Blue Earth Summit

Three hundred and fifty-two days. Sixteen countries. Sixteen thousand kilometres on foot from the southern tip of Africa to Tunisia.

Russ Cook’s Project Africa raised more than £1 million for The Running Charity and Sandblast, turning the Hardest Geezer into an international symbol of stubborn, good-humoured endurance. The journey brought armed robbery, illness, visa disputes and relentless physical strain, but Russ kept moving. In 2025, he followed it with a 2,434-kilometre run across New Zealand in 73 days, crossing mountains, forests, cities and coastline.

Now Co-Founder of Hardest Adventures, he is developing group expeditions and media projects built around endurance, movement and personal growth. The running remains extreme, but the wider project is about creating adventures that other people can enter, not merely watch.