Singapore as my parents were living out there at the time. They were both keen to travel, so my dad was taking work placements in every far-flung destination going. So, there's probably something in my genes that underpins my own desire for travel. They moved to the UK when I was 2 and I was raised near Birmingham with my 2 brothers.

I feel like I was part of the last generation that had a real wholesome upbringing of playing outside and creating our own fun rather than being brought up by screens. My Dad was into the outdoors and took us camping and hiking quite often during the holidays, so I had a strong influence there.

From a very early age, I was obsessed with survival books, Ray Mears, and adventure films like Crocodile Dundee and Indiana Jones. As I got older, I guess I drifted away from those interests a little and never really saw a realistic option for pursuing them professionally, so before I knew it, I was working at a gym, studying for a degree in Earth Sciences and not really sure where it was all heading.

A couple of really big life events happened including losing my older brother in a car crash that gave me a real knock and a bit of a perspective shift and a need to shake things up and get a change of scene.

I took a year out when I was in my mid-twenties to travel to Australia (the dream destination for my whole life up until then thanks to Crocodile Dundee) and fell in love with the tropics. I spent more than a 3rd of my time there working on a banana farm playing on quad bikes and swinging machetes. Loved it and felt to some extent healed by it. I also got my first taste of jungle exploring the botanical gardens and Tablelands above Cairns and heading up into the Daintree (the oldest rainforest on the planet!)

When I returned home, I went back to the gym, driven to progress, settle down etc. But a year or 2 into that and I was desperate to escape again. I needed travel and adventure in my life. I toyed with the military and began applying for the Royal Marines but felt instinctively like it just wasn’t my path.

Journey into Expedition Leading and Survival Instruction:

I'll start with my inspirations. As a young kid it was Ray Mears, and then as I got older I loved watching Bear Grylls’ adventurous escapades. Not to mention travelling all over the world exploring wild and mysterious places in the Tomb Raider games. But Ed Stafford was the guy that really sparked something in me, from his epic Amazon trek to surviving on a desert island. Here was a guy that was literally living my dreams. Dreams I never thought were possible for me to actually experience…

A couple of days after turning 30 I found a course run by Gapforce (formerly Trekforce, and formerly an employer of Ed Stafford) that trained you to become an expedition leader, training in the mountains of Wales and jungles of Costa Rica for 4 months with the opportunity of work for high performing candidates at the end of it. The start date was in a month's time or I'd have to wait nearly a year for the next departure. I knew I had to do it.

I spent a frantic 4 weeks working out how I could fund it, making arrangements to rent out my house, book flights, and source all the kit I’d need (thankfully a lot I already had due to having a lifelong interest in the outdoors and jungle-style hammock camping). And then rather luckily I managed to be accepted for a sabbatical so I had the security of my job to come back to if it all went nowhere. The course for most people who do it becomes one of the most pertinent and life-affirming experiences they ever have, and for me, it was no different. I performed well and was rewarded with a job soon after, leading a group around Southeast Asia for 8 weeks. I then bounced from there to the Bahamas and was fortunate enough to be invited to train as an instructor on the course.

It really felt like everything was falling perfectly into place and I met my girlfriend doing it, a fellow instructor on the course.

With the contracts in the jungle leading the course I lapped up the opportunity to reignite my interest in survival and read books, watched videos, practised skills and learned heaps from the indigenous guides. And then after a couple of years of bouncing all over the world leading various groups, COVID hit, and my dream job didn't exist anymore.

After 2 years of waiting for the travel industry to recover, picking up bits and pieces of UK work from mountain leading, and supporting cycling events to being a postman; I heard a podcast about a guy who had set up a company running survival trips on desert islands. I dropped him an email explaining my skillset and experience and asked if there might be any opportunities. By chance he was staying with his family 30 minutes from me, so we met for a coffee, and I’ve now spent over 100 days on uninhabited islands teaching people survival skills and hosting survival experiences for the company (Desert Island Survival if you're interested).

If you can dream it, you can do it.

