BOOK A PRICELESS ADVENTURE WITH A DIAMOND GEEZER...

Russ Cook, the so-called 'Hardest Geezer', made his name running the length of Africa. Now, he's set up a travel company offering high-octane outings to those brave enough to get their teeth into something tougher than breakfast buffet rolls

- By Karen Rockett

FEARLESS endurance athlete is launching his own travel company for anyone mad enough to join him on one of his extreme adventures. Russ Cook, aka The Hardest Geezer, was the first person to run the entire length of Africa.

And having recently completed his latest mission, running the length of New Zealand, Russ says his next challenge is to get other people to join his adventures. In September he and half a dozen investors will launch "Hardest Adventures", offering ordinary people the chance to take on extraordinary challenges.

Initially, there will be four adventures: climbing to Everest Base Camp; Machu Picchu in Peru; the Balkans; and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The missions will be in groups of 20 to 30, some led by Russ.

He explains: "In my youth I was always looking for meaning. Now I feel I've found my purpose and I want to help other people find theirs.

"I think there is a real appetite for these kinds of adventures. People want a really different and meaningful experience when they travel, away from being online all the time. They want to be able to challenge themselves, to be able to tell their children or grandchildren that they did that."

Russ recently organised a trip to Kilimanjaro with a woman who had terminal cancer. He breaks into a huge smile: "To see her push on through the altitude sickness and achieve what she wanted to achieve was incredible to see."

The 28-year-old from Worthing, West Sussex, now living in London, ran the entire length of Africa and he had plenty of hairy moments along the way.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo he was captured at gunpoint and held hostage for two days, having become separated from his backup team.

"I was absolutely petrified and genuinely thought I was going to die," he recalls. "My team was trying to find me to bring money. My phone battery was dead. I was taken on the back of a motorbike for seven hours and held in a wooden shed in the jungle.