Ep. 1067: Solo Travel Through Asia - Oli France
Adventure Sports Podcast
Curt Linville
4.6 • 580 Ratings
🗓️ 25 April 2025
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Mountaineering: Oli France on His Epic Overland Journey from Hong Kong to Istanbul Along Asia's Mountain Spine – Crossing 11 Countries, Climbing 14 Peaks Including Mont Blanc, and Documenting It in The Trail of the Mountain Folk. In this revisited episode from 2017, Oli France shares stories of his somewhat risky adventures traveling the spine of Asia. Oli graduated in Outdoor Leadership (BA) from the University of Central Lancashire. At the time of this recording, he had traveled to 50 countries, and had climbed mountains in half of those, including the likes of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe. In winter 2016, Oli traveled overland by any means from Hong Kong to Istanbul, along the mountainous spine of Asia, crossing eleven countries and climbing fourteen mountains, in a journey documented in his book: The Trail of the Mountain Folk.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | But the last thing they checked was a medical kit which I had in my pack, and they rooted |
| 0:06.3 | through the tablets one by one and found these painkillers, ordinary painkillers, which |
| 0:11.2 | you can get over the counter here in the UK called Kokodomol. |
| 0:14.6 | And unbeknown to me, they were classed in Uzbekistan as an illegal narcotic. |
| 0:19.7 | And so from that moment on, I was in their eyes an illegal drug smuggler. |
| 0:26.0 | You're listening to the Adventure Sports podcast brought to you by 180 Tech. |
| 0:30.5 | We talk with adventurers from around the globe to bring you the inspiration and motivation |
| 0:34.4 | you need to get started in the outdoors or to keep you moving if you're already there. |
| 0:38.7 | Now here's your host, Kurt Linville. |
| 0:46.1 | Hello to all you curious, adventurous, wonderful people out there. Kurt Linville here. |
| 0:51.3 | Today's show is a revisited episode all the way back to 2017, eight years ago already. |
| 0:57.0 | For some reason, this episode stuck out to me over the years, and I've often thought about it. |
| 1:04.0 | Ollie France is a great storyteller, had an amazing 108-day journey along the spine of Asia. |
| 1:12.0 | This is a very adventurous story and a bit risky, |
| 1:16.1 | but either way, Ollie France does a great job of sharing what he experienced on this journey. |
| 1:22.9 | Hope you enjoy it. |
| 1:24.2 | Thanks for listening. |
| 1:26.1 | The guest that I have for you today is a traveler, an adventurer, a writer, a public speaker, |
| 1:34.0 | a photographer, a British adventurer. We're glad to have Ali France with us. |
| 1:40.4 | Ollie is here to talk about a lot of his adventures, but especially one where he traveled |
| 1:45.9 | from Hong Kong to Istanbul solo. It took him four months. He went through 11 countries. He traveled |
| 1:54.0 | over the spine of Asia. He climbed 14 mountains in winter. And the book is called The Trail of |
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