The Allure of Expedition Leading:

I mean the travel is obviously the most glamorous aspect without a doubt. But even travel can feel hollow without certain aspects to it. Expedition leading adds a sense of purpose and a duty to other people's experience that makes it so much more wholesome and rewarding than simply taking your own holiday. You meet people and see them at their best, their worst, and everything in between. You see the world through the eyes of people who are seeing things for the first time, you connect with cultures you may never have had the chance to meet, and you witness places you may never have seen. There are so many facets to the perks of the job it's impossible to list them all.

Overcoming Challenges on Expeditions:

Honestly, I would say the biggest challenges are not the things you'd expect. For me it is people. The role is first and foremost about being a people person. And I am naturally an introvert. I love my solitude and quiet, I am so content in my own head. But the role requires you to be on stage, to be present, to be the leader, the instructor, the manager, the friend, the counsellor, the life coach, the good guy and the bad guy, and all with an expectation to always be on form.

Knowing yourself is key. If you need time alone and space to recharge, you have to create that for yourself so you can be what you need to be when it matters. My tactic is to get up early, while the world is quiet and I can sit with a book and a coffee or go for a run or a swim and get myself fired up for the day. And then to seek and relish those little moments of solitude when you can get them

The Rewards of Sharing Experiences:

Perhaps contrary to the previous statements, this is the double-edged sword of expeditions. It's sharing experiences with people on an expedition that can create the most rewarding moments, from seeing someone flourish through facing adversity to witnessing someone's mind open up to a world of possibilities and knowing that you've been a part of facilitating that. Many people take lessons they learn from these moments through the rest of their lives and that's a powerful thing to share with them.

It's so warming to hear from them months or years down the line with an update on a conversation you may have had or some gratitude for an experience and the path it's led them down since.

Essential Skills and Qualities for Expedition Leaders and Survival Instructors:

Following on from those 2, it'd be remiss of me to not suggest that it's important to be a people person. If you can't connect with your team then you'll be very alone and struggling to lead anyone. When people are out of their comfort zone they can become quite guarded rather than admit and express their vulnerabilities which makes it hard to help them progress. A supportive, nurturing temperament can really help you break down barriers.

Second to that probably come the logistical skills of making things run smoothly, attention to planning, safety, budgets and general organisation are paramount to an expedition running well. Keep a note of what works and doesn't work throughout so you have a good list of lessons for next time.

Third, adaptability. The very nature of expeditions means that things won't always run to plan, the environments are often dynamic, along with the group's energy, morale, and desires. You need to be prepared to change things up.

Finally, you obviously need the hard skills to do the activities or objectives of the expedition.

A Memorable Expedition: The Costa Rica Jungle Trek:

Having recently launched my own expedition company with my partner, Wild Globe Expeditions, we ran our first trip this spring to Costa Rica. It involves 6 days of trekking through the jungle, learning about the majesty of the rainforest and how to survive all the challenges the environment throws at you. It's an intense and immersive experience, that forges a deep connection with one of the wildest places on the planet and with a wilder version of yourself. All this is enriched by the interaction we have with the indigenous community there who call the area their home.

We’re immensely proud of the trip we've created with the help of our local indigenous guide, it's a truly unique experience and since it was the first one it will obviously be cemented in our memories.

Lessons Learned and Carried Forward:

After a while doing this stuff your baseline of what is an acceptable level of discomfort definitely shifts. I often find myself glossing over the details and summarising that I basically go camping for a living. It's important to remember that clients on their adventure holiday don't necessarily expect a camping trip to involve trekking in torrential rain, being wet most of the time (sometimes even in your hammock), carrying a 20kg pack and dodging snakes. It's important to set very clear and realistic expectations and to meet them from their perspective to help them overcome the challenges.

Handling Close Calls and Dangerous Situations:

Honestly, given all the things that have the potential to go wrong, particularly with a novice group, we were delighted to finish the trip with no cases of injury or illness. The closest call was probably when I sat down to enjoy my dinner, only to leap back up in a flash as a huge snake slithered out from between my legs! Fortunately, it wasn't venomous or aggressive, but it gave me quite a shock.

