What on earth is Welsh athlete Ash Dykes thinking with this weekend’s expedition through the terrifying Congo Basin in Central Africa? The Black Internet has officially entered the chat—and the general consensus is pure disbelief. Creator Money Bates spoke for many when reacting to the Welsh adventurer’s plan to kayak through the dense rainforest: “I don’t know if he’s crazy or if he has a death wish. … This man is about to go into one of the most hostile and violent environments in this whole entire world.”
For Black creators online, who often joke about leaving dangerous “main character” antics to others, watching a guy drop into the Heart of Africa in an inflatable boat feels like the ultimate test of endurance. TikToker Money Bates speaks for us and many other Black TikTokers: “I don’t know if he’s crazy or if he has a death wish. … This man is about to go into one of the most hostile and violent environments in this whole entire world.”
The Welsh explorer and extreme athlete already has five Guinness World Records from previous excursions, but this has the potential to be his most dangerous yet.
The Congo Basin — also known as the Congo — is the world’s second largest tropical rainforest, full of deadly hippos, crocodiles, and other wild animals, along with possibly fatal diseases. Dykes and two other people are being dropped off in the middle of the Sangha River, which they will navigate in an inflatable kayak for approximately 465 miles.
“The Congo is pretty much the baddest, most dangerous place on the planet you can go to right now,” he said in an interview with CNN. “It is serious, and I’m taking it very serious.”
If you ask much of Black TikTok, “taking it very serious” would equate to not going in the first damn place. Viewers are wishing him luck on his journey but they’re excited, terrified, confused, and fascinated. Some are obsessively following details around the expedition — info on Dykes’ crew mates, the survival foods that they’ll be eating during their journey, the dangers of the Congo — while others are simply sharing commentary about the ridiculousness of the idea.
“Let’s be real: the Congo Basin is relentless. Between 15-foot nile crocodiles, terrestrial hippos, waterborne parasites and absolute isolation with zero cell service or even hospitals nearby, one single mistake out there can turn fatal in minutes,” admitted Shared By Sarah, who’s been waiting with bated breath while scouring for updates on Dykes’ page. But she cites Dykes’ previous successes, military grade equipment, and preparation by speaking to locals as reasons behind her prediction that he’ll make it out alive. “Will he survive? Absolutely. It’s going to be brutal, exhausting, and unpredictable, but he has the skills and the team to pull it off.”
Dr. Amro Mahmoud shared a TikTok where he said that doomscrolling drifted him into a rabbit hole of obsession and concern for the “long ass list” of health hazards that he found Dykes will be faced with.
“You’ve got things like parasitic infections, venomous snakes, mosquito-borne diseases. … There’s biting insects, things in the water like crocodiles, things in the trees. There’s hippos, there’s gorillas. And probably things that I haven’t even learned about yet,” he said. “Meanwhile, every video I see is this guy Ash saying, ‘just drop me off over there.’ Sir, now I have anxiety and I am worried about you. … I am invested, I’m following him, and I have to see what ends up happening.”
Another TikToker perhaps put it most succinctly: “Every time this man posts ‘25 days until I get dropped off into the Congo Basin,’ suddenly it becomes 25 days until we’re all dropped off in the Congo Basin.”
Ash Dykes’ expedition to the Congo Basin is the first mission of Project 6, the self-described “global adventure series” which sees him taking six expeditions in extreme environments. His and his two crewmates will take two backpacks, solar panels, sleeping equipment, food, and filming equipment, while chronicling the journey on TikTok. Previous adventures include a record-breaking solo treks across Mongolia and Madagascar, along with a walk along the 4,000-mile Yangtze River in China.
A post was shared to Dykes’ social media on the morning of Saturday, Oct. 3, revealing that he and his crew were in transit: from London to Paris, then from Paris to Yaoundé, Cameroon, where he’ll get into a car and travel to Nola, Central African Republic. The expedition appears to officially begin on Sunday, Oct. 4.
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