What happened to Ash Dykes? Extreme Explorer’s team regains contact after 16 hours

Ash Dykes, the thirty-five-year-old extreme explorer and influencer, has made multiple headlines recently, as his team went silent for sixteen hours during his ongoing expedition in the Congo River Basin. As per a post shared on his Instagram, one of Dykes’ representatives flagged the loss of contact in the early morning hours of Oct. 21, with a follow-up post on the account sharing that

“We JUST received a message from Ash’s sat-phone/Garmin! EVERYONE IS SAFE! The Starlink is out and their powerbank has died, there’s no way for them to send videos or updates, they can only send short messages whenever they get signal on the Garmin. That’s all we know right now. We will update you when we know more. Thank you for your prayers.”

As per a report shared by People, Project Six had already captured a considerable amount of online attention, after Ash Dykes revealed the location of his latest undertaking. Some viewers had concerns about what creatures he’d run into out there. Others remained openly skeptical.

Several of the crew’s bags had also gone missing in transit from the U.K., bags carrying camping equipment and food. The team did recover them. A visa complication had also forced the group to cross into the Central African Republic through Cameroon, rather than their original plan.

Ash Dykes had anticipated setbacks before contact was lost:

Before the relief post went up, Dykes’ team had already put an alert out. The message read,

“ATTENTION. It’s been more than 16 hours since we last heard from Ash and the team which is concerning. We will endeavour to keep you posted and let you all know as soon as we hear more. Thank you,”

Setbacks were something Ash Dykes had anticipated well before setting off. As per a report shared by People, he had spoken about the fear of the unknown on an expedition of this kind.

“There’s definitely the fear that anything can happen,” he shared.

“It is an adventure, and as experienced as I am, I can anticipate what might happen and try to understand, based on experience, how I usually react to those situations. I feel that I’ve got what it takes to bring us all back safe and alive,” he added.

Ash Dykes opens up about the early days that shaped him:

Long before the Congo River Basin, Dykes was running cross-country for North Wales as a teenager. As per a detailed interview shared by Red Bull back in 2018, his energy levels were never really the issue. It was direction. When he left school and enrolled in an Outdoor Education course, things started to click.

“Adventure had a hook in me,” he shared.

“I was fascinated by the skills tiny communities use to survive in harsh, remote environments. I’d hear people’s travel stories, see incredible footage on David Attenborough shows, and I wasn’t just satisfied watching and listening; I wanted to be out there doing it,” he added.

Acquiring the right skills took some trial and error. Dykes recalled turning up to a winter skills course in the mountains of Scotland in Adidas overalls and ninety-nine pence Woolworths gloves.

“They said: ‘Ash, what are you doing?! You’re going to freeze out here!’” he shared.

“As we were trekking up the mountain, I took the lead, motivating the rest: ‘Come on, let’s get up this thing!’ Which they hated, of course,” he added.

Ash Dykes also opened up about his approach to kit and learning in those earlier years.

“I would go out with minimal kit. And that’s an arrogant thing to do, but I was only young; I was cocky, confident,” he explained.

Ash Dykes added that he identified early on as a kinaesthetic learner.

“I learned far more through experience and hands-on, practical work; making mistakes, but trying never to make the same ones twice.”

Ash Dykes on the budget backpacking trip that turned him into an explorer:

Dykes washed potatoes in a chip shop and took on lifeguard shifts to fund his travels, saving hard while keeping social plans firmly on the back burner.

“There were certainly no nights out around that time,” he shared.

As per a report shared by Red Bull, Ash Dykes and a group of friends eventually put those savings towards Southeast Asia, though most of the money was gone within a few months on the backpacking trail. Fed up, they bought ten-pound bikes, pink baskets included, and pedalled out of Cambodia. Close to one thousand eight hundred kilometres through Vietnam followed, then into Thailand, and eventually into Myanmar through the jungle cover.

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“We didn’t have the money to buy permits,” Dykes explained.

The trio had no formal training. That being said, they crossed paths with a hill tribe along the way and picked up jungle survival skills through hand signals.

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