Unforgettable Encounters and Discoveries:

Where to even start? The wildlife encounters are certainly high up on the list. From swimming with sharks and stumbling across huge snakes to having an agouti (like a guinea pig on stilts) run over the top of me and my girlfriend while we were laying by the fire and leaving little muddy footprints on us. I bonded with a beautiful baby elephant whilst volunteering with a group at a sanctuary in Thailand who would excitedly come to greet me each time, she saw me and try and cuddle me as if she were the size of a cat.

I also enjoy the discoveries you can make that really make you feel like a historic explorer. I've found shards of pottery and old settlements from long-lost indigenous populations on a desert island and recently came across chunks of fossilised trees in the jungle, solid rock but perfectly mimicking the gnarled knots and grain of prehistoric trees. It's always a reminder of how fleeting and temporary our existence on Earth is and the importance of treading lightly while we're here.

Dispelling Myths about Expedition Leading and Survival Instruction:

Some myths about being an expedition leader is that you're just on holiday all the time. You might work 8 months straight with barely a day off. You're responsible for every aspect of the trip, from the logistics, finances and safety to the enjoyment of the participants 24/7. You don't get the chance for healthy routines or to maintain friendships and relationships that you would do in a 9-5. There is a lot of sacrifice that comes with it. And there is a lot of uncertainty that comes with the nature of it. I never know what my year is going to look like, but that's all part of the adventure, as tiring and unsettling as that can be.

Essential Survival Skills for Everyone:

The primary thing has to be a strong mindset. To maintain a positive outlook and have the drive and energy to make decisions and take the necessary actions to improve your situation. That is something we can all practice on any given day, you don't need to wait until a disaster happens to you to find out what you're made of.

A practical skill I think everyone should learn is how to make fire, ideally from friction. It connects us back to our primitive roots and a discovery that transformed our existence. On top of that, it then opens up a world of enjoyment of being out in nature overnight, outdoor cooking, sharing conversations around the fire and all the mental health benefits that come from those experiences. It's also fundamental to purifying water and keeping warm so it’s a top skill for a survival situation.

Avoiding Common Mistakes in Wilderness Survival:

The worst thing I think you can do is become a victim of your situation. I've watched people who have paid to be stranded on a beautiful desert island to have their bucket list Robinson Crusoe experience, or alone in the jungle to test themselves in the hardest environment, just sit there and wait until they're rescued. To see the opportunity and recognise all the projects you can get your teeth into that give your days purpose and meaning and improve your experience in the process; is the way to go about it.

Creative and Resourceful Survival Techniques:

I love it when I see people using nature to aid them. Say for instance you were building a shelter, the tendency is to build a freestanding shelter because that's what the pictures in the books look like. But when you start to view your surroundings in a way that they can help you, you then see nature providing all sorts of solutions to make your life easier. Such as a tree with a horizontal branch making a strong basis for an A-frame to build your roof against and saving you half the work.

Essential Survival Gear and Unexpected Luxuries:

I think everyone considering this in a practical sense would say a knife. But if I needed a luxury item it would be a pillow, a good pillow is hard to replicate, and a decent sleep makes every situation more manageable.

Reflections and Aspirations for the Future:

I wish I had known that this was a job earlier in my life so that I could have started sooner.

Also, I really just hope that we're able to preserve and even expand the world’s wild spaces so that they're still there for future generations to witness and enjoy. They connect us with an important part of ourselves that we must not lose to the industrialisation and digitalisation of the world.

Looking Ahead:

I would love to undertake some kind of world first jungle expedition; I just haven't come up with the idea yet. But watch this space!

Words of Wisdom:

A motto I try to live by is “Adventure lies in the unknown.” It’s so easy to be led by an avoidance of things that cause us to feel fear, and the unknown is one of the most frequent we will come across. But that place just outside your comfort zone, where you don't know exactly what will happen, that is where the adventure happens, and where all the good stories come from.